In January 2024 bonded asbestos fragments were found in landscaping mulch at Rozelle Parklands in Sydney's inner west. Over the following months the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) identified contaminated mulch at more than 70 sites: schools, public parks, hospitals, a film studio, social housing estates, and a string of private commercial developments. The incident triggered the largest contaminated-waste investigation in the state's history and reshaped how NSW thinks about recycled organics, supply-chain traceability, and asbestos in commercial procurement.
Two years on, the immediate panic has receded but the regulatory and operational consequences have not. If you manage commercial property, oversee landscaping budgets, or sign off on construction-and-demolition (C&D) waste decisions, the lessons from the mulch crisis are still actively reshaping what "reasonable due diligence" looks like.
A quick recap of the incident
The contamination originated in recycled organic material: mulch produced from urban tree waste mixed, at some point in the chain, with construction and demolition residues. Once the first detection was made at Rozelle Parklands, the NSW EPA traced product back through suppliers and re-sellers, eventually issuing prevention notices, clean-up orders, and prohibition notices across dozens of operators. Bonded (non-friable) asbestos was the most common find; in a small number of cases, friable material was also detected, escalating the response.
Costs to government and private site owners ran into the tens of millions. More importantly, the incident exposed a structural weakness: bulk landscaping product had been moving through the supply chain with limited verification and no consistent sampling regime.
What's changed in the NSW regulatory landscape
Several reforms either flowed directly from the mulch crisis or were accelerated by it. The most consequential for property managers are:
Tighter rules on recovered fines and recycled mulch
The NSW EPA issued new requirements covering how recovered fines (the small residual fraction from C&D waste processing) can be mixed into landscaping products. Operators producing mulch or soil amendments for sale must now demonstrate clearer separation between organics streams and C&D streams, with documented sampling protocols.
Stronger orders regime and higher penalties
The NSW Government progressed legislation that gives the EPA expanded powers to pursue both individuals and corporate directors involved in the illegal supply or disposal of contaminated waste, and significantly increased the maximum penalties for non-compliance.
Industry-wide guidance on bulk landscaping procurement
The EPA and industry bodies published procurement guidance directed at councils, developers, and large facilities managers, formalising what reasonable buyer due diligence now looks like, including supplier accreditation, sampling at point of delivery for higher-risk product, and chain-of-custody documentation.
Heightened public scrutiny
The crisis put the once-invisible commercial landscaping supply chain in front of mainstream media. Property managers should expect that any future contamination event, even a small one, will attract media attention and parental, tenant, or community pressure far more quickly than it would have pre-2024.
What this means for your procurement process
The single biggest takeaway from the mulch crisis is that asbestos risk does not stop at your building envelope. If you bring bulk material onto the site (mulch, soil amendments, recycled aggregate, fill), you are taking on contamination risk, and the courts and regulators have made clear that ignorance of the supplier's processes is not a defence.
Practical steps to embed in your procurement playbook:
- Pre-qualify landscaping and bulk-fill suppliers. Ask for evidence of EPA licensing, sampling regimes, and chain-of-custody documentation. If the supplier can't produce it, walk away.
- Specify product standards in contracts. Reference the relevant Australian Standards and EPA guidance directly in your purchase orders.
- Inspect deliveries on arrival. Visual inspection is not a guarantee, but a competent groundskeeper or site supervisor can flag obvious foreign material (fragments of fibro, painted timber, or building debris) before it's spread.
- Sample higher-risk product. For large volumes used at sensitive sites (schools, childcare, healthcare), commission independent sampling and analysis before sign-off.
- Document the chain. If something does go wrong, your defensibility depends on being able to show a regulator the trail of decisions you made.
If contamination is discovered on your site
The Rozelle response established a workable template that other site owners have since followed:
- Restrict access to the affected area immediately. Cordon, fence, and post signage.
- Notify the NSW EPA pollution line (or your state equivalent) and your insurer.
- Engage a licensed asbestos assessor to scope and sample. Do not move material around the site.
- Communicate transparently with tenants, staff, and (where relevant) parents or the public. Silence amplifies the problem.
- Document the timeline. Every decision you make from the moment of discovery will likely be reviewed.
The longer-term lesson
What Rozelle and the sites that followed exposed is that asbestos can re-enter a site through commercial supply chains long after the building itself has been surveyed and managed. Your management plan, register, and removal procedures only cover the asbestos you already know about. The mulch crisis is a reminder that prudent property managers also need a procurement-side hazard control, because the next contamination event is just as likely to arrive on the back of a truck as it is to be uncovered behind a wall.
Two years on, the operators who treated the crisis as a one-off Sydney problem have largely moved on. The ones who built it into their procurement controls are quietly running a tighter, more defensible operation. They're the ones least likely to feature in the next round of headlines.