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REDcycle recycling operators charged with failing to comply

The environmental watchdog investigating REDcycle has charged the operators behind the botched plastic bag recycling program for failing to provide information about the locations of warehouses that secretly stockpiled hundreds of millions of bags.

A spokesperson for the Environment Protection Authority Victoria confirmed to Guardian Australia RG Programs and Services were charged on Friday with three counts of failing to comply with their information-gathering process.

In a statement, the EPA said:

The Information Gathering Notice required information be provided on the locations and amounts of stored soft plastics. This notice and other regulatory action followed EPA discovering quantities of soft plastics being stored in a Williamstown North warehouse in May.

It is alleged RG Programs and Services Pty Ltd only provided partial information of known storage sites in response to the Information Gathering Notice. Additional information was obtained through investigations by EPA officers, including working directly with trucking and logistics companies.

EPA is not satisfied there is a reasonable excuse for this non-disclosure, leading to the charges today.”

RG Programs and Services Pty Ltd faces a fine, with a maximum penalty of more than $165,000.

Also on Friday, the EPA published a statement confirming an additional manufacturing site in Dandenong South was holding soft plastics from the REDcycle program.

The revelation was in addition to sites already discovered to be holding the soft plastics across Tottenham, West Footscray, Truganina, Williamstown North, Campbellfield, Tullamarine, Dandenong South and West Wodonga.

Half a billion plastic bags were discovered earlier in December across the sites as part of an investigation into a suspended soft plastic recycling program.

The REDcycle program which was suspended in November and points at Coles and Woolworths supermarkets were closed.

It followed reports in the Age last month that revealed thousands tonnes of soft plastics dropped off by customers at the supermarkets had been hidden in Melbourne warehouses and not recycled.

The EPA investigation is ongoing.