(WEV) BEV 25% OF UK CAR MARKET IN NOVEMBER

Battery electric vehicle (BEV) registrations have risen for an eleventh successive month this November, up 58.4% to 38,581 units, representing 25.1% of the overall market, according to the latest figures published by the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). 

This seems to be driven by heavy manufacturer discounting, with the best market share since December 2022.

However, November is just the second month this year in which BEV uptake has reached the target mandated level of 22% for 2024 amidst a declining overall market. More of this article (Which EV) - link - more like this (electric cars) - link - more like this (electric vehicles) - link

(GOV) SIMPLER RECYCLING

By 31 March 2025, businesses and relevant non-domestic premises in England will need to arrange for the collection of the core recyclable waste streams, with the exception of garden waste (glass, metal, plastic, paper and card, and food waste)

Although (as defined in the legislation) paper and card should ideally be collected separately from other dry recyclable waste (plastic, metal and glass), private waste management contractors and local authorities will still be permitted to collect paper and card together with other dry recyclables if it:-

is not ‘technically practicable’
is not ‘economically practicable’
has ‘no significant environmental benefit’

A written assessment to explain why one or more of the options applies will be required by the enforcing authority. More of this legislation (Government) - link

(SCD) LANDFILL MINING - A CASE STUDY

A fundamental principle of sustainable materials management is to maximize the utility of materials to the greatest extent possible with disposal only as the last resort. Yet society has not yet fully embraced this fundamental principle. 

Between 1980 and 2002, collectively there was a 36% increase in global resource extraction; extraction of metals increased by 56% (Behrens et al., 2007). The US has consumed more resources in the past 50 years than in all previous history; it consumes 57% more materials than in 1975 and the vast majority of materials currently consumed are non-renewable (US EPA, 2009).

A consequence of this increased consumption is the simultaneous increase in the total and per capita generation and subsequent disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW). Estimates of the annual global generation of MSW vary, but are significant: Lacoste and Chalmin (2007) estimated that the annual global generation rate of MSW is 1.2 billion Mt, Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata (2012) estimated 1.3 billion Mt, and UNEP (2010) estimated between 1.7 and 1.9 billion Mt. By 2025, the estimated global annual generation of MSW will be 2.2 billion Mt (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012). 

The member countries of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) continue to generate the highest portion of the global amount of MSW (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012). The US, an OECD member, generated 227.6 million Mt of MSW in 2012 (US EPA, 2014).1 Between 1960 and 2012, the total amount of MSW generated in the US increased by 164.3% and the per capita MSW generation rate increased by 64.2% to 1.98 kg per day (US EPA, 2014). The current annual per capita generation rate of MSW in the US is approximately 723 kg, which is the highest in the world.

In spite of the adoption of the waste management hierarchy of reduce, reuse, and recycle for MSW, worldwide, landfilling continues to be the most common management of MSW (Lacoste and Chalmin, 2007). An accurate count on the number of legal landfills and illegal or unregulated dumps worldwide is infeasible. According to Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata (2012), 60% of the MSW generated by OECD countries is landfilled and nearly all of Africa’s MSW is landfilled or dumped. 

In the EU alone there are an estimated 150,000–500,000 closed and active landfills with an average size of 8000 m2 (Krook et al., 2012). Ratcliffe et al. (2012) estimated that the more than 150,000 landfills in Europe contain 30–50 billion m3 of waste. In 2012, there were 1908 operating MSW landfills in the US (US EPA, 2014).

The total amount of MSW generated is increasing worldwide, valuable materials continue to be a significant portion of MSW, the per capita generation rate of MSW remains high, and the majority of waste generated continues to be landfilled—we continue to discard significant amounts of underutilized materials, including metals, in landfills. Given the current and expected global demand for materials, especially metals, and the negative environmental, social, and geopolitical aspects of excessive reliance on mining ores, there is recognition that significant amounts of comparatively concentrated, valuable materials reside in relatively shallow surface deposits in landfills that are relatively close to industrial centers with access to transportation. This is especially true for post-1960 landfills which are more likely to have greater percentages of recyclables and contain larger volumes of waste (Hermann et al., 2014). 

Although the discarding of high-value metals while simultaneously mining for these same materials is a highly unsustainable practice, the potential to recover these previously disposed metals represents an important resource that can offset the mining of virgin ores. Given this situation, there is increased attention worldwide to the potential to mine landfills to recover metals (Krook et al., 2012). More of the case study (Science Direct) - link - picture (envirotech) - link - more like this (landfill mining) - link - more like this (landfill diversion) - link - more like this (waste management) - link

Travis P. Wagner & Tom Raymond

(MOT) ARIZONA SUES SAUDI FARM

Arizona’s attorney general has sued a Saudi-owned farm operating a massive hay operation in the middle of the Arizona desert, alleging that the business is hastening the loss of the rural community’s rapidly depleting groundwater supply.

The farm owned by Fondomonte uses billions of gallons of groundwater in La Paz County each year to irrigate the desert to grow hay, which it then ships back to the Middle East to feed dairy cows.

The Saudi-owned operation first came to light in a 2015 investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting and quickly sparked outrage in the state, spurring national and even international media coverage.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes told CIR last year that she was considering suing to stop the damage. On Wednesday, she announced the public nuisance lawsuit. It asks a judge to stop Fondomonte from excessive pumping and require the company to establish an abatement fund, which would cover damages incurred by neighbors such as their wells going dry or their water quality worsening as the groundwater is depleted.

“Arizona law is clear: no company has the right to endanger an entire community’s health and safety for its own gain,” Mayes said in a statement.

Arizona Department of Water Resources director Tom Buschatzke initially said that CIR’s 2015 investigation was making “hay” and overblowing the issue, writing in the Arizona Republic that “there is a sufficient water supply available in this area of La Paz County for at least the next 100 years.”

But domestic wells of neighbors around Fondomonte soon began to go dry. The farm and its neighbors were profiled in the film The Grab, a feature-length documentary about global food and water conflicts, reported and produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting.

In 2017, the well at the Friendship Baptist Church located next to the farm went dry, requiring the pastor to truck in bottled water for baptismals and other events. John Weisser, a rancher near the Saudi farm, told the filmmaking team his well went dry, too, “because the water’s dropping. There’s not enough rain that could replenish it.”

Wayne Wade, who lived in a trailer park near the farm, reported the same problem.

“The water level went below my pump and the pump burned up and melted the casing,” Wade said. “I think everybody knows the problem, but I don’t know how to correct it. I can’t pay for a high-powered lawyer. Neither can any of my friends.”

La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin has been asking for help since news of the Saudi-owned farm first broke nearly ten years ago. Now that the state’s attorney general has stepped in, “I feel that La Paz County finally has someone fighting for us,” Irwin said. “My constituents are experiencing real damages from massive groundwater pumping.”

Mayes, who was elected in 2022, said that allowing Fondomonte and other mega farms in rural Arizona to pump unlimited amounts of water at no cost beyond the electricity bills they pay to operate the wells has been a failure of the state government.

“Why are we allowing a Saudi owned corporation to stick a straw in the ground and suck so much of our water out and send alfalfa back to Saudi Arabia and not charge them a dime for the water? It is bonkers,” Mayes told Reveal last year. “Water in Arizona is life. Our very survival as a state depends on our doing better when it comes to water.”

In the mid-1990s, Saudi Arabia was the world’s sixth-largest exporter of wheat. But as their groundwater was drained down, the government told companies to go overseas in search of new water supplies.

“Fondomonte came to Arizona to extract water at an unreasonable and excessive rate because doing so was banned in its home country – another arid desert with limited water,” the lawsuit alleges. “Fondomonte is taking advantage of Arizona’s failure to protect its precious groundwater resource.”

Fondomonte said in a statement that the allegations are “totally unfounded.”

“We will defend any potential action against Fontomonte and our rights vigorously before the competent authorities,” the statement said. More of this article (Mother Jones) - link - more like this (Almarai Co) - link - more like this (potable water) - link - more like this (Arizona) - link

(GRE) GWP* - (NOT) REPORTING METHANE

Over 60 climate activism groups have penned an open letter urging governments not to adopt GWP*, a controversial methane reporting tool that leaves the door open for greenwashing.

A day after a New Zealand government panel paved the way for the country to weaken its livestock methane reduction efforts, climate experts from across the world have implored policymakers not to adopt this controversial approach.

The approach concerns the use of GWP*, a metric for reporting the global warming potential of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s an approach being pushed by livestock producers under terms like “no added warming”, “climate neutrality” and “temperature neutrality”.

Currently, governments and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) use GWP20 and GWP100 to measure the warming potential of total greenhouse gas emissions over a period of 20 and 100 years, respectively. GWP*, on the other hand, focuses on changes in the rate of emissions between two points in time (usually over a decadal timescale), rather than the absolute level of emissions.

Essentially, it means that GWP* only addresses new or extra methane emissions – it assigns a global warming potential of zero if companies continue to produce the same amount of methane as they have done historically.

If adopted, it would enable high-polluting countries and businesses to present even minor methane reductions as negative emissions or cooling, helping meat and dairy production appear climate-neutral and escape significant transformation.

The letter – which was co-signed by 64 organisations, including Feedback Global, Changing Markets Foundation, Greenpeace, and Mighty Earth, among others – says this could “seriously undermine international efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement target of 1.5°C”, reward big polluters, and unfairly penalise low-income countries in the Global South.

“The meat and dairy industry’s latest trick is to claim their production system is ‘not adding warming’, and with just small reductions, they can claim ‘neutrality’,” notes Alma Castrejon-Davila, a senior campaigner at Changing Markets Foundation. “These claims are deceptive and can have severe implications towards countries with historically low emissions as well as the climate targets under the Paris Agreement.” More of this article (green queen) - link - more like this (livestock methane) - link - more like this (New Zealand) - link

(F24) BP - REDUCING RENEWABLES

British oil giant BP announced Monday it will “significantly reduce” investment in renewable energy through to 2030, as it combines its offshore wind business with that of Japanese power company Jera.

The equally-owned joint venture, Jera Nex BP, is set to advance the companies’ existing wind projects and create one of the world’s largest global offshore wind businesses. However, the standalone business will “significantly reduce BP’s anticipated investment into renewables through the rest of this decade”, the British group said in a statement.

Together the companies will invest up to $5.8 billion by 2030, with BP contributing $3.25 billion. It marks a sharp drop from previous suggestions that BP would invest around $10 billion in offshore wind between 2023 and 2030.

BP chief executive Murray Auchincloss has scaled back on the group’s key climate targets, putting more emphasis on oil and gas to boost profits, since taking the helm in January.

The new venture “will be a very strong vehicle to grow into an electrifying world, while maintaining a capital light model for our shareholders”, said Auchincloss.

The move follows an announcement by rival Shell that it will no longer develop new offshore wind projects and will separate its power division into two connected businesses. More of this article (France 24) - link - more like this (BP) - link - more like this (wind) - link

(ENJ) COP 29 ORGANIC WASTE AGREEMENT

Azerbaijan has launched the Reducing Methane from Organic Waste Declaration as part of its UN climate summit presidency, with more than 30 states signing up.

The United States, Germany, United Kingdom, UAE, and Brazil have all endorsed the pledge. Nations on board collectively account for almost half of all global methane emissions, with 8 of the 10 biggest polluters of this kind involved.

The deal follows on from the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter, launched at COP28, which saw 50 industries agree to achieve near-zero upstream methane emissions. It also builds on the 2021 Global Methane Pledge, a produce of COP26, which set a target of reducing associated emissions by 30% below 2020 levels within the next five years. Currently, organic waste — including food — is the third-largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions, just behind agriculture and fossil fuels.

‘FAO welcomes the launch of the Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers and looks forward to working with the COP29 Azerbaijan Presidency, as well as stakeholders and partners, to accelerate the transformation towards sustainable, inclusive and resilient agrifood systems,’ said Kaveh Zahedi, Director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment at the Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] of the UN. ‘The Harmoniya Initiative acknowledges the fundamental role of farmers as key agents of change and represents an unparalleled opportunity to drive concrete climate solutions through agrifood systems.’

‘The COP29 Presidency has worked to drive progress on mitigation throughout the year through both the UNFCCC process and our own Action Agenda,’ added COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev. ‘Today’s declaration takes a great stride forward in helping nations to implement the Global Methane Pledge, which is an important part of global efforts to reduce our emissions in this critical decade for climate action.’ 

The COP29 Declaration on Reducing Methane from Organic Waste will require that national climate policies set concrete targets to reduce methane from waste and food systems, aligning with the 1.5°C goal. Signatories commit to launching concrete policies and roadmaps to meet these sectoral methane targets ahead of COP30 in Brazil.

More of this article (Environment Journal) - link - More of this subject (WBA) - link - more like this (methane) - link - more like this (Azerbaijan) - link - more like this (biomethane) - link

(EUN) OATLY - MILK BY ANY OTHER NAME

As dairy-free consumption grows across Europe, the battle over Oatly’s branding intensifies. Vegan milk alternative Oatly can no longer call its products milk, British judges have decided.

The Court of Appeal in London ruled this week that the word milk can only be applied to animal-based products - ones derived from “normal mammary secretion,” according to the judgment.

The verdict is a major setback for the Swedish maker of plant-based consumer products. Oatly had been in a long-running lexical dispute with trade body Dairy UK, who argued that the slogan, ‘Post Milk Generation’, was misleading to consumers.

While the legal battle has been settled, the row appears to be far from over.

What just happened? Oatly’s ‘milk’ dilemma in a nutshell

In 2019, Oatly applied to trademark the slogan ‘Post Milk Generation’. Last year, the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) denied the company’s application, claiming it was “deceptive” - an argument advanced by Dairy UK.

EU regulations from 2013 also restrict the use of the word ‘milk’ in the marketing and packaging of dairy-free products. When its trademark application was denied, Oatly appealed, claiming the ruling was wrong because consumers would not be confused by its use of ‘milk’ in branding and packaging.

But now the final decision has been delivered by UK courts: Oatly can no longer use the word ‘milk’.

Plant-based beverage consumption on the rise in the UK

This ruling is in contrast to consumer trends favouring dairy-free and plant-based products.

Nearly 25 per cent of Britons used plant-based milk alternatives in 2019, the research firm Mintel reported. This year, 56 per cent of UK consumers said they were willing to drink less dairy, according to London-based environmental charity Hubbub.

“Apparently, [the judges] think people might confuse oats with cows. Or imagine cow-shaped oats? Who knows,” Alex Robinson, CEO of Hubbub, wrote on LinkedIn. More of this article (Euro News) - link - more like this (milk) - link - more like this (not milk) - link

(DEZ) COKE PULLS BACK ON REUSABLE PACKAGING

The Coca-Cola Company – named the world's worst plastic polluter for six consecutive years – appears to have dropped its pledge to pivot to 25 per cent reusable packaging by 2030.

The company announced the "evolution" of its voluntary environmental goals on Monday as the fifth session of negotiations for a global plastics treaty concluded in Busan, South Korea.

Missing from Coca-Cola's list of commitments was a mention of its pledge to have 25 per cent of its drinks sold in refillable or returnable packaging, which was announced with much fanfare in 2022 and which the company called "industry-leading".

"Reusable packaging is among the most effective ways to reduce waste, use fewer resources and lower our carbon footprint in support of a circular economy," The Coca‑Cola Company's senior director of packaging and climate Ben Jordan said at the time.

The pledge was quietly removed from the company's website at some point between 20 November and the start of the negotiations in Busan, a Guardian investigation found.

Coca-Cola accused of "deflecting responsibility"

In lieu of this, the company is prioritising efforts to reduce packaging waste. But these goals, too, have been watered down and pushed back.

Coca-Cola's original aim of having at least 50 per cent recycled content across all its packaging materials by 2030 has now shifted to 35 to 40 per cent recycled content in only its "primary packaging" by 2035.

The company, which has topped the list of the world's worst plastic polluters for six years running, is pledging instead "to ensure the collection of 70 per cent to 75 per cent of the equivalent number of bottles and cans introduced into the market annually". More of this article (Dezeen) - link - more like this (Coca-Cola) - link - more like this (packaging) - link

(D24) OXFORD PV SETS NEW RECORD

Oxford PV, an energy offshoot company of the University of Oxford, has set a new solar panel efficiency world record. 

The innovative perovskite-on-silicon tandem panel produced an output of 25% efficiency, which is a significant improvement on average figures being recorded in currently operating systems and a positive sign for the development of the renewable energy sector.

Oxford PV sets world solar panel efficiency record with tandem solar cells

Oxford PV is a solar technology company with operations in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany. It leverages world-leading research and development programs by Professor Henry Snaith and others from Oxford University in the United Kingdom. The pioneer photovoltaic outfit has just made a massive leap in solar electricity generation with its state-of-the-art perovskite-silicon PV product, which the team can now boast has broken a world record.

Oxford PV’s tandem solar cells, which are produced in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, have a theoretical maximum efficiency of more than 43%, whereas silicon solar cells offer 30%. In practice, the panel proved itself with a 25% efficiency in its output, breaking the record and demonstrating a significant level-up from the 21% to 23% efficiency that current commercial systems are producing.

Breakthrough renewable power technology has transformative potential

Statistics reveal that solar power made up three-quarters of the global renewable energy capacity in 2023, so in the solar sector, more than any other, leaps in technology have immense potential in the drive toward lowering carbon emissions. The increasing number of solar installations inevitably means that the cost of electricity and solar power systems will drop, meaning that more people will adopt alternative options to fossil fuel-generated electricity.

Chris Case, Chief Technology Officer at Oxford PV, said:

“Our record-breaking solar panels demonstrate that we are on the cusp of the next solar revolution, which will be delivered, in part, by our tandem cell technology. Solar energy is currently among the most cost-effective and sustainable energy sources. Our continuous advancements in technology will further enhance module efficiency – producing more electricity from the same area – and extending their use to all market sectors from residential, commercial through to utility scale.”

Rigorous testing proved the efficiency of the tandem solar module in reality

The Oxford PV perovskite-silicon module delivered an output of 421 watts across an area of just over 18 square feet, making it the most efficient of its kind under industrial application. Equipment available at Fraunhofer ISE’s Module-Technology Evaluation Center that’s already used for mass production was modified and optimized for the manufacture of Oxford PV’s perovskite-silicon solar cell. More of this article (The Diary 24) - link - more like this (University of Oxford) - link - more like this (perovskite) - link - Oxford pv - link - more like this (Oxford) - link

(IEV) CHASING 600

Honda is kicking its solid-state battery efforts into high gear. The Japanese automaker claims the first electric vehicles fitted with its latest-gen packs would be capable of driving up to 620 miles on a full charge by the end of this decade. That's roughly double the range of today's mass-market EVs.

Besides making range anxiety a non-issue, the new solid-state batteries developed by Honda will be 50% smaller, 35% lighter and 25% cheaper to manufacture than current liquid-based lithium-ion cells. The solid electrolyte cells also promise to be much safer than what is readily available on the market today, as well as accept much higher charging speeds.

After 2040, the goals are even more ambitious. That range figure will be pushed even further to 776 miles, while the size, weight and cost will be even smaller.

The carmaker’s executives laid all of this out during a briefing late last month in Japan. The presentation came a week after Honda announced it built a pilot production facility where it will try to figure out how to make solid-state batteries sustainably and at a mass scale. Test production will begin next month. More of this article (Inside EVs) - link - more like this (600) - link - more like this (Honda) - link - more like this (batteries) - link - more like this (chasing 600) - link

(EUR) DE-EUROPEANISATION

“Deindustrialisation is a reality, and de-Europeanisation is part of that equation,” said Anthony Gooch Gálvez, secretary general of the European Round Table for Industry.

More of this article (Euractiv) - link - more like this (EU) - link

(ICN) SODIUM-ION BATTERIES

Sodium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage are moving toward the mainstream. Wider use of these batteries could lead to lower costs, less fire risk and less need for lithium, cobalt and nickel.

On Nov. 18, CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, announced its second-generation sodium-ion battery, mass production of which would begin in 2027. The China-based company said the new battery has an energy density of 200 watt-hours per kilogram, which is an increase from 160 watt-hours per kilogram for the previous generation that launched in 2021. Higher energy density in an EV battery translates into more driving range.

On Nov. 21, a consortium of seven U.S. national laboratories announced a new initiative in which they would spend $50 million to foster collaboration to accelerate the development of sodium-ion batteries. The partnership is led by Argonne National Laboratory in the Chicago area.

The two announcements are part of a larger shift as governments, researchers and companies look for alternatives to lithium-ion batteries, the dominant technology for EVs and energy storage.

For now, there are no passenger cars or trucks sold in the United States that use sodium-ion batteries. Some sodium-ion models are available in China and countries that import vehicles from China.

“The reason we’re pursuing this is very simple,” said Venkat Srinivasan, a battery scientist at Argonne and the director of the new collaboration. “It’s because the huge demand in lithium-ion batteries has meant that we have a supply-chain constraint.

“We have a problem with cobalt. We have a problem with nickel,” he said, naming two of the metals often used in lithium-ion batteries.

Cobalt, nickel and lithium carry a variety of concerns, including the environmental damage of mining. Also, much of the supply is controlled by U.S. geopolitical rivals such as China and some of the mining takes place in countries with inadequate labor standards.

In contrast, a sodium-ion battery relies on an element—sodium—that you can find in table salt and ocean water.

Among the other benefits, sodium-ion batteries perform better than lithium-ion batteries in extreme cold. CATL has said its new battery works in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit. More of this article (Inside Climate News) - link - more like this (batteries) - link - more like this (China) - link

(REA) THINK GLOBAL PLASTICS TREATY - THINK RUBBISH

(Inspiration - Leonora Carrington - link)

The nations of the world were supposed to complete negotiations on a Global Plastics Treaty on December 1. They didn't. The main sticking point was some countries' demand for a global cap on the future production of plastics.

Plastics are ubiquitous because they are amazingly useful and cheap. (Baseline projections suggest that annual global plastic use will triple to 1.3 billion tons by 2060.) They are also extraordinarily durable, taking decades to centuries to break up and degrade. This means that much of the plastic produced today will linger for generations.

Plastic pollution is undeniably a problem. Each year, tens of millions of tons of plastic wastes pile up in landfills or—much more problematically—pollute landscapes, waterways, and the oceans. In the 2022 Global Plastics Outlook, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that "only 9% of plastic waste is recycled (15% is collected for recycling but 40% of that is disposed of as residues). Another 19% is incinerated, 50% ends up in landfill and 22% evades waste management systems and goes into uncontrolled dumpsites, is burned in open pits or ends up in terrestrial or aquatic environments, especially in poorer countries."

Thanks to rising use and to terrible waste mismanagement, the 2019 Global Plastics Outlook pointed out, 6.1 million metric tons of plastic waste leaked in 2019 into aquatic environments; 1.7 million tons flowed into oceans. An estimated 30 million tons of plastic waste currently float in the oceans, and a further 109 million tons are piled up in rivers. "The build-up of plastics in rivers implies that leakage into the ocean will continue for decades to come, even if mismanaged plastic waste could be significantly reduced," notes the report.

This accumulation of plastics waste is an example of an open access commons problem. In this case, millions of free-riding consumers negligently toss their wastes into natural environments which have no owners who have an incentive to protect them.

The latest Global Plastic Treaty negotiations fell apart over a clash between two different perspectives on how best to handle this waste. The first perspective holds that plastics pollution is largely a mismanagement problem. The second aims to reduce the amount of plastics that would be produced in the future.

The nearly 70 countries that call themselves the High Ambition Coalition pushed for "a clear path to ending plastic pollution, including on reducing production and consumption of primary plastic polymers to sustainable levels." To that end, they pushed for a cap on the future production of plastics. This was fiercely opposed by a coalition of oil- and gas-producing nations, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and Kuwait. (About 98 percent of new single-use plastics are manufactured out of crude oil and natural gas.) A delegate from Kuwait summed up their views when he said, "We are not here to end plastic itself…but plastic pollution." Since all United Nations treaties must be adopted by consensus, the talks then collapsed. More of this article (reason) - link - more like this (plastics) - link - more like this (pollution) - link

(VIN) ELFM

Enhanced landfill mining (ELFM) is an emerging concept that connects the vision of circular economy with the need to use land more effectively and for purposes that contribute to sustainable development. 

It bears on the fact that Europe holds more than 500,000 landfills of which the majority is non-sanitary municipal solid waste landfills, lacking modern environmental technology. Beyond that these poorly equipped deposits generate local, regional and global environmental impacts as well as drosscapes of urban land, they contain massive amounts of obsolete materials that could be brought back to use in society.

To prevent unwanted environmental and health effects, many of these old landfills will sooner or later need extensive remediation and aftercare. So far, however, Europe does not have any coherent strategy for their future management. The EU Landfill Directive, for instance, has no bearing on their management as most of them predate its enforcement. In many countries, the available public funding for taking care of such old landfills is also insufficient making any kind of future remediation effort financially challenging and unattractive.

For a share of these landfills, ELFM could offer a more sustainable management option.The potential of this emerging concept lies in its integrated approach, where remediation is combined with the excavation, processing and recovery of the deposited waste. In essence, such a strategy could reduce the cost for remediation of malfunctioning landfills, reclaim valuable urban land and recover significant amounts of dormant materials and energy carriers. To this end, ELFM embraces the use of innovative technologies to transform and upcycle the extracted resources to high-value commodities such as metals, syngas, fuel-grade H2 and low-carbon building materials.

Although ELFM displays a high societal potential, there is a lack of real-life projects validating the sustainability consequences and feasibility of the concept. The so far most concerted efforts are the Closing-the-Circle project in Belgium1 and the “NEW-MINE” Training Network2 . 

NEW-MINE involved 15 early-stage researchers working on technological innovations along the whole value chain of ELFM and multi-criteria assessments for evaluating the sustainability consequences of such yet unconventional projects.

The findings from these early-stage initiatives are promising but also point at several challenges that need to be addressed to facilitate the further development of ELFM. When it comes to the technical feasibility of resource recovery, for instance, it has been demonstrated that it is possible to upcycle and produce high-quality commodities from deposited waste in laboratory scale. However, further investments are needed to improve the technology-readiness-level of these processes before we know what high-value and marketable commodities can be recovered on an industrial scale.

Recent assessments show that developing cost-efficient and sustainable ELFM projects is indeed challenging. It is possible, but it relies on a strategic selection of suitable landfills for mining, carefully tailored project set-ups and in most cases also altered policy and market conditions. Cost-efficiency is particularly difficult to obtain, where most markets involve a low demand and willingness to pay for secondary resources.

Joakim Krook is associate professor in Industrial ecology at the division of Environmental Technology and Management, Linköping University, Sweden. He is specialized in multidisciplinary systems analysis research on recycling strategies and landfill and urban mining. Joakim was the principal investigator for Linköping University in the EU MSC-ETN NEW-MINE project. More of this article (Veolia Institute) - link - Joakim Krook (Google Scholar) - link - picture (Alam Avani) - link - more like this (landfill) - link

Joakim Krook - University of Linköping