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EVALUATION OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA LANDFILL MINING DEMONSTRATION
Citation:
von Stein, E. AND G. Savage. EVALUATION OF COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA LANDFILL MINING DEMONSTRATION. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-93/163 (NTIS 94-114824), 1993.
Impact/Purpose:
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Description:
This report describes the landfill mining process as demonstrated under the U.S. EPA, Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory's Municipal Waste Innovative Technology Evaluation (MITE) Program by the Collier County (Florida) Solid Waste Management Department. Landfill mining is the recovery of useful resources (e.g., cover soil) from previously landfilled solid wastes. During the two week demonstration 265 MT (292 tons) of excavated material was mechanically processed. The characteristics of the recovered soil fraction were similar to a low-grade MSW compost. State regulators have approved the use of the soil fraction as landfill cover. Samples of the recovered ferrous and plastics fractions were evaluated by potential markets; none felt that the materials were competitive with recyclables available from source-separation programs. In the analysis of project economics, then, no revenues were available to offset the costs. Acquisition of a similar system and preparation of a processing site are estimated to cost, excluding legal and engineering fees, approximately $1,200,000. Amortized capital costs and operating costs for one year was estimated to be $1,020,000. Based on the demonstration period, the unit cost was $127/MT ($115/ton) of material mined.