Industrial ecology looks at landfills from another perspective

The objective of this article is to go beyond the currently established view on landfills as final deposits for waste and analyse their potential as future resource reservoirs. We analyse whether the application of the industrial ecology concept can contribute in realising the approach of landfill mining as an alternative strategy for extraction of valuable material and energy resources. In doing so, an analytical approach involving three main steps was applied. Firstly, state-of-the-art research on landfill mining is reviewed in order to identify critical barriers for why this promising approach not yet has been fully realised. Then, some of the main constituents of industrial ecology research were briefly summarised with special emphasis on how they relate to landfills. The third and final step involved a synthesis aiming to conclude in what way industrial ecology could contribute in addressing the identified challenges for implementation of landfill mining. We conclude the systems view of industrial ecology provides both a comprehensive view on environmental potential and impacts as well as new public/private partnerships for landfill mining activities for mutual benefits.