TönsLM - Landfill Mining

 

KEY DATA

Level: national

Partners: 2 industrial enterprises, 3 universities (6 institute), 1 public

Duration: 08.2012-12.2015

PTJ Logo Logo BMBF   Excavator on landfill Copyright: © Institut für Aufbereitung und Recycling

Since 2012 the I.A.R. is working in the field of “landfill mining”. Landfill mining describes the recovery of valuables from previously disposed waste in landfills.

The final disposal route for municipal solid waste and slags used to end and still ends with a disposal on landfills. These anthropogenic deposits for potential secondary resources can help to decouple Europe’s resource demand from raw material imports and help to secure the demand for safe supply chains for resources.

Thus far, landfill mining has mainly been carried out to prevent groundwater pollution a.o. The aspect of recovering the deposited resources is still not considered during landfill reclamation.

The TönsLM project aims at the development of innovative processes to recover selected resources, e.g. metals, plastics and high-calorific fractions, from municipal solid waste and slag landfills. Furthermore estimations of the availability, composition and quality of deposited waste are carried out to calculate the landfill inherent resource inventory.