Beneficial re-use of site soils

摘要

Global awareness is growing of the fact that soil is a non-renewable resource. On one hand this impacts food production; on the other, it impacts urban horticulture and urban landscaping. Once upon a time, soil for urban landscaping was dug out of Farmer Joe's paddock and delivered to site: too easy! However, those days are over and quality soils for urban landscaping are getting harder to find, not to mention the expense of shipping large quantities of quality soil to site. The focus of many large infrastructure projects such as the Level Crossing Removal Projects and the upcoming North-East Link Road project is conservation of site soil resources for re-use. Not only does this make economic sense, it also saves on greenhouse gas emissions from avoided trucking and materials handling. And it goes a long way to guaranteeing quality outcomes (figure 1).