Buried Treasure? Could mining landfill sites be a practical method of reclaiming valuable, non-renewable resources for the United Kingdom?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess how feasible the prospect of mining landfill sites is in the United Kingdom. Areas which the project addresses include:- The environmental problems associated with landfill excavation, the current market for non-renewable materials and the fluctuating nature of such markets, case studies of similar initiatives which have been piloted in other countries and how successful they have proved so far, and the level of interest shown by the U.K government at local council level to get involved in such schemes. For the purposes of this study, a sample of U.K councils was selected to respond to a questionnaire. The purpose of the questionnaire was to discover the level of knowledge held by policy makers regarding landfill mining, the relative budgets which councils in the U.K have set aside to invest in new waste management initiatives and how willing U.K councils are to experiment in this area. While attempting to relate this project to previously published literature, it became apparent that little information is held in the U.K regarding the contents of landfill sites on an individual basis. This revelation means that assessing whether or not landfill mining is viable in the U.K is made infinitely more difficult. Factors such as this lack of information may be part of the reason why U.K councils are so reluctant to invest in landfill mining operations as the results section of this project will show.