MATERIAL RECOVERY AND REVITALISATION OF LANDFILLS: MULTITASKING APPROACH STRIVING TO 'BEYOND THE ZERO WASTE'

Commonly the product's life cycle ends up with waste. Conventionally the remains go to the landfill, earlier times - a dumpsite, the least manageable waste disposal method. To ensure that lost to society materials are treated with high priority, the European Union (EU) has implemented the Circular Economy Action Plan, continuing the monitoring of old dumpsites. The hierarchy of waste management points at preventing raw material use at first sight, but the following steps point at material reuse and recycling. The material recovery and revitalisation of old forgotten dumpsites are related to a sustainable and circular economy based direction and the corresponding rules. Candidates for so-called landfill mining (LFM) should be evaluated on a country by country basis. The starting point is inspecting each dumpsite, evaluating prospective materials and space as the real estate benefit and landscapes revitalisation perspective. Another aspect is the emissions diminishment while an innovative approach of landfill closing is taken. A fine fraction of residual waste might be used as a cover - functional composite capping material. It would decrease methane gas emissions in the atmosphere. Last but not least is restoring ecosystem services by revitalising the dump structures as parks and recreation areas and/or transforming them to industry/logistic parks to diminish the need for new urban areas in virgin lands. This study aims to analyse the aspects compulsory when estimating old dumpsites revitalisation projects.