LANDFILL MINING

Landfill mining (LFM) involves excavating and processing solid waste from active or closed landfills to reduce mass, temporarily remove hazardous materials, and recover recyclables, combustibles, soil, and landfill space. It also improves soil aeration for future use. The process includes a conveyor system with machines for excavation, sieving, and sorting. LFM remediates poorly designed landfills, upgrades those failing environmental standards, and uses simple or complex equipment for different levels of material recovery and purity.

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Main Purpose

  • Conservation of landfill space
  • Reduction in landfill area
  • Expanding landfill lifetime
  • Elimination of a potential source of contamination
  • Mitigation of an existing contaminated source
  • Energy recovery
  • Recycling of recovered materials
  • Reduction in management system costs
  • Site redevelopment

Tools and Machinery

The parts of the mining process are the different mining machines. Depending on thecomplexity of the process more or fewer machines can be used. Machinery is easilytransported on trucks from site to site, mounted on trailers. The following machines areadded in order in increase of mining complexity:
  • Excavators
  • Belt Conveyors
  • Trommel & Vibrating Screens
  • Magnetic Separators
  • Air Density Separator
  • Front End Loaders
An excavator uncovers landfilled materials, which are then sorted on a moving floor conveyor. Using trommels, materials are separated by size. Large trommels sort items like appliances and fabrics, while smaller ones separate biodegradable soil from non-biodegradable recyclables. An electromagnet removes ferrous materials from the conveyor belt. Sorted materials are moved by a front-end loader to trucks for re-landfilling or recycling. Odor control sprayers, mounted on tractors, neutralize smells from exposed waste with liquid agents in a reservoir tank.

Excavators and front-end loaders move waste mass onto conveyor belts, which feed into rotating trommels or vibrating screens. These screens separate soil from solid waste based on the intended use of the recovered material. A 2.5-inch screen is used for soil used as landfill cover, while a smaller mesh screen is employed for construction fill or similar uses, removing small metal, plastic, glass, and paper pieces.

Trommel screens are effective for landfill reclamation, while vibrating screens are smaller, more portable, and easier to set up. Large screen holes allow most waste to pass through, leaving oversized non-processable materials, which are removed. Coarse trommel leads to fine rotating trommel, separating soil from mid-sized non-biodegradable, mostly recyclable materials. Electromagnets remove metal debris, and an air classifier can separate organic material. Front-end loaders load these materials onto trucks for processing or sale, with on-site manual processing if transportation costs are prohibitive.

LFM Process Flow

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Benefits of Landfill Mining

LFM extends the life of the current landfill facility by removing recoverable materials and reducing waste volumethrough combustion and compaction. The potential benefits of landfill mining are summarized below:
  • Recovered materials such as metals, aluminum, plastic, and glass can be sold if markets exist for these materials
  • Reclaimed soil can be used on site as daily cover material on other landfill cells, thus avoiding the cost of importing cover material. Also a market might exist for reclaimed soil use in other applications such as compost
  • Combustible reclaimed waste can be mixed with fresh waste and burned to produce heat and energy
  • By reducing the size of the landfill “footprint” through cell reclamation, the facility operator may be able to either lower the cost of closing the landfill or make land available for other uses
  • Hazardous wastes if uncovered during LFM, especially at older landfills could be managed in an environmentally sound manner
Methane and CO2 emissions impact global climate change, and their costs are yet to be fully realized. However, it's possible to use CO2 credits to support Landfill Mining (LFM) projects and land reclamation. Economic compensation for odor and vector issues from landfills might involve one-time or annual payments to affected households, potentially amounting to several thousand dollars, particularly for continuous emissions from pyrolysis and deep fires causing air pollution.
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Processing

  • 1. SCREENING

    TS Series Trommel Screens | VS Series Vibrating Screens
  • 2. SEPARATION

    MSC Manual Sorting Conveyor | OBM Overband Magnet Separator | ADS Air Density Separator
  • 3. MATERIAL HANDLING

    BCF Flat Rubber Belt Conveyor
  • 4. SHREDDING

    DSS Dual Shaft Shredder | FSS Four Shaft Shredder I SSS Single Shaft Shredder
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  • 1. Feed Hopper Conveyor
  • 2. Trommel 1 Feed Conveyor
  • 3. Trommel Screen 1
  • 4. Trommel 1 + Fractions Conveyor
  • 5. Over Band Magnet
  • 6. Air Density Separator
  • 7. Light Fractions
  • 8. Heavy Fractions
  • 9. Trommel 1 - Fractions Conveyor
  • 10. Trommel 2 Feed Conveyor
  • 11. Trommel Screen 2
  • 12. Trommel Screen 2 - Fraction
  • 13. Trommel 2 - Fraction
  • 14. Trommel 2 + Fraction Conveyor

Our Clients

  • Majlis Perbandaran Teluk Intan
  • Majlis Perbandaran Tapah
  • Perbadanan Pengurusan Sisa Pepejal dan Pembersihan Awam (SWCorp)
  • KPKT
  • Selecta Spectra Sdn Bhd

Summary

Landfill Mining and Reclamation (LFMR) is a process that excavates and processes previously landfilled solid waste. Its goals include reducing landfill mass, temporarily removing hazardous materials for safety measures, and recovering valuable recyclables, combustibles, soil, and landfill space. Improved soil aeration benefits future landfill use. Combustibles can be used for power generation. The process involves a conveyor system with machines for excavation, sieving, and sorting landfill material.