UPDATED 18 DECEMBER 2026: Queensland resource recovery group BMI Group has snapped up the assets of the failed Rino Recycling business, in which the Clean Energy Finance Corporation invested about $70 million and ended up with an exposure of about $100 million of taxpayer funds.
Rino, based at Eagle Farm Road at Pinkenba, about 10 kilometres east of Brisbane, collapsed after the CEFC placed the business into receivership in August.
The buyer is a privately owned Queensland business established in 1988 by Balfour Irvine and claims it is an “industry leader driving growth in the circular economy”, with more than 180 staff.
The acquisition will bring the total number of facilities the company operates across Queensland to nine. These include resource recovery, transfer station facilities, landfills and three former mining or quarry sites that are undergoing site rehabilitation.
A statement from BMI included here as an update said the transaction relates “solely to the land and fixed infrastructure, not the purchase of the operating business.
“Following completion, BMI will place the site into a period of care and maintenance, during which time it will undertake site stabilisation works and assess the suitability of the existing plant and infrastructure for future operations.
“BMI’s immediate focus will be to understand the condition, capability and environmental performance of the fixed plant to decide about its ongoing use.”
Among those understood to have assessed the purchase of the business were the Stokes family’s Boral, which was currently being acquired by Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and United Resource Management, The AFR said in October.
Rino was established in 2021 by Queensland Recycling Technologies, a joint venture between investment managers Alceon Qld and DCP and cited at the time as “a state-of-the art recycling plant on track to become Queensland’s leading recycled construction materials producer.
“The company took construction and demolition waste and turned them into products like road base, soil and sand used for infrastructure.”
Notably missing from the process which was expected to fetch between $80 million and $120 million were Macquarie Asset Management’s waste management business Bingo Industries and ASX-listed Cleanaway, the article said.
They didn’t post about the 120 staff they made redundant for this sale
That’s correct, no notice, just walked in and closed the doors and sent them home. Just days before Christmas.