Thousands of NSW students to stay home after asbestos found in mulch at two more Sydney schools

About 2,000 students at St Luke’s Catholic College at Marsden Park will be forced to learn from home for the next week while the site is remediated after testing confirmed the presence of bonded asbestos. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Thousands of New South Wales students will be forced into remote learning for a week after asbestos was found at another two Sydney schools, as testing continues across the city.

The state’s environment watchdog confirmed the additional positive results on Sunday while investigators continued to trace and test mulch that may be contaminated with asbestos.

NSW Environment Protection Authority chief executive Tony Chappel announced that Sydney would be ready to welcome Taylor Swift next week after testing at her venue returned negative results.

“All of our tests at Olympic Park are negative,” he said.

“I can say with certainty that the harbour city is ready to welcome Taylor Swift with open arms.”

Asbestos was found in mulch at two more schools over the weekend, taking the total number of sites to have tested positive to 34 since early January.

About 2,000 students at St Luke’s Catholic College at Marsden Park will be forced to learn from home for the next week while the site is remediated after testing confirmed the presence of bonded asbestos.

The NSW Department of Education secretary, Murat Dizdar, said approximately 30 cubic metres of mulch was spread across the campus so a “very precautionary” approach was being taken.

“It’s quite widespread throughout the school and that was difficult to cordon off and contain,” he said.

Contaminated mulch was also found at Penrith Christian School at Orchard Hills but the school would not close because the mulch was in a heap away from students.

Dizdar said recycled mulch contaminated with asbestos going into schools had been “a great shame”.

“There shouldn’t be recycled mulch and there should not be certainly mulch that has any remnants of any asbestos,” he said.

Dizdar said all contractors working on NSW public schools had been reminded of their obligations. Testing was under way at a further four schools.

The EPA’s investigation is being supported by an asbestos taskforce announced by the NSW environment minister, Penny Sharpe, on Thursday – more than a month after asbestos was first discovered in mulch at the Rozelle parklands.

Greenlife Resource Recovery supplied the mulch that has since been found to contain both bonded and friable asbestos across Sydney. More than 130 EPA investigators are working to “contact trace” mulch through the supply chain from Greenlife to contractors and then landscapers.

Greenlife has insisted it is not responsible for the contamination and that multiple rounds of testing by independent laboratories showed their mulch was free from asbestos before it was distributed to customers.

Chappel said the investigation was still assessing “all lines of inquiry”.

“It’s certainly unhelpful at this point for anyone to attribute blame,” he warned on Sunday.

“This is a complex supply chain and the investigation is ongoing. When we’ve concluded, we will release the full report to the public as well as any potential court processes that follow.”