Contaminated Land Waste Incinerators
Liners, geotextiles, sorbents, PPE and debris from remediation works. Bulk soil goes elsewhere.
A remediation site produces two very different things. One is contaminated soil, which belongs in thermal desorption or licensed treatment and not in any chamber. The other is everything the works generate around it — liners, geotextiles, sorbents, PPE, screenings, debris — which is hazardous, bulky and expensive to consign. That second one is what this page is about.
Four Models,
One Solution
The entry point to the LitBurn range. A 3.3 m³ primary chamber and three burners give continuous 125 kg/h destruction in a footprint that fits a standard yard bay, which makes it the usual choice for a single-site operator replacing skip hire rather than a multi-site waste contract.
The most specified unit in the range. Chamber volume rises to 5.5 m³ for 250 kg/h continuous throughput while the external width grows by only 230 mm over the LBI-125, so sites that outgrow the smallest unit rarely have to rework the slab or the building line.
A 9.6 m³ chamber — nearly double the LBI-250 — for medium-scale industrial waste destruction. At this size most operators pair the unit with heat recovery, because the thermal output during a full shift is large enough to displace a dedicated water heater.
The largest LitBurn: a 16.2 m³ chamber running 500 kg/h continuously. Specified where waste arrives faster than a batch unit can clear it — large manufacturing sites, industrial estates, and operators consolidating several smaller waste contracts onto one machine.
Which Model
Fits Your Volume
Pick a model to see what it clears in a day of contaminated land arisings.
A small remediation compound or a contractor dealing with arisings as they come off a single works area.
17 05 03* and 15 02 02* on the permit
Soil and stones containing hazardous substances are 17 05 03*, contaminated absorbents and PPE 15 02 02*. Name what you will actually burn — and if soil is on the list only because it might be, take it off and route it properly.
Assume the 1,100°C condition
Chlorinated solvents are among the commonest contaminants on legacy industrial land, so charges carrying solvent-wetted materials pass 1% halogenated organic content routinely. Declare the higher secondary minimum at application.
Asbestos is found, not declared
Legacy sites contain it whether or not the desk study said so. The assessment and the screening step are what keep it out of a chamber that cannot destroy it.
Residue classification follows the input
Ash from hazardous arisings is not automatically ordinary waste. Agree the residue classification with the regulator at application stage rather than at the weighbridge.
Why Burn It
On Site
4 things change on the day this stream stops leaving the site.
Hazardous consignments stop pacing the works
Every skip of contaminated materials is a hazardous movement with its paperwork, carrier and gate fee. On an active site those movements set the pace of the works as much as the excavation does.
Site storage is the constraint
Contaminated arisings have to be stored on hardstanding, covered and contained until they move. On a constrained remediation compound that space competes directly with the works.
The contaminant is destroyed, not relocated
Two-second retention above 850°C destroys the organic fraction. Consigning the same material moves the contaminant into somebody else's facility with your duty of care attached to it until it arrives.
Programme risk drops
Remediation programmes are driven by dates in a planning condition or a sale. Waste that cannot leave on schedule is programme risk; waste destroyed at the compound is not.
Dual-chamber unit, 1,100°C capable
Primary chamber running 850–1,200°C with a secondary holding flue gas above 850°C for two seconds. Environmental waste is the stream most likely to carry halogenated content — chlorinated solvents in contaminated arisings, salt-laden marine debris, POPs-bearing material — so the 1,100°C condition is stated here rather than treated as an exception.
Front dual-door loading
Charged through a front dual door at floor level, so bulk bags, tote bins and wheeled skips go in at the height a site telehandler already works at. Clearance waste arrives in whatever it was collected in, and it is not decanted.
What Ships
With The Unit
Identical whichever stream it is specified for. The operating procedure changes; the machine does not.
Dual-chamber unit, 1,100°C capable
Primary chamber running 850–1,200°C with a secondary holding flue gas above 850°C for two seconds. Environmental waste is the stream most likely to carry halogenated content — chlorinated solvents in contaminated arisings, salt-laden marine debris, POPs-bearing material — so the 1,100°C condition is stated here rather than treated as an exception.
Front dual-door loading
Charged through a front dual door at floor level, so bulk bags, tote bins and wheeled skips go in at the height a site telehandler already works at. Clearance waste arrives in whatever it was collected in, and it is not decanted.
IP6X control panel with cycle logging
PLC control with chamber thermocouples, interlocked charge door and a time-stamped temperature record per run. For hazardous waste produced and destroyed on one site, that log is the evidence behind a consignment record nobody drove anywhere.
Burner set and fuel train
Configured for natural gas, LPG, diesel, biofuel or hydrogen. This stream runs wet and dirty — flood silt, harbour arisings, screenings — so burner support does more work here than on a dry industrial charge.
Coretex refractory lining
Monolithic castable lining rated for the full range and replaceable in service. Environmental loads swing from saturated to solvent-bearing between one bag and the next, and the lining is specified for that cycling rather than for a steady feed.
Stack, dispersion data and commissioning
Stack to the height your site-specific dispersion assessment calls for, the emissions data pack the permit application references, on-site commissioning, a witnessed first run and operator training. Hazardous scope means a bespoke permit rather than standard rules, and the assessment is the long pole.
How One Burn Runs,
Start To Finish
One run is one countable event, reconciled against a manifest and evidenced by a time-stamped temperature log.
One Cycle,
Start To Finish
Adds 17 05 03* and 15 02 02* to the permit, and one boundary stated before anything else: soil is not a charge. What comes in is the contaminated materials the works produce, drained and screened.
The site investigation says what the contaminants are. The waste classification follows from it, and it decides both the permit line and whether the charge is hazardous.
Soil goes to its treatment route. Membranes, sorbents, PPE, screenings and debris are what reach the unit — the separation is the whole basis of the exercise.
Saturated sorbents and filter cake are drained before charging. Free liquid is a different waste stream with a different destination, and it is separated at the compound.
Primary at 850–1,200°C with two-second secondary retention above 850°C, or 1,100°C where solvent contamination pushes the charge past 1% halogenated organic content — common on legacy industrial land.
Residue carries a mineral fraction from screenings and adhering soil, so it runs above 3–5%. The hazardous waste record stays on file for material that never left the compound.
What You Can Burn —
And What You Can't
One run takes the whole stream without pre-sorting. What must never enter it is a short, hard list.
Yes: accepted in a run
No pre-sorting between these
- Geotextiles, membranes and linersSeparation geotextiles, containment membranes and liner offcuts contaminated in service, with no recovery route once they have been in contact with the ground.
- Sorbents, booms and padsSorbent materials used in dewatering, containment and spill control across the works, charged drained rather than saturated.
- Contaminated PPE and coverallsDisposable coveralls, gloves, boot covers and respiratory consumables from working in contaminated ground.
- Screenings, oversize and picked debrisTimber, plastics, fabric and general debris screened out of excavated material — the organic fraction that soil treatment rejects.
- Filter cake and treatment residuesDewatered residues and filter media from site water treatment, drained to no free liquid and declared under their own codes.
- Contaminated packaging and site consumablesBags, wrapping, sheeting and consumables contaminated in handling that cannot be cleaned for recycling.
No: never charged
Not a permit question — these stay out
- Bulk contaminated soilIt does not burn. Soil is mineral, comes out near its input weight and blocks the chamber while doing it. Thermal desorption, soil washing or licensed treatment is the answer, and we will say so.
- Asbestos-containing materialsCommon on legacy industrial land and never a charge. Asbestos does not burn and goes to a specialist licensed route without exception.
- Free liquids, drums and containers with contentsLiquid waste goes to a licensed liquids route. Drums found in the ground are characterised and handled as hazardous containers, never charged.
- Gas cylinders and unidentified pressurised vesselsSealed vessels under heat. On contaminated land they are found rather than expected, which is exactly why the assessment step comes first.
Can you legally burn contaminated land arisings on site?
Technically, yes: the chamber destroys almost everything on the accepted list at 850–1,200°C, and capability is rarely the constraint. Legally is a separate question. What your site is allowed to burn is set by your environmental permit from the Environment Agency, SEPA or NIEA and the waste codes written into it. The never-charged list is different again: those materials are out of scope for the unit or governed by a direction, and no permit wording brings them back in. Send us the codes you hold, or the ones you expect to apply for, and we will tell you which of this list they cover before anything is specified.
Send us your waste codesWhat size incinerator for 6 tonnes of remediation arisings a week?
Arithmetic on published model figures, not a customer reference. Your numbers go through the same steps.
How This
Was Worked Out
6,000 kg a week against the LBI-250's 250 kg/h = 24 hours, or three shifts, with the soil going to its own treatment route and never entering the arithmetic. If your six tonnes includes soil, the honest answer is a smaller machine and a soil treatment contract, not a bigger machine. Split the figure before sizing anything.
Above 3–5% — allow 8–10%
None
5.5 m³
2.9 t
Send your daily or weekly arisings and we will confirm the model, the run time and the permit route.
Related Products
& Services
Complementary equipment and engineering services for your process.
Contaminated land arisings Questions
Answered against the published figures for the models specified for this stream, not a generic range sheet.
Contaminated land arisings are the materials a remediation project generates: geotextiles and separation membranes, containment liners, sorbent booms and pads, contaminated PPE and coveralls, screenings and oversize from soil treatment, filter cake and sludge from water handling, and hydrocarbon-contaminated debris, timber and plastics lifted out of the ground. Bulk contaminated soil is not on that list, deliberately. Soil is a mineral matrix — the organic contaminant is a small percentage of it, the rest does not burn, and a chamber loaded with soil produces ash at nearly the input weight while occupying the unit for the whole run. Thermal desorption, soil washing, bioremediation and licensed treatment exist because they address the soil rather than incinerate it. What justifies a unit is the surrounding stream, which is often the awkward half of the project's waste budget. It is hazardous where the contaminant is, it is bulky and light, it arrives faster than a consignment schedule copes with, and it is priced per tonne at a hazardous gate. The condition is the standard one, with the 1,100°C case live throughout: chlorinated solvents are among the commonest contaminants on legacy industrial land, so a charge carrying solvent-wetted sorbents or membranes will routinely pass 1% halogenated organic content.
6,000 kg a week against the LBI-250's 250 kg/h = 24 hours, or three shifts, with the soil going to its own treatment route and never entering the arithmetic. If your six tonnes includes soil, the honest answer is a smaller machine and a soil treatment contract, not a bigger machine. Split the figure before sizing anything.
No — and this is the one question in this sector where the honest answer costs us a sale. Soil is mineral: it will not burn, it leaves as ash at close to the weight you charged, and it occupies the unit for the entire run. Thermal desorption, soil washing or licensed treatment addresses the soil. This unit addresses everything the works produce around it.
That is squarely in scope — timber, plastics, fabric and general debris screened out of excavated material, along with the sorbents and membranes. The organic fraction is what the chamber destroys, and it is exactly the fraction soil treatment routes reject.
For anything that leaves — including the residue. What disappears is the consignment for the materials you no longer transport. The classification, the records and the duty of care stay exactly where they were.
More than the 3–5% headline. Screenings and adhering soil bring a mineral fraction that survives the chamber, so allow something closer to 8–10% on a typical remediation charge and size the ash handling for it.
On legacy industrial land, usually. Chlorinated solvents are among the most common contaminants, and sorbents or membranes carrying them will push a charge past 1% halogenated organic content. Declaring 1,100°C at application costs nothing; varying a permit later does.
The unit can — 2.5 to 3.8 tonnes with no permanent civil works. The permit relates to the site and the activity, so each location needs its own consent, and with hazardous scope that is a bespoke application with a dispersion assessment. Plan it into the programme, not the mobilisation.
Ready to
Incinerate?
Send the stream, the volume and the site constraints. We will confirm the model, the permit route, and what the specification has to say to satisfy the regulator.
- Hazardous consignments stop pacing the works
- Site storage is the constraint
- The contaminant is destroyed, not relocated
- Programme risk drops