A billionaire property developer, his company, and two others are facing a raft of charges over the asbestos in mulch crisis that shut down dozens of Sydney parks, schools and hospitals earlier this year. The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has uncovered 102 alleged offences in relation to the discovery of bonded asbestos in mulch at 26 sites, including the state government’s long-awaited Rozelle Parklands precinct.
Arnold Vitocco, the sole director of VE Resource Recovery, is charged with an executive liability offence linked to his company’s alleged breach of its environmental protection licence. Two other entities, trading as Greenlife Recovery Facility — Freescale Trading Pty Ltd and Runkorp Pty Ltd — face 50 additional charges each for allegedly reusing asbestos waste, breaching a Resource Recover Order and carrying out scheduled activities without an EPA licence. The EPA will bring the 102 charges to the NSW Land and Environment Court in February. “The prosecutions follow the largest investigation in the EPA’s history which was launched after bonded asbestos was discovered in mulch at Rozelle Parklands,” the EPA said in a statement. “During the investigation over 300 sites were inspected, with 79 sites identified as having used contaminated mulch. All 79 sites have now been cleaned up by owners.” The offences relate to 26 of those 79 contaminated sites, including Rozelle Parklands. Most of the contaminated mulch detected across Sydney in January and February this year was traced back to the Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility in Bringelly, in Sydney’s south-west. VE Resources Recovery — facing one charge in relation to allegedly failing to carry out resource recovery activities competently — holds the licence for the Greenlife facility.