'Not everybody wants a dump'

A Case Study on the Sanitary Landfill Site at Laajalahti

Abstract

In the early 1960s, Finland was a rapidly urbanizing country which as a process increased the amount of all sorts of waste materials produced in the growing cities. The city of Helsinki as well as the neighbouring township of Espoo experienced difficulties in locating suitable sites for their mounting waste. As a solution, Espoo proposed the utilisation of Laajalahti bay located between Helsinki and Espoo for a new sanitary landfill site, which the city of Helsinki approved setting up a joint committee to create a new sanitary landfill site in October 1963. The planning progressed slowly however given crucial changes in the waste management, urban planning and nature conservation. Depicting the conflicting perspectives about the proposed site, this pioneering article on environmental history analyses the different opinions voiced during the process about the proposed land fill site shedding new light on the growing impact of nature conservation in the urban planning and land use in Finland