The EU Training Network for Resource Recovery through Enhanced Landfill Mining—A Review

Abstract

The “European Union Training Network for Resource Recovery Through Enhanced Landfill Mining (NEW-MINE)” was a European research project conducted between 2016 and 2020 to investigate the exploration of and resource recovery from landfills as well as the processing of the excavated waste and the valorization of the obtained waste fractions using thermochemical processes. This project yielded more than 40 publications ranging from geophysics via mechanical process engineering to ceramics, which have not yet been discussed coherently in a review publication. This article summarizes and links the NEW-MINE publications and discusses their practical applicability in waste management systems. Within the NEW-MINE project in a first step concentrates of specific materials (e.g., metals, combustibles, inert materials) were produced which might be used as secondary raw materials. In a second step, recycled products (e.g., inorganic polymers, functional glass-ceramics) were produced from these concentrates at the lab scale. However, even if secondary raw materials or recycled products could be produced at a large scale, it remains unclear if they can compete with primary raw materials or products from primary raw materials. Given the ambitions of transition towards a more circular economy, economic incentives are required to make secondary raw materials or recycled products from enhanced landfill mining (ELFM) competitive in the market.