The Potential of Landfill Mining
Increasing living standards while transitioning to a ‘low-carbon’ future will be a challenging and expensive task, both in terms of cost and natural resources.
The list of resources required for building ‘renewable’ energy infrastructure, such as vast quantities of minerals for solar farms and wind parks, not to mention continuing to raise millions out of poverty, is indeed daunting.
In fact, at 2019 extraction rates it is estimated to take 9920 years to produce enough lithium for just one generation of technology to phase out ‘fossil fuels’.
For Germanium, the estimate is 29,000 years.
Thus the key to success lies in resource efficiency and innovation.
By focusing on technologies that use fewer resources, adopting circular economy principles to reuse and recycle materials, and actively seeking better mining practices, we can minimize environmental impact while ensuring that essential quantities of natural resources are available for a growing population that deserves a certain standard of living.
One possible way to quench our natural resource thirst is through the mining of trash. Here I will examine landfill mining and its potential to provide significant raw materials for growth and human flourishing.
Mining old landfills, often referred to as Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM), is the practice of excavating and processing waste materials that were previously disposed of in landfills.
This practice is gaining worldwide interest due to its potential to recover valuable resources, reduce environmental hazards, and make room for new waste or other developments.
For example, the Gas Plasma Cycle, combined with ELFM, represents an innovative approach to waste management that not only addresses the growing problem of landfill scarcity but also offers a sustainable energy solution.
In the gas plasma cycle, waste material is subjected to extremely high temperatures in a plasma gasification process, breaking down organic matter into syngas (a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) while leaving inorganic materials to be recovered as vitrified slag, which can be used in construction.
This also has the added benefit of reducing environmental hazards associated with traditional landfilling methods. This combination offers a promising path toward recovering valuable resources and producing energy (I write about the benefits of water to energy here), thus contributing to a circular economy and mitigating the environmental impact of waste.
While the Western world continues its obsession with ‘GHGs’, billions of people live in filth. A simple Google Maps view of a landfill in India, near New Dehli, shows you the true pollution that billions of people deal with daily.
In my time living in Somalia and doing fieldwork in Tibet, I saw firsthand the environmental impacts of inadequate waste removal infrastructure, with many Tibetan children playing with trash they find on the street.
Finally, ELFM has the potential to play a pivotal role in advancing waste infrastructure in developing nations, driven by the increased profits from recovered materials.
In these regions, where waste management systems are often underdeveloped and financial resources are limited, the economic gains from ELFM can provide a crucial source of funding.
By extracting valuable resources such as metals, plastics, and organic materials from old landfills, developing countries can generate significant revenue. This revenue can, in turn, be reinvested into the local economy to build more sophisticated and sustainable waste management facilities, including recycling centers, composting facilities, and waste-to-energy plants.
Ultimately, support from Western countries and large governmental institutions for the expansion of Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) presents a distinct chance not just to tackle current waste management issues but also to cultivate a mindset geared towards solving the immediate problems faced by today’s society, rather than concentrating solely on future climate concerns that do little for the worlds poorest.
See more here substack.com
Header image: Wikipedia
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There is no “low carbon” future. Think about it.
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