NEW-MINE

Austria, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and the United Kingdom
Partners

KU Leuven, RWTH Aachen, UGent, MUL, UNIPD, ETH, Linköping U., KTH, Renewi, CTG/Italcementi, ScanArc, Stadler, JMR, ASA, BAV, UAntwerp, Cranfield University

Contact

Peter Tom Jones
Department Materials Engineering
KU Leuven
Kasteelpark Arenberg 44
3001 Leuven

E: peter.jones@kuleuven.be
T: +32 486 836 494

Visit: www.new-mine.eu

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Europe has somewhere between 150,000 and 500,000 landfill sites, with an estimated 90% of them being “non-sanitary” landfills, predating the EU Landfill Directive of 1999. These older landfills tend to be filled with municipal solid waste and often lack any environmental protection technology. In order to avoid future environmental and health problems, many of these landfills will soon require expensive remediation measures. This situation might appear bleak, but it does present us with an exciting opportunity for a combined resource-recovery and remediation strategy, which will drastically reduce future remediation costs, reclaim valuable land, while at the same time unlocking valuable resources. However, the widespread adoption of Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) in the EU, as envisaged by NEW-MINE, urgently requires skilled scientists, engineers, economists and policy makers who can develop cost-effective, environmentally friendly ELFM practices and regulatory frameworks. All this demands a European commitment to concerted, inter- and transdisciplinary research and innovation. NEW-MINE trains 15 early-stage researchers (ESRs) in all aspects of landfill mining, in terms of both technological innovation and multi-criteria assessments. The technological innovation follows a value-chain approach, from advanced landfill exploration, mechanical processing, plasma/solar/hybrid thermochemical conversion and upcycling, while the multi-criteria assessment methods allow to compare combined resource-recovery/remediation ELFM methods with the “Do-Nothing”, “Classic remediation” and “Classic landfill mining with (co-)incineration” scenarios. By training the ESRs in scientific, technical and soft skills, they become highly sought-after scientists and engineers for the rapidly emerging landfill-mining and broader raw-materials industries of Europe.

BUDGET: € 3.800.000

Contact us

Location

Department of Materials Engineering
Kasteelpark Arenberg 44
3001 Leuven, Belgium