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 specialist company, UK Remediation, 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.

More about UK Remediation

UK Remediation is a group of contaminated land specialists with a wide range of experience in brownfield development. With their head office in Bristol, they have hazardous and non-hazardous soil treatment facilities in Cornwall, Devon, and Hampshire. They’ve built a reputation for providing highly efficient, cost effective and environmentally sound contaminated land remediation services. They use their extensive knowledge, highly skilled staff and depth of expertise to successfully tackle an extensive range of projects.

They provide safe and trusted soil remediation services, either on-site or off-site at their soil treatment facilities. They complete each project on time, on budget and adhering to the strictest health and safety standards. Working with a range of clients from large contractors to environmental consultancies, groundworkers to property developers and local authorities, UK Remediation is ready to solve any contaminated land problem their clients are facing.

Two-way partnership

We’ve been working with UK Remediation for many years. As a Bristol-based company, when they decided to expand and open a treatment facility in Hampshire, they started searching for a site that would be suitable for this purpose.

Our site in Harts Farm Way, Havant, was one of the sites they identified and its space, accessibility and their established relationship with TJ made it their first choice. They moved into the site in 2019 and have been operating successfully there ever since. They made the site fit for purpose by installing and setting up a site office, automated weighbridge facilities, QR testing, and screening, processing and loading machinery.

As a remediation company working with a range of clients to process inert soil and other non-hazardous aggregates, UK Remediation struck up a secondary working relationship with TJ, a haulage company, which worked both ways.

TJ uses UK Remediation’s services when they have aggregates that need to be processed either on behalf of their clients or as part of their own groundworks projects. UK Remediation in turn utilises TJ’s services for haulage and muckaway, both for themselves and their clients as and when required.

We have a range of routes for responsibly reusing and repurposing a range of materials, including treated soil, to divert such materials from landfill and the many outlets that we work in partnership with help make this possible.

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