Mining our trash

Could there be valuable resources to be extracted from landfills?

By Trevor Doré, Opinions Editor

hat do we all do when we find ourselves

with a piece of trash that we don’t

want? We throw it “away.” But where
exactly is “away?” In Metro Vancouver, all of the
trash, garbage, waste and unwanted scrap that
we throw “away,” ends up in a landfill where it is
buried among with tons of other unwanted things
everyday. We all generate waste and once it reaches
the landfill, it stays there for years and years.

it is an unfortunate situation, communities
throughout the Global South have proven that
there is value in landfills. For those who doubt the
feasibility of landfill mining in the Global North,

the experts are on it. The 2’ Global Landfill Mining
Conference and Exhibition will be held September

13, 2010 in London. Waste management industry
experts, academics and policy makers will come

together to discuss the feasibility and opportunities

of landfill mining to recover valuable metals,

  
   

 

as it’s all made from oil. Along with investing in
new technologies to suck up every last drop of
the earth’s oil reserves, we should also be looking
for ways to reclaim and harness the plastic from
our landfills. Although it may not seem financially
viable currently, it may be a reasonable alternative
in the near future as natural reserves deplete. And
even though it may be too expensive to mine
landfills now, in the future it may be too expensive
not too. As technology advances, mining and
reclaiming these human made

Humans have been generating trash for |p the end, it is far easier to recycle materials before they are buried.™ines may yield significant benefits

thousands of years and waste management
technology has evolved from open pit
landfills to highly technological incineration.
There is currently discussion about what to
do with Metro Vancouver’s waste. Is it time
to start looking for other places to send our trash
or is it time to start building more waste-to-energy
incineration plants? There are obvious stigmas
surrounding both options. While different interests
groups discuss the best ways to handle out waste,
perhaps we need to give some more thought to
mining our landfills.

Mining landfills is not a new or innovative
idea. It has been around for over 50 years. Although

16

in the future.

produce high quality fertilizers and construction
materials, and make available real estate.

Landfills are potentially the next gold mines.
They hold billions of tones of reusable plastic and
metal. We haven’t always had recycling systems
therefore; many valuable materials were thrown
away before adequate recycling infrastructure was
in place.

Plastic is an especially important resource

It’s best to take a proactive approach and concentrate on waste ©°onomically and environmentally.
reduction, instead of having to react with technological innovation

Although one day in the near
future we may have to look at
harvesting waste from our landfills,
we can mitigate the impacts in
the meantime by reducing, reusing and recycling.
In the end, it is far easier to recycle materials
before they are buried. It’s best to take a proactive
approach and concentrate on waste reduction,
instead of having to react with technological
innovation in the future. Mining our waste is just
one piece of the waste management and reduction
puzzle. The most important piece still lies in overall
waste reduction.