Bio-Recycle fined $300k for “deliberate” illegal waste dumping in Queensland

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure! When considering that in the context, of Bio-Recycle’s conduct, a Queensland based wastes dumping company, one can’t help but reflect on the work and words of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

The Patriarch has persistently proclaimed the primacy of spiritual values in determining environmental ethics and action. His endeavours have earned him the title of “Green Patriarch” – coined and publicised by the media in 1996 while being formalized in the White House in 1997 by Al Gore, Vice President of the United States. In 2008, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World for “defining environmentalism as a spiritual responsibility.”

The company – was convicted in Ipswich Magistrates Court and fined $300,000.00, for the illegal dumping of waste which was described by Magistrate David Shepherd, as “deliberate”.

The action was brought by the Department of Environment and Science. The company pleaded guilty to two environmental breaches, the result of dumping 274,000 tonnes of waste more than it was permitted over a 2-year period.

During the trial, Magistrate Shepherd said: “The Company has been previously fined for eight offences for wilfully contravening the condition of an environmental authority”. He also described the offending as of [a] “deliberate nature” and that “The Company was doing no more than furthering its financial advantage,”

Magistrate Shepherd reinforced the above when he said: “It was contemptuous of the legislation and the regime, which requires a permit and is done in pursuit of financial gain.”

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The Magistrate ordered Bio-Recycle to pay $300,000 in fines, as well as $2,500 in legal costs and $1,994 in investigation costs.

Ipswich City Council Mayor, Teresa Harding responded, that this was another example of an “… operator in Ipswich wilfully and deliberately breaking the law.” She also made note, as was heard in Court, that Bio-Recycle “made $7.4 million as a result of the offending.”

Mayor Harding also said “I am very disappointed that Bio-Recycle were not fined the maximum penalty of $2 million, the $300,000 fine is a slap on the wrist, a cost of doing business.

I would like to see greater enforcement and maximum penalties imposed on these waste operators that continue to flout the rules. Board members and executives should be personally held to account for breaking the law deliberately without regard to our local community and environment.”

The Magistrate said there was no mathematical link between the benefit gained by offending and the penalty imposed.

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This leaves open the question of whether there, in fact, should be some linkage in this case?

There is both implicit and explicit linkage made in other areas of the law in Australia and other countries, no punitive damages where ordered. Punitive damages, or exemplary damages are legal terms that mean: damages assessed in order to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct and/or to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit or prosecution.

We have already seen multiple Royal Commissions result as a consequence of the lack of mathematical linkage between offending and benefit. Further, we are all led to believe from an early age that, as an individual, the (legal) consequences far outweigh the benefits of offending.

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• Total costs incurred $304,494.00
• Total income $7,400,000.00
• Gross benefit of offending: $7,400,000.00 – $304,494.00 = $7,095,506.00
• Gross return on offending: $7,095,506.00 / $304,494.00 = 2,330.61 per cent
• The incentive to comply with the regulations (law): ZERO