An asset to Dundee

“What an asset to Dundee is all that reclaimed land along the banks of the river!” writes a Craigie regular. “From the harbour all the way along almost to Invergowrie, Dundee has added many acres and facilities to its possessions.

“I am old, but not ancient enough to have seen the early reclamations. Judging by the line of the Nethergate, the Perth Road, the railway and the Esplanade, however, they must have been extensive. In my day came the cowp where now stand an airport, parkland and playing fields. Further along, past the turn-off to the old Ninewells tram terminus, there are now houses where once my father-in-law picked mushrooms in season.

“Much of the reclamation was accomplished using waste from the city’s homes, businesses and industry. I used to see smoke rising from the cowp. Yet this does not seem to have done the environment any harm in the long term – quite the contrary.

“Why then all this fuss about not sending inert plastic waste to landfill? Dundee reclaimed all that land from the river using much more toxic material. Could much of those mountains of plastic and other non-toxic waste not be used to halt the disappearance into the sea of farmland and houses on our coasts and to reclaim land already lost?

“Dundee did it; the Dutch did it with the Zuidersee. We could build sturdy sea walls and use plastic and other waste to fill in the acres behind just as our forefathers and the Dutch did.

“Dundee now has a beautiful outlook over flat green swards along the riverside where once were shallow water, sandbanks and mudflats – all down to landfill. What’s wrong with that?”