The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority is prosecuting three companies and one individual in response to its investigation into Sydney’s asbestos in mulch scandal.
The prosecutions encompass 102 alleged offences relating to 26 sites, including Rozelle parklands.
The scandal began in January when garden mulch containing asbestos was found in a children’s playground in the expansive park built above Rozelle’s multibillion-dollar spaghetti junction interchange, forcing its closure.
The asbestos contamination crisis spread across Sydney, forcing the cancellation of a major Mardi Gras party and the closure of popular parks and schools, as authorities scrambled to get on top of the ballooning public health emergency.
The EPA subsequently conducted the largest investigation in its history, with more than 300 sites inspected and 79 identified as having contaminated mulch.
“All 79 sites have now been cleaned up by the owners,” the EPA said.
The EPA is now prosecuting VE Resource Recovery Pty Ltd and the company’s sole director, Arnold Vitocco, and two entities trading as Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility, namely Freescale Trading Pty Ltd and Runkorp Pty Ltd.
The 102 charges will be heard in the land and environment court and cover five categories including alleged reuse of asbestos waste offences and mulch orders offences against the two Greenlife companies.
The charges also include an environment protection licence breach offence against VE Resource Recovery, an executive liability offence against Vitocco, and carrying out scheduled activities without a licence offences against Freescale Trading and Runkorp.
Greenlife maintained its innocence and said in a statement on Tuesday that it would “strongly defend” the allegations. It said that no asbestos contamination had been discovered by the EPA “now, or during any previous testing at its Bringelly site”.
“The media has been informed of the details before the company has been served with the file documents,” it said in a statement.
“GRRF takes its environmental obligations very seriously, does not accept demolition waste and has strict protocols to ensure its products are not contaminated before they leave the site.”
It said the supply chain was “complex” and there are several ways asbestos can contaminate material, such as “delivering clean materials to a remediated site, where they are mixed with the existing materials onsite.”
A Greenlife spokesperson added that Arnold Vitocco would “vigorously defend the one charge levelled against him” and VE Resource Recovery would also dispute its alleged breach.
The first directions hearing is scheduled to be held on 7 February.
