OVAM

Mining the Anthropocene

The mining of (previous) landfill sites is also called 'Enhanced Landfill Mining', or 'ELFM' for short (J.T.Jones, 2012). It means: "the safe conditioning, excavation and integrated valorisation of (historic and/or future) landfilled waste streams as both materials and energy, using innovative transformation technologies and respecting the most stringent social and ecological criteria."

This type of mining is considered exploitation of the Anthropocene, the most recent geological period that starts from the industrial revolution (Crutzen 2000). Within the concept of a circular economy the final challenge is that only raw materials from the Anthropocene period are used. The basis of the method applied by OVAM can be reduced to 3 main themes: inventory of the (mining problems of) landfill sites in Flanders (Mapping), landfill site description (Surveying) exploitation (Mining).

This simplified breakdown is in line with the work process in traditional mining and enables OVAM to get a good idea of the stock and the exploitation potential. An additional component that is less relevant in traditional mining is that of the costs in the case of non-exploitation, i.e. the potential soil remediation.