In this bonus episode, Host Angie Dickson, President of the Inogen Alliance and EVP of Antea Group USA, speaks with Sofiane Kessouar, Senior EHS Consultant for Baden Consulting in Switzerland. Sofiane walks through the extraordinary remediation of a major hazardous waste site, one of the largest and most complex environmental cleanup projects in Swiss history.
In this bonus episode, Host Angie Dickson, President of the Inogen Alliance and EVP of Antea Group USA, speaks with Sofiane, a Senior EHS Consultant with Baden Consulting in Switzerland. Sofiane walks through the extraordinary remediation of a major hazardous waste site, one of the largest and most complex environmental cleanup projects in Swiss history. He explains how decades of contamination were safely excavated, contained, and transformed into a site that now serves both the environment and the surrounding community.
“The site is no longer a hazard. It is now a resource for the community and the environment. It shows that legacy contamination can be reversed if action is taken.” - Sofiane
00:45 The Long History of the Site: From Clay Extraction to Waste Disposal
04:05 Safely Removing 500,000+ Tons of Hazardous and Contaminated Material
05:40 Shared Responsibility: Local Authorities, Industry, and Federal Support
06:25 From Hazard to Habitat: Agriculture, Natural Reserves, and Regeneration
07:40 Core Lessons: Prevention, Collaboration, and Lifecycle Stewardship
08:20 Waste-to-Energy Insights: Why Reduction Still Comes First
Rethinking EHS is brought to you by the Inogen Alliance. Inogen Alliance is a global network of 70+ companies providing environment, health, safety, and sustainability services worldwide. Visit inogenalliance.com to learn more.
REHS - Waste to Energy BONUS - V1
[00:00:00] Angie: Welcome to our bonus episode on Waste to Energy. I am Angie Dixon. I'm here with Sofiane Kessouar, who's a senior EHS consultant based in Switzerland working for Baden Consulting. He's here to share a case study and elaborate on the topic, the Sofiane. Welcome.
[00:00:18] Sofiane: Hi, I am Angie. How are you? It's
[00:00:21] Angie: good to see you again.
[00:00:23] Sofiane: Yeah, good to see you. Thank you.
[00:00:25] Angie: So in our previous episode, we really got into some detail about the idea of waste to energy. And unfortunately, we all produce waste. So the idea that it can be a productive byproduct or be put in more productive use is certainly optimistic. And so if you wouldn't mind sharing your case study or your project that you were able to work on, I think we would all find it very interesting.
[00:00:49] Sofiane: Yeah. Thank you Angie. So I want to share a story about how Switzerland found a potential disaster into a, an example of action, innovation and renew [00:01:00] alpha million tons of hazards, waste typically contaminating soil, a site that could have been a disaster. This is the CA field and Switzerland turned it around.
I want to share a story about how a dangerous site became an example of action innovation, and I know the landfill shows what careful planning, engineering, and shared responsibility can achieve the site is in the.
From around 1823 until the early 1970s, clay was extracted there for brick production. When the clay pits life handed the site found the new use first, it accepted construction, waste, and later special or hazardous waste. At the time, authorities believed the clays of soil would naturally blow contamination.[00:02:00]
Between 1978 and 1985, the site received enormous amounts of special waste up to 300,000 cubic metals, roughly 475,000 drones. By the mid the 1980s, dangerous substances like anine and benzine were found in the soil and groundwater. In some areas, contamination reached five to 10 meters deep, far more than expected.
Her initial measures were taken runoff. Water was captured contaminated. Water was pumped. Untreated plant field cases were burned, but there were only temporary fixes for cleanup was needed. In 2003, the content, uh, Argo ordered complete remediation around. 2005, a major excavation [00:03:00] began to safely remove hazardous waste.
Three massive air tides. Holes were built under, under negative pressure. These holes were engineering Mars designed to prevent any toxic substances from escaping into the air during. Was removed layer by layer. Every material was carefully categorized and transported to treatment or in celebration facilities from abroad.
In total, about 100,000 tons of cover materials. Five more than 500,000 tons of waste and 45,000 tons of contaminated rock were ex excavated. The holes were equipped with advanced filtration and ventilation systems and swimming complete safely for workers and surrounding community. By early 2016, the bulk of the waste removal was [00:04:00] complete.
The holes were dismantled by 2019. The pit was backfilled with clean material, including spoil from the new Berg Channel between a row and uh, aum. The cleanup cost nearly 900 million Swiss Franc making kan one of Switzerland's largest remediation projects. Responsibility Wall was chaired among. The federal government, about 60% of the waste was like urban waste, and the federal government covered roughly 200 million Swiss Franc or 25% of the total cost.
Beyond the financial a effort, the project generated valuable technical expertise now apply to other remediation projects across Switzerland. With the cleanup, complete attention is shifting to the science. [00:05:00] Future parts are playing for agriculture. Other areas will become natural reserves with middle ponds and habitats for treat species.
Our goal on the local municipality process long to start a natural rehabilitation project in 2024. The site is no longer a hazard. It is now a resource for the community and the environment. The story is important. It shows that leak acid contamination can be reversed if action is taken. It reminds us that prevention is far more cost effective than remediation.
It highlights the importance of shared responsibility can terms industry and federal authorities all stepping in. And it demonstrate a full lifecycle approach, transforming a hazard site into regenerative land for agriculture, nature, and the community. For [00:06:00] auditors, police makers, an industry kean offers a powerful needs when facing large environmental liabilities.
You can either ignore them and pay far more later, or act proactively Switzerland. Choose the proactive path. The results speaks for themselves. The more downfall substances were removed and the once risky site is becoming a green space that benefits both natural and the local community. Finally, the massive holes themselves remain a simple of what careful engineering lining and collaboration can achieve.
They were temporary, but their design allowed safe removal of half a million stones of hazardous material, a practical and environmental achievement.
[00:06:53] Angie: What an interesting project. Okay, so if I understand correctly, this site was, began being used in the 18 [00:07:00] hundreds. I mean, we were talking about a very, very long history.
Right. Uh, so not only was it used for extraction of clay, but then it was used as a dumping site. I think the question is, are we smarter now? Do you think that, uh, as we look at, you know, some of the legacies that we're creating now, do you feel like the technologies, the, the regulations, are they helping us prevent other sites like this from, from, uh, needing to be remediated in the future?
What do you think? Are we there yet?
[00:07:31] Sofiane: Yes. I think that, uh, we are, we are smart on our, uh, for sure waste energy is useful, but it's not always the first choice. The smarter approach is reduced, reuse, recycled, then recover energy. A waste energy doesn't always make sense. For example, if we, if we can prevent or reduce waste at the source, like cutting over packaging, limiting single use plastics or avoiding food [00:08:00] waste.
So that's always better than burning it. It also isn't ideal if the material are highly recyclable and metal glass paper and certain plastics are more valuable than eco-friendly. When recycled organic waste can be composted or used for the production or pure gas through an an aerobic digestion. Then there are local ion to consider.
If there is no district heating, no industry nearby to use the heat or limited access to debris burning waste won't deliver much benefit. And finally, waste to energy only works well at scale. Small or short-term projects usually can provide TD waste volumes, which makes the plant inefficient. The later two cases is transportation solution.
With as little environmental impact as possible, we need to be found to [00:09:00] bring these wastes to, uh, waste to energy incinerator.
[00:09:06] Angie: Yes. Obviously that's, yeah. Proximity is important to make it viable. Any last thoughts about the project that you'd like to share
[00:09:13] Sofiane: as a takeaway in, in short? Software will recover everything.
You can. Incinerate smart and always look uh, for continuous improvements. That's how you make waste to energy, both efficient and sustainable.
[00:09:28] Angie: Great. Thank you so much and thanks to our listeners for joining us, uh, and tuning into our bonus episode. Obviously, if you'd like additional information, you can always find our podcast as well as other information on our website@ingenalliance.com.
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