Objective
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 billions of tonnes of valuable
resources contained within these landfills. 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. The NEW-MINE project
trains 15 early-stage researchers (ESRs) in all the aspects of landfill mining, in terms of both technological innovation
and multi-criteria assessments for ELFM. 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 the ESRs 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 a range of soft skills, all based on a collaboration involving EU-leading institutes, they become highly sought-after scientists and engineers for the rapidly emerging ELFM and recycling industries.
Fields of science
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuels
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processes
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringceramics
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN - European Training NetworksCoordinator
3000 Leuven
Belgium
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Participants (9)
52062 Aachen
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9000 Gent
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8700 Leoben
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35122 Padova
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8092 Zuerich
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581 83 Linkoping
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100 44 Stockholm
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3920 LOMMEL
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24126 Bergamo
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Partners (7)
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
813 21 Hofors
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
88361 Altshausen
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
3500 HASSELT
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
2325 Himberg
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
51766 ENGELSKIRCHEN
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
2000 Antwerpen
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Partner organisations contribute to the implementation of the action, but do not sign the Grant Agreement.
MK43 0AL Cranfield - Bedfordshire
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