top of page

FOIL

Covering up a chemical disaster with foil. 

The Volgermeerpolder is a nature reserve north of Amsterdam in the village Broek in

Waterland, which function is mainly recreational nowadays. 

In the early 40’s the area became a dumping ground for household waste, from the 60’s large pharmaceutical companies started to illegally dump chemicals on this terrain. At least 100 000 barrels of chlorobenzene, toxic dioxins, residues of the herbicide chemical Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals were dumped here. After this was discovered in the 80’s the Dutch government started to clean the area of 100 hectares.

 

They managed to do this by covering the whole area with foil and building a new artificial nature reserve on top of it. It is expected that the foil will eventually dissolve and that the nature reserve will build up its own natural protection from the polluted soil beneath.

2016

bottom of page