Reclaiming historic landfill sites for residential development: a UK case study

Reclaiming historic closed landfill sites for an alternative end use (termed ‘landfill reclamation’) is a concept that can be traced back to at least 1953. A report prepared in 2013 identified three UK case studies of landfill reclamation for the construction of infrastructure and/or residential housing undertaken between 1980 and 2000. The methods of landfill reclamation were partial or complete excavation of the landfill waste for relocation to another landfill, requiring a significant number of vehicle movements to transport the waste. In 2013, the first full-scale landfill-reclamation project in the UK was started, whereby the landfilled commercial and industrial waste was excavated and processed using landfill-mining technologies for reuse on-site within the reclamation process (as opposed to relocation to another landfill). The reclamation process involved construction of a platform for residential development and public open space using up to 95% of the recovered material. A rigorous validation procedure demonstrated that the reused materials did not pose unacceptable risks of ground-gas generation, ground settlement, harm to human health and environmental pollution. This paper describes key elements of the reclamation process, some of the technical challenges faced and the engineering solutions adopted.