{"id":946239,"date":"2026-10-30T10:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T10:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946239\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T10:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T10:00:15","slug":"mouse-welfare-debate-in-moss-vale-plastics-recycling-factory-court-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946239\/","title":{"rendered":"Mouse welfare debate in Moss Vale plastics recycling factory court battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The welfare of mice used in medical research could be a key factor in plans for a plastics recycling factory in the NSW Southern Highlands.<\/p>\n

RePoly has sought to overturn the Independent Planning Commission’s rejection of the development at Moss Vale, prompting a 10-day hearing in the Land and Environment Court.<\/p>\n

Opponents of the plan include the nearby Garvan Institute Australian BioResources (ABR) facility that breeds specialised laboratory mice used to study diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Laboratory mice bred at Garvan’s Moss Vale facility are central to the factory dispute. (Supplied: Australian BioResources)<\/p>\n

The Garvan Institute’s barrister, Bora Kaplan SC, told the court the impact of smoke from plastic recycling and vibrations from truck movements had to be considered.<\/p>\n

“It’s an area where the mice live, breed at night, and sleep during the day,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The applicant, in our submission, has not proffered any credible information that would enable this court to perform the task of assessing the likely impacts of the proposed development.<\/p>\n

“First of all, vibration impacts affecting mouse wellbeing and husbandry, and secondly, vibration impacts affecting microinjection.”<\/p>\n

Mr Kaplan told the court the microinjection process used on the mice was “extremely sensitive to vibrations”.<\/p>\n

He said adverse effects from the proposed development could jeopardise the medical research facility’s future.<\/p>\n

“There could be suspension of Garvin’s accreditation and withdrawal of the supplier’s license and ability to perform animal-based research,” Mr Kaplan said.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The Australian BioResources facility is known locally as the “mouse house”. (Supplied: Moss Vale Matters)<\/p>\n

RePoly’s barrister, Nick Eastman SC, argued it had not been possible to measure “a vibration criteria limit for the health of or comfort of the mice within their mouse pavilion”.<\/p>\n

“Do you want to give us a bunch of experimental mice and we will disrupt them until they cannibalise each other or some other bad event occurs?” he said.<\/p>\n

“What is the testing that would necessarily need to occur?”<\/p>\n

Mr Eastman argued the factory’s environmental impacts could be adequately managed through strict conditions of approval, but acknowledged that a blaze sending smoke towards the research facility could have serious consequences.<\/p>\n

“There is no dispute between the experts that a consequence of a fire that is uncontrolled, that’s plumed and goes towards the ABR and requires evacuation for more than two days, will be dire,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The question is the likelihood of that.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Southern Highlands residents have opposed the plastics factory proposal for almost six years. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)<\/p>\n

Questions over assessments<\/p>\n

The Independent Planning Commission (IPC) argued there were gaps in the assessment of noise, traffic, lighting and other environmental impacts.<\/p>\n

Its barrister, Naomi Sharp SC, questioned noise modelling based on trucks travelling around the site at five kilometres an hour, without accounting for braking or acceleration on roads with gradients.<\/p>\n

The factory is expected to generate at least 100 heavy vehicle movements a day, with deliveries and collections restricted to weekday daytime hours.<\/p>\n

“If, as the consent authority, you do not feel equipped to make an assessment of the likely impacts, then the appropriate course is to refuse the consent,” Ms Sharp said.<\/p>\n

RePoly argued the assessments were sufficient for this stage of the planning process and further detailed studies and enforceable conditions could address outstanding issues.<\/p>\n

Community opposition\"A<\/p>\n

More than 500 people gathered at the RePoly appeal hearing in Moss Vale. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)<\/p>\n

The court also heard the development could have significant social impacts on the Southern Highlands community.<\/p>\n

Turvey To SC, representing the second respondent community member Samantha Woods, argued the prolonged planning dispute had damaged community trust.<\/p>\n

“The community doesn’t consider it to be listened to, or its concerns taken seriously,” the barrister said.<\/p>\n

RePoly has maintained that the factory is a permissible industrial development and that its environmental and social impacts can be managed through appropriate safeguards.<\/p>\n

The commissioner has reserved his decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The welfare of mice used in medical research could be a key factor in plans for a plastics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,5214,75,129126,34658,9318,4930,3810,337,128,65041,29081],"class_list":["post-946239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-community","tag-environment","tag-mice","tag-moss-vale","tag-mouse","tag-plastic","tag-recycling","tag-research","tag-science","tag-southern-highlands","tag-welfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}