Firefighters failed to completely extinguish two blazes at a recycling plant before a third spread toxic fumes and forced residents to evacuate, the waste company's ex-director claims.
The 2017 blaze at the recycling plant in Coolaroo triggered a Victorian-wide emergency response as it burned for two days with toxic smoke reaching neighbouring homes and industrial sites.
Robert Italiano, 51, faced the County Court in Melbourne on Tuesday after pleading guilty to polluting the atmosphere over the fire at SKM Services' recycling plant on July 13, 2017.
He has admitted polluting the atmosphere "to make it noxious or offensive, harmful to health and detrimental to any beneficial use", the court was told.
Those in the path of the smoke described it as "acrid" and "disgusting", Environment Protection Authority prosecutors told the court.
Defence barrister Sally Flynn KC said before the July fire Italiano had been working to reduce the amount of recyclable material at the plant after a blaze on February 28, 2017.
She said SKM was responsible for processing 60 per cent of Victoria's recyclable waste and Italiano had been trying to divert material to other sites, in Derrimut and Laverton, to avoid putting it into landfill.
However, she said tonnes of recycling material at Coolaroo was being stored in piles outside.
"This (February) fire led to the product having to be stored outside, my client accepts that is not something that should have occurred," Ms Flynn said.
Four more fires occurred in the months following, including the July 13 blaze.
Ms Flynn said these blazes were caused by external factors that Italiano had no control over, including that a neighbouring factory had leaked E coli into SKM's site.
She said a fire in one of the recycling piles on July 9 was never properly put out by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, leading to blaze on July 12 and the major blaze on July 13.
"Foam was ultimately applied to control the smoke however this was not done initially to reduce the intensity of the fire," Ms Flynn said.
"It seems apparent that trucks and foam were available close by at the Melbourne Airport but were not utilised."
The defence barrister said the Coolaroo blaze was less serious than the toxic blaze at Hazelwood open cut mine in 2014, which burned for weeks and led to hospitalisations.
None of the directors involved in the Hazelwood fire were charged with any offences, she said, as she asked for Italiano to be spared a criminal conviction.
"They're not even in the same stratosphere in terms of the polluting event," she told the court.
EPA barrister Colin Mandy SC asked for Judge John Kelly to hand Italiano a "substantial fine with conviction" as he claimed his offending was at the higher end of the range.
He questioned Italiano's efforts to reduce the amount of recycling piled up at the plant before the fire, as he said about two million more tonnes came in than were taken out between June and July.
SKM Services, which has since been placed into liquidation, was not represented at Tuesday's hearing after a jury found it guilty of aggravated pollution by negligently causing or permitting an environmental hazard which resulted in a substantial risk of a serious threat to public health.
The jury also found the company guilty of three charges of polluting the atmosphere.
Italiano and SKM Services will be sentenced on April 16.
