Olympic waste could cost £80m to landfill

Dealing with hazardous waste from the Olympic site could cost up to £80m in landfill charges, with up to 250,000 cubic metres of contaminated waste needing disposal.


The London Development Agency, charged with the remediation of the 500-acre East London site, faces a job that will include cleaning up soil heavily contaminated with metals and hydrocarbons.

LDA senior project manager for remediation, Steve Davies, reportedly told a conference: “In the worst case scenario we are estimating 250,000 cubic metres of hazardous waste which could have to go out to landfill.”

Remediation of the Olympic site, set to begin in December, is one of the factors behind the soaring costs of the games.

Roy McNulty, the acting chairman of the Olympic Delivery Committee, admitted that costs were likely to be “significantly higher” than previous estimates of £1.044bn in regeneration costs and £2.375bn to pay for constructing the Olympic venues and infrastructure.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone said that overrunning costs would encourage contractors to overcharge.

There are also concerns over the ODA still not having secured all the land of the Olympic site.

Goska Romanowicz

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