There are fears a Sydney excavation company has supplied asbestos-laden road base to the WestConnex project, as well as the Blue Mountains National Park and many private homes.

Key points: The federal asbestos safety agency wants work on WestConnex halted for testing

The agency's CEO has called for an immediate investigation

Moits strenuously denies the allegations

A former employee of Moits claims the company is putting lives at risks by recycling demolition waste containing asbestos.

The federal Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency is calling for an immediate investigation. Chief executive Peter Tighe said the State Government should stop work on the multi-billion-dollar WestConnex project to conduct urgent testing.

Moits strenuously denied the allegations, saying its recycled products had been certified as asbestos-free.

Safe Work NSW told the ABC it had inspected the site twice — once today and once in early June. It found the company had "adequate work health and safety control measures in place".

Daniel McIntyre was a weighbridge operator and quality control trainee at Moits's Rock and Dirt Recycling plant at Clarendon, in western Sydney. The facility receives demolition waste from building sites across Sydney, which is crushed up to be re-used as road base.

Mr McIntyre said part of his job was to supervise a team of men, employed to "emu pick" through mounds of rubble for any rubbish that could not be put through the crusher.

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Workers given 10 minutes to trawl through tonnes of rubble

An asbestos expert says the material appears to be fibro asbestos sheeting. ( ABC News )

Moits is not licensed to receive asbestos-containing material, but Mr McIntyre alleged workers picked out pieces of broken asbestos sheeting every day.

"On some days it was quite clean, we'd maybe get four or five pieces, on other days you could have we'd pick out maybe 20 pieces," Mr McIntyre said.

He said they were only given about 10 minutes to go through each 30-tonne load.

"If we found asbestos we'd have to switch over to the private channel and tell the boss and then he'd come down and have a look and he'd get us to try and pick out as much as possible and then that's it — we'd put in the crusher. We had bins we had we'd put stuff into, but the majority of it we couldn't pick out anyway".

"We had three guys going through roughly 30 tonnes — times five — per hour so there was no way you could pick it all out. It was impossible."

Mr McIntyre told the ABC he was so concerned by what he saw at the plant, that he filmed it.

The vision shows workers, who are not wearing masks or protective clothing, picking up broken pieces of fibro sheeting.

'It was going to large construction projects like WestConnex'

The footage was filmed with a hidden camera at a recycling demolition waste site. ( ABC News )

Mr McIntyre said in his other role as a weighbridge operator, he was required to note down where the recycled road base was going.

"Generally it was going to large construction projects like the WestConnex. I know it went to national parks and to landscapers all over Sydney. Even private operators who wanted some road base just for their garden or whatever."

Mr McIntyre said when he raised his concerns with management, he was fired.

"I asked them if we could have a meeting between management and the workers there and that was it. They said I was a troublemaker. I was causing trouble and they basically just told me I didn't have a job anymore."

He sent his videos to the Environment Protection Authority and received a customer reference number, but said he had heard nothing since. He also complained to Safe Work NSW.

"My concerns are that people there are being put at risk. And my concerns are that there is asbestos that's free floating that's being crushed and it's dust and it's being sent out into businesses and homes and other places in Sydney and it poses a potential risk to the public".

Moits chief executive Joe Vinci confirmed the company had supplied road base to WestConnex and other government works, but strenuously denied Mr McIntyre's allegations.

He said Mr McIntyre was a "disgruntled worker" and that its recycled products had been certified as asbestos-free.

Sydney Motorway Corporation said it is committed to delivering WestConnex whilst ensuring the safety of its workers and the community, and that recycled materials were used to support construction on various elements of the project.

"It is standard industry practice that all suppliers of recycled materials for construction purposes require formal certification demonstrating their compliance with strict Environment Protection Authority guidelines," a spokesman said in a statement.

"WestConnex design and construction contractors have rigorous systems in place to ensure all recycled materials supplied to site are compliant with EPA approvals, including a requirement for all suppliers to produce the appropriate EPA certification before receipt of any materials."

Calls for immediate investigation into operation

The ABC showed the videos to Peter Tighe from the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency. He said the items on film were almost certainly asbestos and said there should be an immediate investigation into the operation.

"It appears that they're accepting contaminated fill. It's demolition residue and you can see that there are asbestos pieces in there. It looks like fibro asbestos sheeting,' Mr Tighe said.

Mr Tighe said all asbestos was supposed to be removed from a building site before demolition took place, but that involved an expense.

He said the whistleblower's claims raised serious public health concerns and urged the State Government to halt the WestConnex project so it could take samples of the road base for testing.

"They do have a problem on their hands if they've taken material from that site and it's being used," Mr Tighe said.

"They're going to have to check that material to see whether there is crushed asbestos in there and take samples of the dust and the residue to verify whether it's clean fill or not.

"Disturbing that fill until such time as that's been verified is a risk".

A worker said truckloads of the road base was supplied to the WestConnex project. ( Supplied: NSW Government )

Product checked for asbestos by inspectors

Joe Vinci told the ABC the company did employ workers to sort through the demolition waste for steel, plastic and other items which could not be put through the crusher.

He said if a worker did find an item suspected to contain asbestos, they were required to bring in specialists to collect it.

He said the company was required to have their recycled product checked for asbestos every three months, in order to obtain clearance certificates.

"We have a protocol in place where when the trucks come in, they get checked and if they contain asbestos, they are sent away," he said.

Mr Vinci said Safe Work NSW did an inspection at the plant in response to Mr McIntyre's complaint but found nothing.

He said he would welcome further testing at the plant.

Mr Vinci said Mr McIntyre was dismissed from Moits during his probation period "for reason unrelated to the allegations".

Comment has been sought from Roads Minister Duncan Gay.

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