Advanced Studies of Inert Landfill Fine Fraction Mass – Hunting for Values from Waste

Abstract

The maintaining solution for keeping and storing waste over the last century has been landfilling as its costs are the lowest. A sustainable approach such as Landfill Mining (LFM) can be applied to recover Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and other valuable metals from waste that make fundamental assets in terms of economy and essential for developing industrial technologies. This study investigated concentrations of REEs and other metals in waste material. Samples from Ida-Virumaa (Estonia) landfilled waste fine fraction was taken to see the element concentration proceeded through sequential extraction. Additionally, the method of clay modification was developed that may serve as a sorbent to extract the REEs from the inert landfill fine fraction waste using hydroxyapatite modified clay. The amount of REEs might become of industrial interest if a feasible landfill mining approach for remediation of landfills and degraded industrial soils would be applied together with innovative recovery methods, e.g., sorption by modified clays.

Keywords

• landfill mining
• modified clay sorbents
• rare earth elements
• resources recovery
• waste valorization.