There are over 20,000 closed landfills across the UK, many of which contain significant resources and/or are in locations suitable for redevelopment. The remediation of sites is challenging due to the costs and risks associated with legacy wastes contained within; the concept of enhanced landfill mining [ELFM] aims to maximise recovery of resources to offset the costs of site remediation.  

The UK ELFM network brings together key stakeholders from across the industry to identify the key challenges and to develop the roadmap for enabling ELFM across the UK as part of a paradigm shift towards resource resilience and land reclamation. 

In this webinar Stuart Wagland will talk about the work of the UK ELFM to bring together leaders in land management and the envrionmental sector to make landfill mining a reality in the UK. 

Our speaker 

Dr Wagland is a Senior Lecturer in Energy and Environmental Chemistry and Deputy Director of Research, based in the Centre for Climate and Environmental Protection at Cranfield University. His extensive research in enhanced landfill mining has been funded through the EPSRC (doctoral training programme) and EU Horizon 2020 projects, including SMART GROUND and the NEW MINE Marie Curie training network. The current REGENERATIS project, funded by Interreg North-West Europe, European Regional Development Fund, explores the recovery of metals from past metallurgical sites and deposits; work as part of this project will explore methods of extracting metals from contaminated sites such as landfills. Dr Wagland coordinates the UK ELFM Network, a growing group of private and public sector organisations working towards enabling ELFM across the UK.