Axion Consulting joins landfill mining consortium

Axion Consulting, based in Manchester, United Kingdom, has joined the European Enhanced Landfill Mining Consortium (EURELCO), an organization that says it is focused on working with land developers to mine resources from closed landfill sites.

Axion says joining EURELCO gives it a framework under which it can more effectively respond to requests by developers who are looking to strengthen recycling efforts through accessing these sites.

Increasing scarcity of raw materials, including a variety of plastics and metals, is prompting greater interest in urban mining where landfill sites can yield fresh opportunities for innovative methods of resource recovery as technology and technical know-how advances, says Simon Wilkinson, Axion’s principal engineer.

“The consortium brings together diverse and complementary skill sets - from industry and academia to private companies and government organizations - with the common aim of examining how we can ‘mine’ the materials we buried in the past,” says Wilkinson.

“We foresee a rise in this type of activity. As raw materials get more expensive, technology improves and land value continues to increase. It will become more economically attractive to ‘mine’ such resources and upgrade the land for re-development. ELFM is part of a wider view of a circular economy and is perfectly complementary to urban mining and recycling in general,” Wilkinson adds.