As a company committed to environmental services, Scotoil chose to take a sustainable approach to the mammoth remediation project for the historical contamination on its site.

The site was one of the first in Scotland to be cleaned up by environmentally friendly biological techniques.

Scotoil Properties managed the entire project, working with specialists from biotechnology company Remedios.

Remediation of the Scotoil Site

When the Scotoil Group acquired the site it was known that there was extensive historical contamination dating back 150 years to the former town gas works and chemical works which occupied part of the site.

The massive remediation project under way to rid the site of historical contamination.

Around 11 acres of the Scotoil site had lain semi-derelict for more than 20 years because of it.

Given its environmental focus, Scotoil Properties avoided the traditional approach of removing and dumping the contaminated soil, as this simply shifts the problem to a controlled site. The unsustainability of this approach is compounded by need to quarry new material as site fill.

Instead the contaminated material was cleaned up biologically on site, using natural bacterial action.

This innovative approach resulted in:

• Minimal dumping of contaminated material.
• On-site remediation and recycling of existing material.
• Demolished buildings being recycled as 40,000 tonnes of site infill and, thereby, minimal requirement for quarried material.