Offering an all-in-one service for contaminated soil removal and disposal

Any soil that has been polluted with chemicals or another substance that has upset the natural soil environment is classed as contaminated soil. Contamination is usually caused by industrial activity, agricultural chemicals or the incorrect disposal of waste. 

Contaminated soil can be hazardous or non-hazardous and both types must be correctly treated before being disposed of. Failing to do so can be illegal, but could also pose a threat to the surrounding environment, neighbouring waterways, wildlife and human health.

There are a number of other ways in which you could determine whether a site is likely to be contaminated or not. These include:

• Local authorities’ survey information, which could include information on sites that have been previously inspected as part of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, but found to be clear from contamination.
• Historical ordnance survey maps; data is readily available on data.gov.uk relating to historical landfills and other contaminative uses.
• Local planning authority records, including historic environment and relevant Environmental Statements.
• Natural England’s MAGIC site which sets out information about the environmental setting and sensitivity of the development site.

For organisations within the groundworks, engineering, landscaping, utility, construction and house building industries, contaminated soil will be one of their top considerations when undertaking new projects and developments.

Any company embarking on such developments will be responsible for instructing ground investigations to assess the ground behaviour and the chemical contents of soils. These investigations are undertaken by digging trial holes to various depths in the ground and taking soil samples away for physical and chemical testing. 

Once the chemical testing is complete (otherwise known as a waste classification suite), the results will be sent to a licensed treatment or landfill facility to assess if the waste is compliant and acceptable under their permit conditions. Once the producer locates a suitable waste management site operator who can accept their waste, they will then agree on a price to take their waste.

These investigations must be completed and resolved before planning permission will be granted for development of any site. 

Working in partnership 

We work in partnership with a number of specialist companies to provide an all-round service to our customers who have large volumes of contaminated soil.

We liaise with our clients to discover the type of soil that needs to be disposed of, then, utilising our fleet of modern tipper lorries, we transport it to the treatment facility for processing and once complete, we move it on for final disposal. Our clients come from a range of industries including groundworks and engineering, landscaping, utilities, construction and house building.

Please get in touch if you have any queries about contaminated soil or would like us to assist you in this area.