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Innovation award for soil clinic

24th October 2006

Biffa's Soil Clinic has won the award for "Best use of biological systems" at the prestigious, annual Brownfield Briefing Remediation Innovation Awards (BBRIA) 2006.

Organised by Brownfield Briefing, an online news service carrying news, expert analysis and authoritative comment on land remediation, the awards aim to recognise best practise in remediation and use of remediation technology throughout the UK.

Said Phil Crowcroft, a partner with Environmental Research Management who helped judge the awards, 'Soil treatment centres have been talked about for donkey's years - to see them finally coming through is a significant step forward.'

The Soil Treatment Clinic at Risley near Warrington is a partnership between Biffa and Biogenie, a company whose core business is the remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater. It's the UK's first fixed soil remediation service and can recycle contaminated soils that are now classed as hazardous waste. There is around one million tonnes of this produced in Britain every year and disposal is a real problem for developers as there are very few hazardous waste landfill facilities that can accept it.

Biffa general manager, John Conway said, 'These soils must be removed from a site before developers can begin work. If landfill is not an option, the only alternative has been to treat them on site where they can hinder operations. But we can accept soils for treatment away from site, releasing an area for immediate development and that saves developers time and money.'

A single biopile allows for the treatment of around 6,000m3 of soils by creating the right conditions for naturally occurring micro-organisms to break down and degrade the contaminants in the soil. Once treated, the soils can be recovered and reused for beneficial purposes on the site.

David Lerner, Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Sheffield and another of the BBRIA judges said, 'Excellent use of landfill gas is the finishing touch to the design and operation of such a significant treatment centre.'

John Conway added, 'We are absolutely delighted to win this award. It's the crowning glory of many years hard work in bringing this about. Biffa, working with Biogenie was the first to offer UK developers this service and since its launch it has met and outdone forecasted growth targets. The award helps to illustrate that Biffa really is leading the way.'

A case study fact sheet can be downloaded by found here.