Soil contamination is a part of land degradation that is caused by the presence of chemicals and this contamination is incredibly dangerous for humans. Soil contamination in the United Kingdom has been an ongoing issue in some regions and is not only recently developing, the Hg record of sediment samples taken from Diss Mere, United Kingdom show that the soil has been contaminated for the past thousand years,[12] this increases the risk of potential pollutants to enter the atmosphere.[13] Soil contamination, like littering, is caused by improper disposal of waste materials. Furthermore, there have been reports of multi-element contamination of soils and plants in parts of England that have been formerly known as mining areas,[13] which leads to compromising soil matter.