The spectre of asbestos and the damage it causes was first brought to life in the 1980s and was most poignantly brought home with the death of Bernie Banton in 2007 after a protracted fight for justice for asbestos victims.
But our asbestos problem has not gone away, it’s gone underground with millions of tonnes of tainted soil estimated to be blighting public land in Victoria.
It’s a problem that has led to a call by environmental groups to remediate asbestos tainted soil on public land so it can safely be used again by the community.
The good news is there are technological solutions to help people and governments when they find Asbestos at their workplaces or homes that allows it to be restored to safe levels.
From black to green, it sounds counterintuitive how the process to remove a poisonous and deadly substance could possibly be going green.
It's already happening in Western Victoria. Special soil remediation techniques are being used to filter out the Asbestos present.
Dale Smith the Managing Director of SCAADA environmental consulting and project management company says this type of work has a huge environmental impact, if you start with 8,000 cubic metres of Asbestos tainted soil at the end you can bring that figure down to 10 cubic metres of soil with Asbestos present that needs to be disposed of.
‘Asbestos is a broad ranging term that covers a wide range of silicates. When we talk about soil remediation, we are talking about abating, which means removing as much bonded manufactured Asbestos containing material debris as we can from the soil, Asbestos occurs naturally in the ground as a fibrous mineral, so we are not removing this natural occurring product but rather the manufactured material leaving the soil safe to use with a significantly controlled risk,’says Dale Smith, Managing Director Scaada Group Services.
‘We use a process called screening which involves shaking and displacing the soil using vibrations from the mechanical screening machine as the soil is fed into it. We recently partnered with Ground Maintenance Australia to use their screening machine to clear Asbestos that had been buried in school grounds’.
‘We processed around 8,000 cubic metres of soil with GMA, we ended up with 7,500 cubic metres of safe material having removed Asbestos and things like brick and glass. To put it simply at the end you have a quantity of near perfect fine topsoil for things like Garden beds. The mid size bi-products can be used in roads or for mixed rubble. This all gets checked visually by workers on site also’ added Mr Smith.
Steve Marett - the Managing Director of Grounds Maintenance Australia (GMA), which specialises in asbestos removal - does this every day for a living.
‘By working with SCADA we are repurposing huge quantities of material that would otherwise end up in a hole. Environmentally two lots of soil that can be used on site are recovered and financially it’s more cost effective as you have drastically reduced the amount of contaminate soil which needs to be disposed of as Asbestos waste’, added Mr Marett.
‘Soil remediation as part of Asbestos abatement is now a big part of our day to work, people are often surprised that you can remediate soil. It’s a good story that no one wants to talk about, we help schools and hospitals deal with these problems in an environmental and economic way. At the end they are very happy but never want to talk about the fact it was there in the first place, even though it was not their fault.
‘There is still a taboo around Asbestos, when people become aware of its presence. Often it’s a result of historical dumping that has nothing to do with the current guardians of the land or property. We would like to see the state government promote awareness around Asbestos abatement and reward businesses and institutions that use this process with grants for small businesses and homeowners who encounter this problem, ' concluded Mr Marett.
