Remarks on four novel landfill mining case studies in Estonia and Sweden

In common sense, a landfill is a place where the life cycle of products ends. Landfill mining (LFM) mostly deals with former dumpsites and derived material may have a significant importance for the circular economy. Deliverables of recently applied LFM projects in Sweden and Estonia have revealed the potential and problems for material recovery. There are 75-100 thousand old landfills and dumps in the Baltic Sea Region, and they pose environmental risks to soil, water and air by pollution released from leachate and greenhouse gas emissions. Excavation of landfills is potential solution for solving these problems, and at the same time, there are perspectives to recover valuable lands and materials, save expenses for final coverage of the landfills and aftercare control. The research project Closing the Life Cycle of Landfills-Landfill Mining in the Baltic Sea Region for Future included investigation at four case studies in Estonia and Sweden: Kudjape, Torma, Hogbytorp and Vika landfills. Added value of this research project is characterization of waste fine fraction material, determination of concentration for most critical and rare earth elements. The main results showed that both, coarse and fine, fractions of waste might have certain opportunities of recovery.