Landfill Mining and Reclamation

Basics

• Essentially Strip Mining but of Landfills
• Easier with modern landfills, but can be done with old (even informal) ones.
• In older ones, it can even be of historic value (like a time capsule of sorts, anthropologists, and archeologits do this with old "mounds" with mainly shells and bones of food, but this is a similar modern form)
• Leads to:
  • Recovered Recyclable Materials (Metal, Glass, Plastic, Misc)
  • Recovered Soil/Clay (cover material)
  • Recovered Aggregate Materials
  • Sometimes Methane Gas (if captured and not released)
  • Typically large Sulfur Compound Gasses, and Mixed Chemical Leachate, which is toxic, but can be processed into useful products
  • Refuse Derived Fuel (sort of like biomass, but much more unpredictable)
    • This can in turn be made into Syngas and Slag
• Finally the land is returned to it's natural state and/or develped

Challenges

• Nastiness of the work site
  • Although Dedicated “Work Clothes” / “Junk Clothes” + Boots and a “Wash Out” + swap clothes and boots based Contamination Reduction Zone can help with this
  • Also Automation/Mechanization or things like PAPR Helmets with Granulated Activated Carbon cartridges
• Unknown/Varying Composition of the Landfill
  • Modern landfills are a sort of cursed Lasagna of MSW , Landfill Daily Cover , and small amounts of Construction and Demolition Debris
  • Compared to a more homogeneous Ore Vein / Petroleum Resevoir this can lead to challenges
  • Also unknown hazmat that sneaked in such as in Disposable Vape Pens or Cell Phones etc
• Hazards
  • Combustible/Explosive Atmospheres (from accumulated Landfill Gas )
  • Subsidence of the landfill as contents and/or daily cover are biodegraded
    • While Compactor Tires tend to be used, gradual compaction of the overall landfill may contribute to this as well

Stages

Background

• First you have the original stages of a landfill’s lifespan
• The part where landfill mining would take place would largely be in if it is NEAR capacity (and they are trying to “squeeze some extra capacity out” so to speak), or in a completed/OLD landfill that is being mined due to liner failure, economically recoverable materials, or as a broader government policy of Landfill Phase Out
• The main thing to consider is how stabilized is the landfill overall, is there still non-capped/covered sections one would be driving on, and how that impacts things.

Pre-Treatment/Stabilization

• There may be an advantage to let things ferment/stabilize for a bit, akin to a Wet Material Recovery Facility albeit Landfill Gas and Landfill Leachate are far “dirtier” products to do with
  • Also recoverable non-biodegradable materials will potentially degrade in this period reducing value
    • Metals rusting, plastics being degraded (Think a BRAND NEW plastic bottle vs Litter on the side of the road that is heavily weathered)
    • Things such as electronics and batteries may become especially degraded/harder to separate out (although CITATION NEEDED)
• One thing to note is if a Landfill got to the “stabilized” level where Landfill Gas is no longer being created, the Landfill as a whole could be Inerted

Internal Links

• Gasification
• Recycling

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Landfill Mining and Reclamation