Common asbestos containing materials that may be found in contaminated land sites

4 Common asbestos containing materials that may be found in contaminated land sites 

Alternatively, industrial sites may have been granted a licence to bury waste materials on site and when pipework or plant was replaced, the insulation materials could have been crudely removed and disposed on site at a time when it was considered acceptable to carry out such practices. Often outbuildings and garages with asbestos cement roofs were demolished where they stood and all resulting materials used as hard standing for paths, roads or car parks etc. 

Typical sites that may contain significant quantities of asbestos debris or ground contamination generally include railway land, depots, sidings, shipbuilders yards, dockyards, heavy engineering or industrial sites and waste disposal/landfill sites. 

The common asbestos containing materials that may be found in contaminated land and brown field sites are therefore pieces of cement boarding, insulation boarding, fibrous insulation or occasionally free fibre depending upon the previous usage of the site, bitumen felt, vinyl floor tiles and gasket materials. These materials may have been mixed in with demolition rubble and soil, crushed as hardcore and utilised on site, or simply buried to raise the level of the land prior to redevelopment. 

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