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Represents the number of lines of business that were sold whose assets were held-for-sale.

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Current assets (normally turning over within one year or one business cycle if longer) that are held for sale apart from normal operations and anticipated to be sold within one year.

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-Publisher FASB

-Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS)

-Number 144

-Paragraph 46

-LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy.

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Amount of potential cash payments that could result from the contingent consideration arrangement.

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This element represents the amount of any change, including any differences arising upon settlement, recognized during the reporting period in the value of a liability, arising from an item of contingent consideration, assumed in a business combination.

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Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

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The difference between the proceeds received and the carrying value of the long-lived asset. If the proceeds received exceeds the carrying value of the long-lived asset, then there is a gain. If the proceeds received is less than the carrying value of the long-lived asset, then there is a loss.

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Acquisitions and Dispositions (Details) (USD $)	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended			1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
Acquisitions and Dispositions (Details) (USD $)	Sep. 30, 2010	Sep. 30, 2011	Sep. 30, 2010	Dec. 31, 2010	Jun. 30, 2011 Harsco Infrastructure Segment entity	Dec. 31, 2010 Harsco Infrastructure Segment entity	Sep. 30, 2011 Harsco Infrastructure Segment
Acquisitions and Dispositions
Reduction of contingent consideration liabilities	$ 989,000	$ 3,966,000	$ 10,620,000
Contingent consideration liability				3,900,000
Dispositions
Assets held-for-sale, current						24,800,000	600,000
Assets held-for-sale, number of lines of business sold (in entities)					2	2
Gain on assets held-for-sale					$ 900,000