Pollution

Coal mine operator Peabody Energy, found guilty of two separate Metropolitan Mine pollution events in 2022, has been ordered to pay more than half a million dollars in penalties and legal fees.

The NSW environment watchdog has agreed to its largest ever enforceable undertaking as it continues a clean up of hundreds of Illawarra homes polluted by Port Kembla's former copper smelter.

The NSW EPA said it was the sight and stench of dead fish, and not machinery sensors, that prompted their investigation that landed a power station company in court.

Australian researchers link plastic consumption to organ failure in seabird chicks and say more detailed studies about the impact of plastics on the natural world are needed. 

Authorities say 36 people were brought to shore after the incident off the north-eastern coast of England.

Indigenous rangers are "the eyes and ears for north Australia", keeping wildlife safe from ghost nets and coastlines free from rubbish. Technology is giving them new ways to watch the coasts.

An analysis of small grey balls that washed up on Sydney's Northern Beaches earlier this month found they were largely made of soap scum and cosmetics.

Forestry companies say a rise in rubbish dumping increases fire hazards in an already high-risk summer, and it is costing them thousands of dollars to clean up.

Chemosphere – a peer-reviewed scientific journal – was forced to issue a correction after scientists made a major error calculating the toxicity of black plastic kitchen utensils.

Members of Wreck Bay Village have given evidence at a federal inquiry into the extent, regulation and management of cancer-linked PFAS chemicals.

Investigations into more mysteriously shaped balls found at nine Sydney beaches are underway, as a prominent scientist hits out at the Environmental Protection Authority for dropping an investigation into similar debris.

Nine beaches along Sydney's Northern Beaches have closed for precautionary reasons after numerous tiny balls were found washed up on the shoreline.

A company ordered to pay thousands in fines due to the offensive odour from its waste landfill site in Western Sydney is now being lauded for "showing us how to do something sensible with waste".

Since 2018, Queensland's Environment Department has received thousands of complaints from Ipswich residents about odours from the waste industry.

About 150 kilograms of powdered bleach "reacted" to another substance also in the rubbish pile. 

Residents in several suburbs around the Tamala Park tip in Perth's north say they want more action taken to prevent a foul smell wafting from the landfill.

A "big spike of sugar" discharged from a chocolate factory hit a sewage treatment plant. Here's why that is bad news for swimmers in Hobart.

The canister, which likely fell from a passing ship, was suspected to contain a chemical commonly used in pesticides and fumigants.

Balls of chemicals and waste were first found at Coogee in October, then at Kiama in November. Now the debris is turning up even further south, causing beach closures during the far south coast's peak tourism period.

A Sydney Water document reveals sewage by-products used in food production contain elevated levels of PFAS.