The green clean-up of the 2.5km Olympic Park has had to deal with land contaminated by decades of industrial use.

Five soil-washing machines have successfully completed cleaning most of the one million cubic metres of soil contaminated with oil, petrol, tar, cyanide, arsenic and lead.

Over 80%  of contaminated soil has been cleaned for reuse on the Olympic Park using soil-washing, bioremediation beds (large-scale composting) and sorting machines. Over 98% of demolition materials on site have been recycled.

Olympic Delivery Authority Chief Executive David Higgins said:“Delivering one of the UK’s most complex and greenest clean-up operations on time and on budget is a major milestone.

“With the soil washing complete the focus now moves on to the ‘Green Build’ and ensuring sustainability remains at the heart of our work to deliver the venues and parklands for the Games and legacy.”