Mulch at centre of NSW asbestos crisis also contained ‘construction and demolition waste’

Greenlife has insisted it does not use construction and demolition waste in recycled mulch products and makes its mulch from ‘waste timber’. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

The environment watchdog says recycled mulch at the centre of New South Wales’ contamination crisis has been found to contain “construction and demolition waste” in contravention of state rules – as well as asbestos.

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) found the waste alongside asbestos when testing mulch it said was produced by Greenlife Resource Recovery and used at the Prospect Highway upgrade in Blacktown, Guardian Australia can reveal.

Separately, the watchdog said “foreign materials” along with asbestos were found in mulch used at the Rozelle parklands where the scandal started in January.

The findings were included in a cleanup notice issued to Greenlife at the start of February. Until now, the crisis has focused on asbestos contamination.

Mulch in NSW is regulated under the Protection of the Environment Operations (Waste) Regulation 2014. It must not contain asbestos or other contaminants such as metal, plastics, polystyrene and glass.

An EPA spokesperson, referring to its mulch order issed in 2016, said “construction and demolition waste is not permitted in recycled mulch”. Such waste includes bricks, concrete, metal, timber, paper, plastics and glass from building and infrastructure works.

The cleanup notice did not detail what kind of “construction and demolition waste” was found at the Blacktown site.

The environment minister, Penny Sharpe, said the government was “concerned if products do not meet the regulatory guidelines under the mulch order” but she would not comment on the specifics of the cleanup notice while the EPA’s criminal investigation continued.

Greenlife said it did not use construction and demolition waste in its recycled mulch which was made from “separated waste timber products” including wooden pallets.

Its lawyer Ross Fox has previously said the mulch was “made from timber pallets primarily”.

A Greenlife spokesperson said the supply chain after mulch left its facility was “complex” and could include “transport companies, construction companies, landscapers, landscape yards and subcontractors”.

“Each time the material is handled or stored there is potential for contamination. Many sites have pre-existing contamination with asbestos and other contaminants.”

The Greenlife spokesperson said several suppliers and contractors were involved in supplying mulch to a number of the sites tested. Greenlife has previously said independent testing in 2023 and 2024 showed all “mulch leaving GRRF’s facility has tested negative for asbestos”.

Asbestos has been found in mulch made by Greenlife at more than 45 sites across NSW since the start of January. The state government has formed a taskforce to oversee remediation and contact tracing.

The EPA chief executive officer, Tony Chappel, said on Tuesday the authority needed its investigation “to come to a rigorous conclusion to help inform any advice to government and ensure we can properly address the ultimate source of this contamination”.

Friable asbestos was among six positive results for asbestos announced on Tuesday. It was found on a piece of vinyl tile in mulch at Bicentennial Park in Glebe.

On Monday, the ACT government announced it had also set up a taskforce after the NSW EPA advised mulch made by Greenlife – operated by Vitocco Enterprises – was sold to a landscaping supply company in Pialligo in Canberra last year.

Guardian Australia in recent weeks has revealed shortcomings in the state’s waste regulation system, including claims by a former EPA officer that the contamination crisis was “destined to happen” after a decade of regulatory failure.

A 2013 EPA investigation into facilities producing a type of soil fill known as “recovered fines” found there was an “industry-wide deficiency” in complying with rules meant to limit the spread of contaminants, such as lead and asbestos, into the community.

This type of soil fill is made from the processing of construction and demolition waste – including skip bin residue – after all large recyclable material has been removed.

A follow-up investigation in 2019 found 57% of facilities had asbestos in their recovered fines.

The cleanup notice issued to Greenlife on 2 February said the EPA “reasonably suspects” that Greenlife had contributed to a pollution incident at Blacktown and Rozelle.

It revealed testing of mulch at Blacktown had “confirmed the recycled mulch contains construction and demolition waste and some samples include asbestos”.

It stated testing of mulch taken from Rozelle showed it contained “fragments of foreign materials some of which have tested positive for bonded asbestos”.

“The EPA understands the recycled mulch used at these sites was produced at the premises occupied by VE [Vitocco Enterprises] Resource Recovery”. VE Resource Recovery holds the environmental licence to operate the Greenlife facility.

Since early February, dozens more samples of mulch have tested positive for asbestos. When asked by Guardian Australia if any of those samples also contained construction and demolition waste or foreign materials, the EPA said it could not comment.

The February cleanup notice ordered Greenlife to contact everyone they had supplied mulch to between March and December 2023 and provide that list to the agency. The business has complied with that notice, according to the EPA.

“The EPA is still investigating all lines of inquiry and we have not ruled in or out any one cause for the contamination of mulch,” an EPA spokesperson said this week.

The EPA has ordered Greenlife to stop selling mulch while it investigates. Greenlife has launched a legal challenge against that prevention notice.

Chappel said on Sunday the probe was assessing “all lines of inquiry” and it was “unhelpful at this point for anyone to attribute blame”.

Greenlife Resource Recovery was set up by Domenic Vitocco and Adrian Runko in 2022 after they bought a facility in Bringelly in Sydney’s south-west from Hi-Quality Waste Management.

Greenlife’s website says Vitocco and Runko “have a joint 37 years of experience in landscape supply and waste management” and Greenlife was “paving the way to produce environmentally sustainable landscape materials”.

Greenlife produces dozens of different landscaping materials including gravel, soils, turf underlay and mulch.

Greenlife Resource Recovery is operated by two companies owned separately by Vitocco and Runko.

Vitocco is the son of major property developer Arnold Vitocco and the business development manager at the family company Vitocco Enterprises.

The private investment firm is behind several significant developments in south-western Sydney, including the planned Lowes Creek Maryland residential community and the Central Hills business park.

Vitocco Enterprises manages more than 1,800 acres of farmland and owns the Australian arm of the chocolate cafe chain Max Brenner along with a “portfolio of premium commercial property assets”, according to the company’s website. The firm also owns VE Resource Recovery.

The environmental licence for Greenlife allows the facility to accept building and demolition waste. The business said it accepted gypsum board – excess product used in new builds – which was “ground down for gardeners to use as a clay breaker”.

Greenlife said it was allowed to accept soils separated from general solid waste but did “not allow any mixed demolition waste on its site”.

Domenic Vitocco was issued a separate prevention notice by the EPA in July 2021 for operating a nearby waste and composting facility in an “environmentally unsatisfactory manner”.

The EPA “reasonably suspected” Vitocco was running a landscape materials business under the name Greenlife Fertilisers without a licence and ordered him to reduce the amount of waste at the premises to less than 1,000 tonnes by January 2022. He complied with that order.

Greenlife Resource Recovery and another business called Greenlife Landscape Supplies were registered at the same address later in 2022.

Do you know more? Email [email protected]