Landfill Mining
This concept was initiated at The European Enhanced Landfill Mining Consortium (EURELCO). The basic process is mining of landfill sites paired with remediation where the economic benefits received by the site are large enough to do so. This often can be applied to large landfills instead of smaller ones. The income gained by retrieving the resources can provide an income for public waste agency as well as the costs incurred for the remediation. The economic benefit could also contribute towards further (often small) landfill mining operations that present a low economic value but short-term environmental or health risks [1].
This process is currently being demonstrated by two flagship projects where the European Commission has provided funding through its Horizon 2020 Programme along with ETN NEW‐MINE (for municipal solid waste) and METGROW+ (for industrial waste) [1].
Although being a relatively new initiative, by the end of 2025, European member states will be required to “map existing landfills and indicate their potential for enhanced landfill mining and share information”. This is due to the process having a range of positive outcomes including the reclamation of valuable resources and land [1].