ABSTRACT
Regeneration of industrially contaminated land (brownfield sites) is now a priority in many countries due to risk to human health and the requirement for development land. In the U.K., for example, the government has set a target of 60% of new housing to be built on brownfield sites [1,2]. This high level of activity, however, can incur excessive cleanup costs. Traditional methods for dealing with heavy metal-contaminated soil have relied heavily upon engineering-based techniques such as:
• Excavation and removal to landfill (dig and dump) • Encapsulation or containment
in situ
• Separation methods, such as soil washing • Chemical stabilization
These technologies tend to be expensive [3] and may be prohibitive, with estimates of the amount of contaminated land needing treatment increasing (estimates of up to 100,000 sites covering
300,000 ha in the U.K.). These methods also lack environmental sensitivity. Regeneration of urban brownfield land requires innovative, low-cost, ecologically sensitive and effective techniques.
