:20:34. > :20:50.On wildlife park has been developed and waste land is being transformed
:20:50. > :20:54.to Wonderland. If I had been walking across this part of the
:20:54. > :20:59.Thames river bank a few years ago, it would not have looked anything
:21:00. > :21:08.like this. I would have been up to my neck in London's rubbish. For
:21:08. > :21:13.half a century, domestic waste from Central London was dumped here, in
:21:13. > :21:19.the landfill site at Mucking near Thurrock in Essex. Millions of tons
:21:19. > :21:24.of rubbish from the dustbins from Lambeth, Hammersmith, Fulham,
:21:24. > :21:29.Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster a ride by barge. When
:21:29. > :21:34.the site closed, in places the refuses laid 30 metres deep. The
:21:34. > :21:39.contrast between then and now could not be greater. What else did we
:21:39. > :21:42.see last week? An adder. This is the time we may be seeing lots of
:21:42. > :21:49.smaller adders around the site. Shall we go and see what you've got
:21:49. > :21:52.in your little boxes? Hope there is an adder in there. And instead of
:21:52. > :22:03.rats and seagulls, this stretch of Thames riverbank is now home to a
:22:03. > :22:07.much wider range of species. The local community like that they can
:22:07. > :22:12.come here and it is a nature park. They can enjoy the Wildlife and
:22:12. > :22:23.Bach life. It is an enjoyable place to be. -- Perce life. The nature
:22:23. > :22:29.park covers 120 acres of river bank and on a wet, bleak day like today,
:22:29. > :22:42.the views over the River Thames and further from the visitors' centre
:22:42. > :22:45.are spectacular. Over the next few years the park will grow in size as
:22:45. > :22:49.400 additional acres of this vast landfill site is returned to nature.
:22:49. > :22:53.And the work you can just make out taking place in the distance behind
:22:53. > :23:02.me gives a sense of the scale of the task involved. It is no longer
:23:02. > :23:07.rubbish that is unloaded from barges here at Mucking, it is chalk.
:23:07. > :23:12.Thousands of tons arrive every week to be spread over the landfill by
:23:12. > :23:20.the site owners, Cory Environmental. Hello. We have just had a delivery
:23:20. > :23:26.of the chalky materials that has come down the river from the Lee
:23:26. > :23:31.River works. Delivered by barge and taken across the site and used as
:23:31. > :23:39.restoration materials. They did not want it, you have it! It is all
:23:39. > :23:41.part of the process. The chalk is one of the protective layers needed
:23:41. > :23:49.to cap this toxic tip. In effect, one of the protective layers needed
:23:49. > :23:53.you want to stop rainwater going into the site. And to prevent gases
:23:53. > :24:01.coming from the site that would go into the atmosphere. We are still
:24:01. > :24:06.building up another 80 metres? At least one metre and a half in
:24:06. > :24:10.places. The Wildlife Trust is only responsible for the surface layer
:24:10. > :24:14.of the site. Cory Environmental will have to continue monitoring
:24:14. > :24:23.the decaying rubbish underneath for years to come. The banks of the
:24:24. > :24:27.the decaying rubbish underneath for River Thames have been a dumping
:24:27. > :24:32.ground for London rubbish for hundreds of years. It was not until
:24:32. > :24:37.the early 20th century that waste disposal began on a commercial
:24:37. > :24:41.scale. The founder of Cory Environmental ran a business
:24:41. > :24:46.transporting coal and hay by barge up the river to the Docklands.
:24:46. > :24:51.Instead of the barges returning empty, he filled them with rubbish,
:24:51. > :24:56.which was disposed of on the marsh lands of Kent and Essex. Where does
:24:56. > :25:01.the rubbish that used to end up under our feet go now? The answer
:25:01. > :25:07.is at this incineration facility on the other side of the River Thames
:25:07. > :25:12.at Belvedere. You would expect noxious gases to be pouring out the
:25:12. > :25:19.top of the Jimmy? Not a tall, it is a safe process -- of the chimney.
:25:19. > :25:25.It is predominantly water vapour and other trace elements. It took
:25:25. > :25:30.three public inquiries before the plant opened in 2011. It is now
:25:30. > :25:38.busy processing more than half-a- million tonnes of rubbish the year.
:25:38. > :25:45.Inside the building, it looks like something out of a James Bond film.
:25:45. > :25:53.These are the incineration units. This is waste combustion. Steam
:25:53. > :26:01.turbines generate enough electricity to power 100,000 homes.
:26:01. > :26:09.It is burning 24 hours a day? It takes about an hour for the waste
:26:09. > :26:17.deposited into the feed hoppers to travel down through the unit and
:26:17. > :26:22.come out as ash at the back. Back in Thurrock, children now happily
:26:22. > :26:30.Rome on top of 50 years of London ways. All those sadly no adders on
:26:30. > :26:36.view today. He is curled up under the grass and he slithered away.
:26:36. > :26:41.Amazing that under our feet is rubbish and on top it is beautiful.
:26:41. > :26:46.You would not think it was a massive hole with rubbishing it. It
:26:46. > :26:50.is amazing to look at it and appreciate it. I lived down the
:26:50. > :26:56.road. We thought it would never come back from what it was. It is
:26:56. > :27:01.now a peaceful place. It is encouraging to know you can turn it
:27:01. > :27:06.around. We thought what would it be like when it is finished. If it is
:27:06. > :27:11.like this now, what will it be like when it is bigger, and how much
:27:11. > :27:17.more wildlife can be getting? It is a shame that the area was boiled in
:27:17. > :27:21.the first place. Given that, the journey from waste tip to wildlife
:27:21. > :27:31.haven has been an amazing transformation.
:27:31. > :27:37.Wendy, who filmed the report during the summer. That is almost it for
:27:37. > :27:44.the evening. We can look at what is coming up next week. Caught red-
:27:44. > :27:52.handed. Anything to say? The benefit cheats raking in thousands
:27:52. > :27:59.from housing scams. The council paid out over £45,000. And she had
:27:59. > :28:06.never lived there. The former Home Secretary finds out why the Met
:28:07. > :28:13.have failed to reflect the London of today. We want to make sure that
:28:13. > :28:19.the Metropolitan Police does not just keep pace with change, but do
:28:19. > :28:23.a lot to catch up. And we celebrate 200 years of cutting edge surgery
:28:23. > :28:31.at the most gruesome museum in the capital. These are parts of human
:28:31. > :28:40.bodies stuck to a table. These can seem weird and wonderful and just a
:28:40. > :28:46.little bit stomach-churning. That is all this week. If you have
:28:46. > :28:46.missed any of tonight's show, catch up on the website.