Mine It Or Leave It - Integrating Landfilled Material Stocks Into Modern Resource Classification Frameworks

As an integral part of holistic resource planning strategies, the efficient use of resources, including urban mining, recycling and re-use of waste, has received increasing attention in Europe.

by Dr. Andrea Winterstetter Eddy Wille Peter Nagels Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Johann Fellner

The newly developed methodology ECLAR for the evaluation (E) and classification (CL) of anthropogenic resources (AR) in line with the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC) is applied to three historic landfills in Flanders. This methodology helps to decide, whether a landfill site is to be mined or not, and under which framework conditions. A Material Flow Analysis quantifies recoverable material and energy flows, while a Discounted Cash Flow analysis investigates the project’s economic viability. The Bornem project, focusing on both land and resource recovery, yields a negative Net Present Value (NPV) of -17 Mio € (-44 €/t of excavated waste). The Turnhout case, performed as a land development project by a private investor without any resource recovery, turns out to be economically viable with a NPV of 392,000 € (8 €/t of excavated waste). The Zuienkerke remediation project is at a too early stage to determine its feasibility. The case studies result in different final resource classification under UNFC. For landfill mining projects being situated in a similar geographic, economic and legal context, the main focus of attention should be on 1) site specific conditions, 2) project related factors and 3) the timing of mining.

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published: Recy&DepoTech 2018, 11|2018
Keywords: Reuse, Reduce