A government-backed Queensland recycling group has been placed into liquidation owing an estimated $213.8 million.
Queensland Recycling Technologies Group (QRT), which operated Brisbane-based outfit Rino Recycling, entered voluntary administration in September after the Clean Energy Finance Corporation called in receivers over debts of about $93 million.
Creditors voted on Thursday to liquidate the group’s eight affected entities.
A report lodged with ASIC by administrators Mark Holland and Anthony Connelly of McGrath Nicol found the group owed about $213.8 million when it collapsed.
The CEFC was listed as the first-ranking secured creditor and was owed about $93 million. Investment manager Alceon, a part-owner of QRT, was listed as the second-ranking secured creditor and was also owed about $93 million.
Other secured creditors were owed $2.1 million, employees were owed $1.1 million, mostly in unpaid annual leave, unsecured creditors were owed an estimated $20.4 million, and related parties were owed a further $4 million.
Receivers sold one of the company’s two Pinkenba sites, on Eagle Farm Road, to Brisbane waste rival BMI Group in a $74 million deal completed in February.
Most of QRT’s 111 staff were made redundant on December 19, just days before Christmas.
As of February 28, receivers had collected $73 million for the CEFC through cash in bank accounts, insurance refunds and debtor recoveries, but the report said the lender was not expected to recover all of its money.
The CEFC would need to be repaid in full before any funds could flow to other creditors, leaving little prospect of a return for anyone else.
The administrators said the group’s failure followed “several operational issues” after its new recycling plant began operating in late 2023, as QRT tried to ramp up production.
Revenue from recycled products stagnated between the 2023 and 2025 financial years as the company “faced difficulties commercialising recovered and recycled materials” and saw limited opportunities tied to government infrastructure projects.
Directors blamed the losses on market and policy settings that did not provide enough support for reliable end-markets for recycled materials, as well as failed negotiations between QRT’s secured lenders over continued funding.
They also pointed to landfill levy exemptions and other policy settings that made landfill cheaper for some waste streams and weakened the competitiveness of recycling.
The report said the group was also hit by rising rent, insurance and overheads, along with growing interest costs on its debt to the CEFC and Alceon.
QRT recorded a net loss of $38.9 million in the 2025 financial year.
Administrators also said the company had struggled to agree on a repayment plan with the Australian Taxation Office over about $3.5 million in unpaid PAYG tax accrued over two years.
QRT’s second Pinkenba site, on Main Beach Road, has not yet been sold and remains under negotiation after one offer was received for the transfer of its lease and environmental permit.
A BMI Group spokesperson said the company hoped the construction and demolition waste plant could restart next month, when it would begin recruiting staff.
“The plant requires significant expenditure to restore it to operational use so that it can make an ongoing contribution to the circular economy,” the spokesperson told The Courier Mail.
“Our efforts to date have focused on removing stockpiled waste from the site and thoroughly cleaning and refurbishing key items of plant.”
In a letter to investors last month, Alceon said it had “deep disappointment with this outcome for both investors and ourselves.”
“The managers and the broader Alceon team invested alongside you and also contributed a further $13m in seeking to move the business to sustainable profitability, which will not be recovered,” the letter said.
The administrators said that while most creditors other than the CEFC were not expected to recover any funds, former employees could at least seek some of their unpaid entitlements through the government’s Fair Entitlement Guarantee scheme.
SkyNews.com.au approached directors Edward Bull, Todd Pepper and Timothy Cossart for comment.