Billionaire family at the centre of Sydney's asbestos nightmare break their silence as they slam government attempts to blame them for the crisis: 'We're being made scapegoats'
- Billionaire family empire blamed for asbestos mulch
- Company boss’s son insists tests have come back clean
- READ MORE: Mardi Gras event cancelled by asbestos discovery
EXCLUSIVE
The billionaire family behind the asbestos scare sweeping Sydney has denied all responsibility and told Daily Mail Australia they are being made scapegoats.
The Vitocco family operate the Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility located at Bringelly in Sydney’s southwest.
It has been named by the NSW Government as the alleged source of the asbestos-tainted mulch which has been spread on public land across the city, including the parklands at the new Rozelle Interchange in Sydney’s inner-west.
In the wake of that discovery, asbestos has also been found in 21 other locations including topsoil at parks, a hospital and a school stretching from the CBD to Emu Plains at the foot of the Blue Mountains, and from Parramatta to Campbelltown.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority has now set a deadline of February 16 for Greenlife to contact everyone they’ve supplied with recycled mulch to begin the clean-up operation.
But Greenlife general manager Domenic Vitocco, son of billionaire boss Arnold Vitocco, 59, insists his company is not to blame.
‘We feel we’ve been made a scapegoat,’ he told Daily Mail Australia. ‘We’re not quite sure ourselves how this has happened.
The billionaire Vitocco family (pictured) behind the asbestos scare sweeping Sydney has denied all responsibility and told Daily Mail Australia they are being made scapegoats
Asbestos has now also been found in topsoil at parks, a hospital and a school stretching from the CBD to Emu Plains at the foot of the Blue Mountains, and from Parramatta to Campbelltown
The Bringelly-based Vitocco family of property developers in Sydney’s south-west operate the Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility at the centre of the storm
‘All the testing from the EPA has come back from our yard clean. Our testing has come back clear and we’re a little bit puzzled as to how this is all happening.
‘During the investigation, I can’t really talk too much, but what I do know is that a number of these sites are major remediation sites… but I can’t comment further.’
Most of the asbestos found so far has been bonded asbestos which poses less of a risk, but the more dangerous friable asbestos was discovered at Harmony Park in Surry Hills on Monday.
The contamination has forced the cancellation of Mardi Gras celebrations planned for the park this week.
NSW Premier Chris Minns vowed to pursue those responsible after the latest discovery, and said Greenlife was in his sights.
He insisted the government was ‘not aware of any other corporation or firm that may have been responsible for the distribution’.
‘The firm, it’s reasonable to say, is fighting the suggestion that they’re responsible for the contamination within public facilities and public parks,’ he said.
‘That particular kind of [friable] asbestos – not the bonded asbestos – being found in a park in Sydney is deeply worrying…This is completely unacceptable.
‘We [need to] make sure that compliance action is taken against companies [allegedly] doing the wrong thing.
‘We cannot have a situation where major public facilities like … schools and parks have asbestos in them. The government is prepared to take action.’
Greenlife is an offshoot of Vitocco Enterprises, set up by managing director Arnold Vitocco – who is worth an estimated $1billion in the latest AFR Rich List – and which features his family members in key company roles.
His wife Irene is a director and responsible for business strategy, with a focus on the family empire’s ‘food and beverage sector and the key retail property assets’.
Son Anthony Vitocco is operations manager and plays a key role in ‘pricing and revenue strategies’ across the Vitocco property portfolio.
And as well as running Greenlife, eldest son Domenic is responsible for the family’s financial analysis to ‘support sustainable business growth’.
The company website adds: ‘Domenic is particularly interested in emerging opportunities in the waste management and energy sectors.’
Greenlife was set up almost six years ago to recycle waste in partnership with former earthworks moving company boss, Adrian Runko.
The Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility in Bringelly was opened in 2022 to take in waste from various sources and convert it into ‘sustainable landscape supplies’, its website says.
It offers mulch and a ‘custom landscape soil mix made from our recycled garden materials and composted organics used extensively in the landscape trade’.
‘Greenlife resource recovery facility provides quality products using sustainable recycling options to better our future,’ it adds.
‘Our team will find a way… All products are tested to meet Australian standards and can be delivered within the Sydney region.’
Greenlife is an offshoot of Vitocco Enterprises, set up by managing director Arnold Vitocco (pictured right, with his father Domenic, left, and his sons Anthony and Domenic)
The Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility in Bringelly was opened in 2022 to take in waste from various sources and convert it into ‘sustainable landscape supplies’, its website says
It offers mulch and a ‘custom landscape soil mix made from our recycled garden materials and composted organics used extensively in the landscape trade’
The Vitocco family made their fortune building homes and housing estates in Sydney’s south-west.
A five-acre site development near a crossroads at Narellan near Campbelltown in 1989 turned a hamlet into a thriving town centre now valued at close to $1billion.
Arnold Vitocco’s parents, concreter Domenic and wife Maria, arrived in Sydney from Italy in 1956 before his father laid the family empire’s foundations and started his own construction company.
D. Vitocco Constructions went on to build some 2,000 apartments in Liverpool in the 1980s before Arnold took over and lifted it to the next level.
He and wife Irene diversified the company into new areas of land development and retail trade, as well as the more recent move into recycling with Greenlife.
Now the family is in partnerships to build 7,000-lot developments on 1,800-acre sites – but still with a focus on the south-west, with projects in Gregory Hills, Maryland, Central Hills, Elyard Street and Emerald Hills.
‘Vitocco Enterprises is committed to an open and honest approach to all of its business dealings,’ the company says of its values on its website.
‘Many of the businesses sitting within the Vitocco Enterprises operation involve long-term partnerships with other families.
‘Above all, the business values loyalty, and returns this loyalty in its business relationships.’
It says the company ‘commits significant time and resources’ to charities, and goes out its way to boost local businesses.
The Vitocco family is in partnerships to build thousands of homes in developments in Gregory Hills, Maryland, Central Hills, Elyard Street and Emerald Hills in Sydney’s south-west
A five-acre site development near a crossroads at Narellan near Campbelltown in 1989 turned a hamlet into a thriving town centre now valued at close to $1billion
It adds: ‘We work closely with local suppliers to ensure the Western Sydney economy is supported.
‘A long-term approach is taken to investing, and conservative values are blended with an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit.
‘There is a strong emphasis on maintaining the excellent reputation earned over many years in business.’
Greenlife has now filed a legal challenge against the EPA’s move to ban it from selling any more of its mulch while the investigations continue.
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