Press Release

Soil Clinic saves UK industry £¼m

19 June 2006

 

The launch of the UK’s first ever Soil Clinic six months ago has resulted in savings to British industry in excess of a quarter of a million pounds in tax revenues.

 

Following its launch in November 2005, Biffa’s ground breaking Soil Clinic has accepted over 20,000 tonnes of hazardous waste soil and has met the company’s projected growth targets for the new service.

 

Constructed by Biffa Waste Services at Risley near Warrington, in partnership with Canadian firm, Biogenie, the plant or ‘Soil Clinic’ is able to treat contaminated waste soils, divert them away from landfill and save the construction industry time and money in disposal costs and development time.

 

“By providing off-site treatment we’ve enabled projects to start without delay and in the knowledge that their waste soils, and therefore their liabilities are being treated and not landfilled. This has led to the sustainable re-use of these materials rather than merely dumping them,” said Biffa remediation manager, John Conway.

 

“And we’ve achieved this at prices competitive to landfill. This means that the UK construction industry now has a viable alternative to on-site treatment or ‘dig and dump,’ which not only helps them meet their Corporate Social Responsibility targets, but which can also offer significant cost savings, as soils treated via our facility are not subject to Landfill Tax.”

 

Contaminated waste soils arise from brownfield sites and can contain hydrocarbons such as oil. Until July last year most of these were landfilled, but following the introduction of new regulations under the European landfill Directive, these soils are now classed as hazardous waste. A ban on the disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste in the same landfill site also resulted in a fall in the number of sites licensed to dispose of this material. This has effectively increased the price of disposal.

 

The alternative for many firms was to abandon their ‘dig and dump’ approach and treat and re-use soil on-site, but this can be a drawn out process that ties up sites and delays development.

  

“The fixed-soil treatment plant is able to deal with waste soils away from construction sites, releasing areas for immediate development,” said Biogenie’s Graham Holtom. “The facility can deal with a wide range of jobs, irrespective of volume and there is no need to screen waste prior to bringing it to site.”

 

With the Risley site now open, Biffa is now looking at expanding the service to sites in the South East of England to increase its capacity for dealing with this material.

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