2nd National  Conference on LFM and Alternative Waste Management

Our 2nd National  Conference on LFM and Alternative Waste Management Conference of the 15-16th of June 2016 is upon us! We hope that all of you will join us to present the results of the Landfill Mining pilot demonstration unit in the Polygyros Landfill and engage into a fruitful conversation about the potential of the method and the future of waste valorisation in Greece.

Also, as part of the conference, presentations by experts in the fields of mining and waste management will take place, analysing  the technical and environmental aspects of other alternative waste management methods and their applicability to the Greek space. The Conference programme has already been released and you can download it from HERE (in Greek)

 

Have you registered yet? It is very easy: CLICK HERE to visit the Conference website (in Greek) and register online as positions are limited; there are still some final slots left!

 

 

Landfill Mining Demonstration Unit: Results

The results from the pilot Landfill Mining unit of the Polygyros landfill in Greece have been completed and published online. During the 45 days of operation, from the beginning of June until mid-July of 2015, the total amount of excavated and processed waste reached a volume of approximately 1300m3 (580.547 kg in weight) and consisted of glass, mixed hard plastic, plastic film and aluminum (recyclable materials), as well as ferrous waste. What is more, a great amount of soil material was recovered which was proved to be reusable as soil cover for the needs of the landfill.

 

Also, the project carried out a series of tests to try a new approach for the exctraction of Cu and precious metals (Pd, Au and Ag) from the printed circuit boards (PCBs) found in e-waste, by introducing innovative elements from the mining industry. In particular, the powderised PCBs underwent  froth flotation processing, resulting into interesting exctracting rates. 

 

The overall operation of the pilot demonstration unit worked out properly and brought the expected results. Further testing is essential in a larger scale and for a longer time-period, using more staff. The design of the Demonstration Unit could also be improved, in order to avoid difficulties from unpredicted factors. An analysis of all the material from the operation of the unit can be found in the relevant technical report of Action B6, which can be downloaded HERE. Photos from the Landfill Mining operations can be seen on the right of this page and at the Reclaim website Image gallery.

 

 

Socioeconomic Analysis of LFM

Parallel to the main actions of the Landfill mining pilot unit, the Reclaim Team carried out a detailed analysis on the social and economic impacts of the method, focused at a local level in Polygyros and at a broader level for the whole of Greece. The main conclusions are that the financial success of Landfill Mining projects depends on each case, but there is a clear improvement on the financial indices when the used equipment and personnel are owned, which reduces the total cost of the process to half and less than half, as well.

 

As regards to expected revenues from recyclables, hard plastic seems to be the most profitable. The separation of e-waste adds to the financial benefits of the project, but dismantling of IT equipment do not significantly impact the financial results, as it only comes in small quantities in the extracted waste. Hence, the overall revenues are significantly affected by the recovered air-space. Socially, Landfill Mining projects seem to be justified. The Project Team conducted two Contingent Valuation (CV) surveys which show that society’s "willingness-to-pay" could support similar policies, depending greatly though on the size of the affected population.

 

The detailed socioeconomic analysis is provided in the report of Action B9 of the project which can be downloaded HERE and the local and national CV surveys can be downloaded HERE and HERE respectively.