Australian Paper is one Australia’s largest pulp and paper mills had ceased production. The company wanted to sell or re-use the site but the local and state regulators would not allow this to happen until all of the necessary demolition and remediation work was complete. After 40 years of continuous operation, the site was heavily contaminated with the cell plant being the worst – here the caustic soda had been made and so the site was heavily contaminated with mercury and barium. To add to this, the roofing materials contained asbestos and hydrocarbons had leaked from the unground tanks.
Prior to commencing work our Virotec team developed a strategic and communications plan to ensure both TAS Paper and the local regulators were all satisfied.
- Building Demolition and On-site treatment (3,000 tonnes) work met applicable Australian Standards and Tasmanian and Queensland statutory requirements:
- AS2601 – The Demolition of Structures
- AS3012 – Electrical Installations, Construction and Demolition Sites
- Asbestos fibres were contained and disposed per Workplace Standards Tasmania regulations
- 1,500Tonnes of Levels 3 and 4 Hg waste packaged into shipping containers allowed safe removal to Virotec’s hazardous waste treatment facility in Queensland
- Projects received EPA sign off and the Burnie chlor-alkali plant site was sold to a third party developer.
When Virotec had finished, the plant was fully decontaminated. The site was left in a neat and presentable condition, and graded to contour. All with zero safety and environmental incidents. The company and all third party regulators were more than satisfied and the EPA signed off that the site had been fully remediated.
“Virotec were better than what I expected. We will now use them at all of our other sites where we need remediation help.”
Tasmanian Paper Sustainability Manager
