Financial Aspects on Landfill Mining Seen as a Part of the Urban Mining

Abstract

Urban areas have deposits with large amounts of valuable materials that in future will be worth to mine, in particular when the natural resources will be scarcer. Landfill mining can be seen as a part of the urban mining, in particular when an old dumpsite suddenly is found in the middle of a new town district as the city expands. Landfill mining can be considered in the context of integrated solid waste management economics. A new concept of Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) is used, which targets the integrated valorization of materials and energy from past, present and future landfills, while meeting the most stringent ecological and social criteria. In landfill mining, financial and environmental aspects, as well as the
commercial aspects of land recovery and extraction of excavated resources are seen as part of the entire solid waste management. Practicalities with selection of sufficient and effective machinery, excavation, choosing proper logistics, storage and management of large masses of waste, handling of hazardous waste and health and safety in the working environment and for the public are also of high importance for the economy of a project. Traditionally, it is believed that the recyclables recovered might provide some economic revenue; the value depends on the amount and the quality of the separated fractions, local conditions and market prices. Ferrous metals, aluminum, plastic and glass as well as fine organic and inorganic
material might be of economic interest when excavating today, but in the future, other metals and compounds may be recovered as micronutrients and micro-compounds. The accounting for economic benefits of a landfill-mining project must be fair and must include the economics of reduction or elimination of the need for capping, long-term monitoring and
aftercare, maintenance and potential remediation costs, effective use and logistics of the machinery, future value of the reclaimed land and avoidance of sitting and infrastructure costs if the reclaimed land is used for construction of a new landfill.