Landfill Mining as a Remediation Technique for Open Dumpsites in India

The study hereby is an attempt to evaluate the process of landfill mining as a remediation technique for Municipal Solid Waste dumpsites, which are an inherent feature of each city of note, in the developing countries. These dump sites, more often than not, nothing more than a piece of land where all of the city's refuse is collected, are threats to the environment and consume valuable land, which could otherwise be converted into a revenue generating asset. Many cities are extremely short on land and some are also facing the negative impacts of these dumps in terms of water contamination, air pollution and land degradation to name a few. Encouraged by the positive outcomes of studies carried out earlier, this study was aimed at applying the idea on a broader scale in terms of encompassing a number of cities across the country. The solid waste characterization for the cities taken into the study was obtained and the amount of solid waste deposited in the landfills of these cities was estimated. Based on these, various revenue generating fractions were identified. From the current market cost of the land used as dumpsite and the material salvaged by the landfill mining operation, the benefit-cost scenario was judged. It was found that for most of the scenarios the overall operation of mining the landfills was economical in terms of cost, but the intangible benefits, which cannot be monetized, are expected to be far greater than the rest.