An investigation into the logistics and management of uncontaminated soil exchange in the Southern region of the UK

The aim of this research was to investigate the barriers in the transfer of uncontaminated soil directly between a site with surplus soil (donor site)and a site requiring the soil (recipient) site. The potential benefits of such transfer include; reduction in the cost, avoiding double handling of the soil and reduction in carbon footprint of organisations? involved in uncontaminated soil management. The research was facilitated by three workshop meetings with attendance from 35 industry professionals from selected organisations operating across the supply-chain and industry sectors, i.e. civil engineering, house-building, ground-works contractors, and waste handlers/hauliers. Survey questionnaires were utilised to obtain soil exchange specific information,barriers and awareness of existing online exchange systems. The key barriers in the direct soil exchange included: Regulations/ Legislation complexity; timing of soil availability and requirement and lack of visibility of supply chain (lack of information about the availability of soil and demand). Existing online soil exchange systems were regarded as having limited use due to complexities in data input, lack of auto-update of information and unavailability of right quantity at the right time. A common standard for identification of the suitability of uncontaminated soil in terms of both quality processes and chemical composition of soil is seen as essential.