Two months after the renewable energy industry warned that the lack of a mandatory national stewardship scheme was putting solar recyclers “on the brink” of failure, one of Australia’s biggest market hopefuls has been put into administration.
Sircel, Australia’s largest established e-waste recycler, had recently turned its focus to solar panels, including with the recent launch of a world-class PV panel processing facility in Parkes in its home state of NSW.
But news emerged on Thursday that the Sydney-based company had gone into voluntary administration, with KordaMentha partners Richard Tucker and Ryan Rabbitt appointed as administrators on October 31 ahead of a first creditor meeting on November 12.
The new solar division was not the cause of the e-waste company’s financial distress however, and the company’s operations are continuing to be run as business-as-usual, Sircel said in a statement sent to Renew Economy.
It also disputes that the administrators are needed.
“We can confirm that a voluntary administrator has been appointed on behalf of a purported secured creditor – this applies to Sircel Limited and subsidiary Sircel Recycling,” the statement says.
“In addition,…