Oversupply of CRT glass forces closure of Shoalhaven waste facility

20 jobs have been shed in the Shoalhaven following the closure of an electronic waste recycling plant.

TSR eWaste in Nowra closed its doors last month after failing to secure a license from the Environment Protection Authority, to crush cathode ray tube (CRT) glass.

The glass is found in old television sets and can't be used in a normal glass recycling process as it contains lead.

The owner of the business, Russell Hiscox says the EPA ordered the company stop receiving glass as they had too much onsite.

Mr Hiscox says the move crippled their income and the business has now been forced to close.

"20 jobs have been lost directly."

"Downstream, we were actually going to be receiving glass from about eight other disability support e-waste recyclers throughout Australia, now they've got no-where to send their glass as well," he said.

"The transport companies, all of the local companies that we used and supported over the past seven years, they're all going to be affected by this as well."

The company has been subsidised since 2012 under the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme to accept e-waste on behalf of Shellharbour, Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla and Wingecarribee councils.

The initiative requires the television and computer industries fund collection and recycling of a proportion of the televisions and computers disposed of in Australia each year, in an attempt to reduce the amount of e-waste in landfill.

Television and computer waste recycled beyond the government's stepped target of 80 per cent by 2022, remains the responsibility of state, territory and local governments.

Mr Hiscox says he's been treated unfairly by the EPA.

"Once they stopped us getting any glass in at all, it stopped our main income stream."

"We offered solutions to the problems and they just chose to ignore us. Wouldn't return phone calls. Wouldn't reply to emails."

"It got to the stage where we had no income and we virtually pleaded with them to let us get back to receiving normal e-waste so we could keep the company solvent, but it just fell on deaf ears and they were just arrogant towards us as a business," Mr Hiscox said.

The Environment Protection Authority's director of waste and recovery says TSR eWaste failed to comply with their council development approvals.

Steve Beaman says the company was stockpiling more than 14-hundred tonnes of the illegal material, when their approval was only for 100 tonnes.

He says the EPA has a responsibility to the community not to grant a license to a business that can't comply.

"He has council approval which was received in 2013 where he can process 100 tonne of waste per year."

"An EPA audit has identified that there's 1400 tonnes of waste stored on site which is the equivalent of 14 years of lawful production," Mr Beaman said.

"The community really expects and deserves better from recyclers."

Mr Beaman says the EPA could grant TSR eWaste a licence to crush the glass in future, if the company proves it can comply.

"The ball is in the operator's court here to do the right thing, to come into compliance with the council consent and once the operator is in compliance then we'll need to work on issuing an EPA license.

"In the interim there's a cleanup order on the site for the waste to be reduced to a certain amount and we're really calling on the operator of the site to show his bona fides and do the right thing," he said.

No one in NSW currently holds a license to crush the lead-based glass and Mr Beaman says the product either has to be sent to a lead smelter in South Australia, or sent offshore to be crushed and reused.

"There hasn't been any places anywhere else in NSW where people have demonstrated they're able to properly and lawfully treat and dispose of this lead contaminated glass."

Mr Hiscox says he may lose everything now he's had to close the business.

"At this stage, not only has the company gone, my wife and I will lose everything, because everything we had was tied up in the business."

"At 51 years of age, I guess we'll just have to try start from scratch," he said.

TSR eWaste worked closely with local employment agencies to provide free training programs for indigenous people, people with a disability and the disadvantaged.

Residents are advised e-waste will continue to be accepted at the local council waste depot.