Landfill Mining
Landfill Mining
(OP)
This is a new one on me. The cost of recycled plastic is now beginning to reach a level where it is becoming commercially viable to start 'mining' landfill sites to retrieve old plastic.
http://w ww.timeson line.co.uk /tol/news/ environmen t/article4 510201.ece
I worked on the design of a new landfill site a few years ago and I was surprised at how complicated the whole thing was, in particular the ground works and preparation needed to isolate the landfill from the underlying soil strata, this along with venting, leachate collection and treatment systems.
I wonder just how difficult it would ultimately be to retrieve the material without causing contamination, sort it, clean it, recycle it so it can be a commercial commodity. The article suggests £40 billion worth of waste, assuming it is all recovered or usable, which seems unlikely.
http://w
I worked on the design of a new landfill site a few years ago and I was surprised at how complicated the whole thing was, in particular the ground works and preparation needed to isolate the landfill from the underlying soil strata, this along with venting, leachate collection and treatment systems.
I wonder just how difficult it would ultimately be to retrieve the material without causing contamination, sort it, clean it, recycle it so it can be a commercial commodity. The article suggests £40 billion worth of waste, assuming it is all recovered or usable, which seems unlikely.





RE: Landfill Mining
I have a sneaking feeling that some unsolved crimes may suddenly have new leads.
- Steve
RE: Landfill Mining
RE: Landfill Mining
RE: Landfill Mining
In combination with a good recyclables collection program, the city I live near has dramatically extended the life of its dump site by extracting and recycling the waste.
RE: Landfill Mining
I guess it's pretty profitable for landfills too. They get paid to remove the waste, and get paid again to sell the recycled materials and free electricity made from burning the organic waste. All at the same time making room to bring in more and more.
James Spisich
Design Engineer, CSWP
RE: Landfill Mining
In many countries recycling is a very common practice. This would make the mining non-profitable.
In the countries where this practice (recycling) does not exist, namely poorer countries, there's people that live in the landfills and does these extractions already. Back home they are called 'pepenadores'.
<<A good friend will bail you out of jail, but a true friend
will be sitting beside you saying " Damn that was fun!" - Unknown>>
RE: Landfill Mining
Allowing salvage in municipal landfills would go a long way toward reducing the waste that's in there. Though it's commonplace in small municipalities, open salvage is not permitted in most larger ones for reasons of "safety". In reality we're trading one sort of safety for another.
RE: Landfill Mining
RE: Landfill Mining
RE: Landfill Mining
Rod
RE: Landfill Mining
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RE: Landfill Mining
http://the
Bill
RE: Landfill Mining
Fischer-Tropsch will work with any gasified carbonaceous material. But there are far better, easier-to-handle carbon sources than old landfills. But it's not what you'd call an energy-efficient process, nor an inexpensive one to build in capital terms. Right now, F-T plants are being built only where there are vast fields of natural gas that are too far from market to make a pipeline or LNG plant feasible.
RE: Landfill Mining
An anecdote: I spent a week in Cripple Creek, Colorado with the family in 1956. We toured the gold mines and the usual tourist stuff. I was literally dumbfounded by the mountains of tailings. We were told that it was waste from the gold mining process. Fast forward to 1992...My wife and I took a little trip up to Cripple Creek on our way through Colorado. What a change...The old town is gone and was being replaced by a Las Vegas of the mountains!!! AND...The "mountains of tailings" that I had seen in 1956 were GONE! Technology and the cost of gold had seen to that!
Rod