Where the Money Is
When Adler and Allan recovers contaminated soil and takes it to one of your depots or licensed facilities, its eventual disposal cost is determined by one thing above all others: how it is classified. Under UK regulations, all soil intended for landfill must undergo Waste Acceptance Criteria testing before it can be accepted at a licensed site. That classification determines whether the material goes to an inert landfill, a non-hazardous facility, or a hazardous landfill, and each category carries a materially different cost profile.
The intervention point where RAD Microbes adds value is straightforward. Biological treatment applied to contaminated material, whether at the source site or at an Adler and Allan depot or treatment facility, reduces hydrocarbon concentrations to the point where the material can be reclassified. Material that enters as hazardous can leave as non-hazardous, and in some cases as inert, opening lower-cost disposal routes and in many cases enabling the material to be used rather than disposed of. The volume going to hazardous landfill is reduced, and the tax liability with it. On a 1,000 tonne project that saving runs into six figures. Across a national portfolio of 10,000 annual incidents, the aggregate opportunity is substantial.
Heavily hydrocarbon-contaminated soil typically classifies as hazardous waste. At April 2025 rates, the standard landfill tax on hazardous material is £126.15 per tonne, plus gate fees of £10 to £70 depending on the facility, plus transport, handling, and waste documentation costs. On a 1,000 tonne hydrocarbon remediation project, the landfill tax alone is £126,150 before a single other cost is added. On 5,000 tonnes it is over £630,000.
What the material classifies as determines what it costs. Treating it first changes the classification.
The UK waste classification framework is tiered: hazardous soil carries the highest disposal cost, non-hazardous significantly less, and inert material the lowest of all. Biological treatment that reduces total petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations to below classification thresholds moves material down that cost hierarchy. On large volumes, the saving per tonne compounds into figures that change the economics of entire project programmes. Adler and Allan already hold and handle significant volumes of contaminated material across your depot network. That infrastructure is exactly where RAD Microbes treatment can be introduced most efficiently.
| Waste Classification | Landfill Tax Rate | Typical Gate Fees | Estimated Total Disposal | Reclassification Possible with RAD Treatment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hazardous — heavily contaminated hydrocarbon soil | £126.15 per tonne | £40 to £70 per tonne | £166 to £196 per tonne | Yes — to non-hazardous or inert |
| Non-hazardous — standard contaminated soil | £126.15 per tonne | £20 to £45 per tonne | £146 to £171 per tonne | Yes — potentially to inert |
| Inert — clean or very low contamination Target Classification | £4.05 per tonne (lower rate) | £10 to £30 per tonne | £14 to £34 per tonne | Achieved through biological pre-treatment |
Source: HMRC landfill tax rates April 2025. Standard rate £126.15 per tonne applies to hazardous and non-hazardous waste. Lower rate £4.05 per tonne applies to inert waste. Gate fee ranges from Soilutions UK industry data. Classification framework from UK Waste Acceptance Criteria regulations and Environment Agency guidance.
This is not a proposition to remove excavation or transport from your operations. Contaminated soil will still be excavated. Lorries will still move it. What changes is what happens before it reaches its final disposal destination, and therefore what it costs when it gets there. The treatment happens at source, in a lined bay at your depot, or at a treatment facility, and the material that leaves that process carries a lower contamination load, a lower classification, and a lower disposal cost.
The Science Behind the Formulation
RAD Microbes operates in partnership with a leading US-based microbial science organisation with more than 30 years of applied field experience in biological waste treatment and hydrocarbon bioremediation. That scientific partner was engaged, through a specialist environmental response contractor working for BP, to develop the hydrocarbon-degrading microbial consortium deployed in response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
The Deepwater Horizon blowout released approximately 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The organisms developed for that programme were built to ingest petroleum hydrocarbons at scale across open-water and sediment environments. That science, refined and applied across industrial and terrestrial deployments over the intervening 15 years, is the formulation RAD Microbes brings to Adler and Allan client sites.
No other UK operator has access to a biological treatment formulation with this origin and this field history.
The consortium was built to address crude oil contamination at a scale and severity that dwarfs any commercial remediation project. What RAD Microbes brings to Adler and Allan depots and client sites is that same proven biological intelligence, adapted and applied to the hydrocarbon contamination profiles that your teams encounter every day across the UK. It is not a new idea. It is a well-established science with a remarkable origin, arriving in the UK market for the first time through this partnership.
How Biological Treatment Works
Specific bacterial strains possess the enzymatic machinery to break down petroleum hydrocarbons and use them as a food source. RAD Microbes selects and introduces concentrated populations of these organisms alongside biosurfactants and nutrients matched to the specific contaminant profile and chemistry of the material being treated. The treatment is monitored through regular sampling and the results validated against the same laboratory standards used in all regulatory submissions.
Molecular Site Diagnostics
Before any treatment is designed, our scientific partner analyses the existing microbial community of the site or material at a genetic level, using quantitative PCR and 16S microbial community profiling. The formulation deployed is built around the specific biology of the material being treated. This level of precision is what separates treatment programmes that consistently deliver from those that produce inconsistent results. No UK-based biological treatment supplier currently offers this diagnostic capability.
Full Spectrum Coverage
The RAD Microbes consortium addresses the full range of petroleum hydrocarbon contamination from C6 through to C36 chains, covering light volatile fractions, mid-range aliphatic compounds, and heavy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons including naphthalene. This breadth of coverage is documented in the case studies in this proposal and is the reason the formulation achieves WAC reclassification-level reductions rather than partial improvements.
How Biological Treatment Fits Your Operations
Adler and Allan already operate a well-established workflow for hydrocarbon contamination. Soil is excavated, classified, transported, and disposed of or treated at licensed facilities. Interceptors and separators are pumped out, recovered material is handled, and contaminated land is investigated and remediated across your client portfolio. RAD Microbes does not propose replacing any part of that infrastructure. The proposition is to introduce a biological treatment step that reduces contamination concentrations and changes classification outcomes before material reaches its final disposal point.
UK regulations already require that material failing hazardous WAC testing must undergo treatment before it can be accepted at a hazardous landfill. The treatment centres that have developed around the UK market for this purpose use a range of technologies including soil washing, stabilisation, and windrow bioremediation. What RAD Microbes offers is a more precise, more comprehensively evidenced, and more scientifically controlled biological treatment that can be applied within Adler and Allan's existing depot and site infrastructure without specialist equipment.
RAD Microbes
RAD Microbes was founded by Barry Bonner, a British entrepreneur based in the United States, to position microbial genomics into agricultural and bioremediation markets that remain largely untouched by the precision that modern molecular science makes possible. The company was built around the observation that the most powerful biological tools for soil health and contamination treatment have been developed and proven in the United States, and that those tools have not yet been brought to the UK and European markets in any systematic or commercially developed way.
Through our scientific partnership with a leading US-based microbial science organisation, RAD Microbes brings 30 years of applied field experience, a formulation lineage that includes the Deepwater Horizon response, and a molecular genomics diagnostic capability that is not currently available from any UK-based operator in the contaminated land or environmental services sector.
Results From the Field
The following case studies are drawn from documented deployments of the RAD Microbes formulation. All TPH figures are from accredited laboratory analysis before and after treatment. These are measured results from commercial operations, not modelled projections.
A storage terminal operated two large waste oil containment pits with severe hydrocarbon contamination across the full C6 to C36 chain range, covering light volatile fractions through to heavy compounds in broadly equal concentrations. This profile is directly comparable to the mixed hydrocarbon waste recovered from petrol forecourt interceptors, oil separators, and tank cleaning operations.
Before RAD Microbes was engaged, the operator had run a commercially available third-party bioremediation product for 60 days. The results from that programme were as follows.
The RAD Microbes formulation was introduced. Within 30 days, half the time the previous product had been given, both pits were at a fraction of their original contamination levels.
To put those reductions in the context of UK disposal cost, material entering a treatment process at 93,870 mg/kg TPH classifies as hazardous waste. Material leaving at 1,221 mg/kg is a candidate for non-hazardous or inert classification depending on the full WAC profile, opening substantially lower-cost disposal routes. On a volume equivalent to 1,000 tonnes of recovered interceptor or separator sludge, moving from hazardous to non-hazardous classification represents a reduction in landfill tax and disposal cost that runs into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.
A major refinery's primary wastewater holding tank had accumulated eight feet of heavy oily sludge, estimated at 40,000 barrels of hydrocarbon waste. The tank had lost 30% of its storage capacity. Previous mechanical cleaning projects at the same facility had cost up to approximately £1.58 million per comparable project, requiring a large team, specialist centrifuge equipment, and the transport and off-site disposal of over 1,000 tonnes of hazardous waste.
The RAD Microbes biosurfactant and microbial blend was introduced into the closed tank without opening it. The sludge dissolved and treated in place. Recoverable oil separated and was skimmed off for recycling. The remaining water was treated to discharge compliance standard.
The saving on a single project was approximately £1.34 million. No hazardous waste was generated or transported. 4,000 barrels of recoverable hydrocarbon were separated and recycled rather than disposed of as waste. The project was completed in weeks with two people. All figures converted from US dollars at current exchange rate of £1 to $1.27.
Adler and Allan operates tank cleaning and sludge recovery services across fuel retail and industrial infrastructure clients. The treatment model demonstrated in this case study is directly applicable to that work and to the sludge handling operations running across your depot network.
The Opportunity for Adler and Allan
Adler and Allan are the UK's leading integrated environmental services operator, attending over 10,000 pollution incidents per year across more than 28 depots, with over 1,600 people and an established position across fuel retail, utilities, water, and industrial infrastructure. The scale and reach of that operation is the reason this partnership makes sense. RAD Microbes brings a precise biological treatment capability. Adler and Allan bring the volume, the infrastructure, and the client relationships to deploy it at scale.
Reduced Disposal Costs Across Your Portfolio
Every project involving hydrocarbon-contaminated soil or sludge is a candidate for biological pre-treatment that improves classification and reduces disposal costs. Across a portfolio of 10,000 annual incidents, even modest reduction in the volume classified as hazardous adds up to significant aggregate savings for your clients and your business.
Your Depot Network as a Treatment Hub
Adler and Allan already hold and transport contaminated material across your UK depot network. Introducing a treatment capability within that infrastructure means biological treatment can be applied to material between collection and final disposal, improving classification outcomes without requiring additional logistics or site access.
ESG and Regulatory Direction
The Environment Agency and UK government policy are both moving toward requiring pre-treatment of contaminated soils before landfill disposal, with landfill as a last resort rather than a default. Biological treatment positions Adler and Allan ahead of that direction rather than behind it, and gives your clients a documented sustainable remediation pathway for their ESG reporting.
Technical Differentiation
Molecular genomics-backed formulation is not currently offered by any other UK environmental services operator. The diagnostic precision that RAD Microbes brings to treatment programme design is a genuine and defensible differentiator in the contaminated land and environmental services market.
Applicable Across Your Existing Client Base
Fuel retail clients with forecourt contamination, industrial infrastructure clients with tank and separator issues, utility clients with contaminated land, and insurance-led remediation work all represent immediate application opportunities that sit within Adler and Allan's existing relationships without requiring new market development.
No New Equipment Required
The RAD Microbes formulation is applied directly into the material being treated. For most applications, no specialist equipment beyond standard site preparation is needed. The treatment integrates into existing depot and site operations from the outset.
The Pilot Programme
We would like to propose identifying a project or site within Adler and Allan's current operational portfolio that represents a clear candidate for biological treatment, and let RAD Microbes develop a pilot programme around it.
The pilot is designed to demonstrate performance under real conditions on an Adler and Allan project, generating before and after TPH data validated to the same laboratory standard used in the case studies in this document, with full transparency of methodology and results.
One project. Full transparency. The results speak for themselves.
The case studies in this document are from real commercial operations with documented before and after measurements. A pilot programme on an Adler and Allan project would add a UK-based example to that evidence base and establish, under UK conditions on UK contamination against UK regulatory standards, what RAD Microbes biological treatment delivers. That is the starting point we are proposing.
Starting the Conversation
The purpose of this document is to open a conversation. We are proposing an initial meeting or call to walk through RAD Microbes' molecular diagnostics capability in practical terms, discuss which contamination challenges within Adler and Allan's current operations are the strongest candidates for a pilot programme, and agree a starting point.
The only question at this stage is whether a biological treatment capability that has produced the results documented in this proposal is worth a conversation about how it could work alongside what Adler and Allan already do.