Toronto-based GFL Environmental Inc. announced on July 9 its acquisition of the Soil Safe group of companies.

Since its inception in 1989, Soil Safe has recycled more than 30 million tons of non-hazardous petroleum contaminated soil for reuse outside of landfills. At its facilities in New Jersey and Maryland, Soil Safe recycles contaminated soil into an engineered soil product meeting regulatory and end market specifications that is used in a wide range of applications, including capping material, road base and structural and general fill.

According to GFL, Soil Safe's California facility is the largest non-hazardous thermal treatment operation in the state that produces a recycled soil product for reuse in both brownfield and greenfield development applications.  

"Soil Safe and its management team, led by Mark Smith, are recognized as industry leaders in contaminated soil recycling and the development of inert soil products for beneficial use in sustainable construction and green building applications. GFL is one of the largest processors of contaminated soils in Canada, and our acquisition of Soil Safe is in keeping with our strategy of replicating all of our service offerings in the U.S.," said Patrick Dovigi, GFL's founder and CEO, in a statement. "Soil Safe's in-house expertise and recycled products complement and extend our existing capabilities as we build our infrastructure business to service our customers' needs across North America. We are excited to welcome Soil Safe and its employees to the GFL team."

Just last week, GFL announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Canada Fibers Ltd. and its affiliates. That transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2019.