This used to be a dump... [landfill reclamation

Abstract

Landfill sites in Essex are slowly being transformed into a fertile wildlife habitat that is rejuvenating a much-maligned landscape. Essex has for decades been a place where London went to wash its hands of its trash. Until fairly recently, an archetypal example of this could be found at a site going by an appropriately disgusting sounding name, Mucking (the name derives from a Saxon chieftain, `Mucca'). It gained notoriety as one of the largest waste disposal facilities of its kind anywhere in western Europe, but there is now scarcely a hint of this history. The site has blossomed into a verdant nature reserve, visitors to which have included Sir David Attenborough. Five years ago, as part of a £3m project aimed at reviving the ecology of the Thames estuary, landscape engineers - working in conjunction with London Gateway container port operator DP World and the Cory Environmental Trust -finally put a lid on tens of millions of tonnes of rubbish that had been spread across the Mucking marshes after being transported there by barge from the UK capital.