Waste management related to contaminated land

There is a misconception that ‘contaminated land’ is synonymous with ‘waste’. The Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) includes a definition of waste that specifically relates to material which falls outside the chain of utility for which there is an intent to discard, that is, the material is surplus to requirements. Once material is deemed to be waste it remains waste until ‘fully recovered’, regardless of whether it has a value or not. In addition, EU law has defined contaminated soil as waste only once it has been excavated. In handling construction waste in a sustainable way it is recognised that disposal of waste incurs a double cost, that is, the cost of purchasing the commodity and then in paying for its disposal. This is not a sustainable solution for waste. EU Waste Circular 11/94 introduced the waste hierarchy in terms of minimising waste. That hierarchy lists a series of actions in priority order to enable waste minimisation. These are reduce/reuse/recover/dispose (Figure F.1), with the latter only as a last resort. The revised Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) introduced a mechanism that defines when material can cease to be waste.