Friday, 25 January 2013

Another Sly-Worded Petition on Green Waste

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The tale goes on, now coiney Tony Abramson has begun yet another "petition on green waste". It's main message is cribbed from the other, metal detectorists', one: "shards of plastic, metal and glass and all kinds of other products, including chemicals and toxic substances, which puts at risk the health of wildlife, livestock, crops and humans". With a new twist:
 Moreover, there is irreversible damage to our heritage as these sites are no longer easily accessible to archaeologists and metal detectorists. 
Personally I know few archaeologists who have been prevented from accessing sites due to a bit of compost in the topsoil, included "plastic shards" or not.  The Portable Antiquities Scheme will no doubt soon be doing some fifteen-million quid archaeological outreach and telling people that manure and scattered farmyard waste are not actually a substantial hindrance to archaeological fieldwork. In fact non-ferrous scraps add significantly to the protection of sites from looting prior to archaeological fieldwork. As Mr Abramson says:
[contaminated green waste] prevent[s] detected sites (in the UK) from being productive
... 'productive' of collectables for the artefact hunter with a metal detector that is. I'd say the archaeologist who would investigate that site in another generation from now might see that rather as a boon than a problem.

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