Cleanaway Waste Management

Brambles entered the waste management and disposal industry in 1970 when it purchased the Australian waste collection and disposal services of the Purle Group. In 1979, it began trading as Cleanaway.Cleanaway expanded into Europe in the 1990s, purchasing businesses in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. By 2003 the UK operation employed over 8,000 people. The German business was sold in 2005. Veolia acquired Cleanaway UK in 2006. In June 2006, Brambles sold Cleanaway to KKR, who then sold it to Transpacific Industries in May 2007. Transpacific Industries was formed in 1987, expanding through organic and strategic growth. The combined entity would continue to trade separately as Transpacific Industries and Cleanaway for ten years. In September 2013 the Commercial Vehicles Group that sold Dennis Eagle, MAN and Western Star Trucks was sold to the Penske Automotive Group.In late 2015 the company rebranded to Cleanaway Waste Management, dropping the Transpacific name. In May 2018, Cleanaway acquirired Tox Free Solutions, including its subsidiary Daniels Health.In 2019, Cleanaway acquired a number of the SKM Recycling Group's assets for $66 million, restoring and reopening the facilities completely by February 2020. The acquisition included two materials recovery facilities and two transfer stations in Victoria, and a material recovery facility in Tasmania. The site in Laverton North includes a plastic sorting facility which separates plastics from material recovery facilities into clean, individual polymer grades for sale or input into a pelletising facility. SKM was in substantial debt after the Victorian Environment Protection Authority placed limitations on its waste intake in response to a series of fires involving recycling stockpiles, leading to SKM ceasing waste collections from more than 30 councils with recycling diverted to landfill. The acquisition of Statewide Recycling in late 2019 expanded Cleanaway's regional Victoria business, including a transfer station in Warrnambool.In April 2021, Cleanaway agreed terms to purchase the Sydney operations of Suez Environnement, after Suez and Veolia reached a merger agreement.As at June 2021, it employed over 6,300 people and operate 5,300 trucks from more than 250 branches, as well as a range of static facilities. It is the largest waste management business in Australia.