New Victorian EPA regulations came into effect from 1 July 2021.
Agsafe has received advice from EPA Victoria that any agricultural chemical containers that are eligible for collection by the drumMUSTER program (cleaned and free of chemical residues & carry the drumMUSTER logo) are not classified as Reportable Priority Waste (RPW) under the Environment Protection Regulations 2021. Agsafe’s strict inspection regime ensures that only once containers have met these criteria, as well as having the lids removed, have then passed inspection and are able to enter drumMUSTER collections.
Transport permission and transaction tracking is NOT required for transporting non-RPW, and collection sites (i.e. council transfer stations) would not require an A01 licence for receipt of eligible containers.
Containers that do not pass inspection are ineligible (uncleaned and/or non-participant containers) and may be classified as Reportable Priority Waste (RPW) under the new legislation in which case the RPW transport and tracking duties, as well as the requirement to hold an A01 (Reportable Priority Waste Management) permission may apply. Visit the EPA website for more information on waste classification. Please note that the industrial waste duties and general environmental duties still apply. Collection sites may still require an A13 (Waste and Resource Recovery) permission, though it is expected that council transfer stations will already require this permission for other activities onsite.
There is no impact on drumMUSTER collections and operations do not have to report and track for the cleaned eligible containers entering drumMUSTER compounds.