On the evening of Friday 1 June 2012 there was a serious fire at the Tuncurry Material Recovery Facility (MRF) and as a result the whole facility has been destroyed.
The facility is insured, owned and operated for Great Lakes, Greater Taree City and Gloucester Shire Councils under the Midcoast Waste Services contract by JR Richards & Sons.
Preliminary investigations by authorities indicate it may have been caused by an electrical fault in a motor but this has yet to be confirmed.
In the short term all recycling products will be delivered to the old MRF building at Tuncurry for storage until options for transporting and processing at other sites are investigated.
There is no change to recycling collections and we encourage all residents to continue recycling as normal.
At this stage it is planned for the facility to be rebuilt on the same site by the end of the year.
Fortunately no one was injured and the fire was contained to that building.