Sustainable landfill transformation integrating recovery of material, energy and land resources

Projections of global population increase, consumption patterns and a general desire for welfare directly affect waste generation trends – the issue increasing simultaneously with limited land space, demand for new energy sources, resource depletion and environmental deterioration. Still, landfilling is among the applied waste disposal methods despite the negative ecological, social and economic impact. Besides operating sanitary landfills, millions of hectares are lost to society because of being used for legal waste landfilling or illegal dumping in the past. Closed landfills hide the vast amount of potentially recoverable resources regarding secondary materials (e.g., recycled metals, including highly valuable rare-earth elements) and energy recovery opportunities (e.g., by landfill gas collection and refuse-derived fuel extraction). At the final step, landfill transformation ends with land asset return to societal, economic and ecological needs, particularly considerable for overpopulated regions. This multi-integrational landfill transformation approach is grounded in experimental data and already realized successful revitalization examples. The methodology involves compiling field experiment results, laboratory investigation, life cycle analysis, and up-to-date economic estimations. Research-based outcomes are accountable for tangible and intangible assets expanding their functional applicability at selected case specifics.