Sydney company told to stop supplying garden mulch after asbestos found

The Sydney company that supplied mulch for the new parkland above the Rozelle interchange in the inner city, which was later found to be contaminated with asbestos, has been slapped with an order preventing it from providing products until an investigation is complete.

The prevention notice issued to Greenlife Resource Recovery comes as asbestos-contaminated mulch was found at three sites along the Bankstown rail line, while four samples taken from a highway project in Sydney’s south-west tested positive for traces of bonded asbestos.

The Rozelle Parklands have been fenced off due to the discovery of asbestos the the garden mulch.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

The Environment Protection Authority also urged home owners who are concerned that they have contaminated mulch in their backyards supplied by Greenlife to contact the agency.

The EPA issued the order to Greenlife late on Wednesday, preventing it from continuing to supply mulch while the authority’s wide-ranging investigation is under way.

The authority did not directly answer questions about who had supplied mulch for the latest rail and road project sites found to have traces of bonded asbestos.

EPA acting chief executive Nancy Chang said officials were “actively pursuing multiple lines of inquiry”, including contamination in the supply chain.

An artist’s impression of Dulwich Hill metro station.Credit: Sydney Metro

The agency has not ruled out the possibility that the contamination at the various sites is the result of “legacy asbestos”, noting that most of the sites where it has been found recently have historically had asbestos contamination.

Early on Wednesday, Greenlife denied the contaminated mulch at the Rozelle Parklands came from its facility, adding that independent tests of mulch at its plant had shown “unequivocally” that there was no asbestos present.

It later added that it was confident its products were clean of contamination when delivered to contractors, and said it had “no visibility” of how its material was used on sites.

However, Chang said the prevention notice meant that Greenlife could not supply mulch to anyone until the EPA’s investigation concludes that it is safe. “If anyone has any concerns that they have purchased mulch from this supplier known as Greenlife they are very welcome to call ... and we will be assisting them,” she said.

She reiterated that bonded asbestos found at the Rozelle Parklands and the other sites is low-risk.

Transport for NSW on Wednesday confirmed bonded asbestos had been detected at Sydney Metro sites at Dulwich Hill, Canterbury and Campsie after contractor Systems Connect conducted testing. The mulch had been laid in October during landscaping at the sites, which are fenced off from the public.

Contaminated mulch was also found at landscaped sites at the Prospect Highway project between Prospect and Blacktown, contractor Fulton Hogan discovered.

Four out of 31 samples taken at the highway returned a positive result. The areas impacted have been fenced off and plans to remove the mulch are under way.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen says the contractors will be responsible for cleaning up the sites.Credit: Steven Siewert

Transport Minister Jo Haylen said contractors would be responsible for cleaning up the sites, including the Rozelle Parklands, and covering the cost of the remediation.

“The contractors are responsible for rectifying any defects. Asbestos should not be present in a recycled mulch product and my expectation is contractors will bear the cost,” she said.

Bonded asbestos is considered low-risk compared with friable asbestos, which can easily be crushed into a powder and become airborne.

The Rozelle Parklands, built for the community as a consolation for the disruption from the interchange construction, have been fenced off and are being gutted of the contaminated mulch, a process expected to take months. New organic mulch will replace the original recycled mulch.

Contractor John Holland this week launched an investigation into all of its other Sydney infrastructure projects.

The joint venture’s executive general manager of major projects, Mark Davies, said on Monday the mulch from the contractor that supplied the contaminated material, Greenlife Resource Recovery, was a “commercially available product and [it] potentially has been used elsewhere”.

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