Managing landfills, restoring ecosystems

In a country like ours, where rapid urbanization is commonplace, around 377 million urban residents live across 7,935 towns and cities, collectively generate 62 MT of municipal solid waste each year. Of this, only 43 MT are collected, 11.9 MT are processed, and 31 MT are disposed of in landfills. Solid Waste Management (SWM) is one of the essential services provided by municipal authorities to maintain cleanliness in urban areas. However, in most cases, municipal authorities still deposit waste haphazardly at dump yards located within or outside city limit.

If the present scenario of waste management is considered, where most of the waste is dumped without treatment, we are actually looking at an estimated 88 square km (equivalent to the size of the New Delhi Municipal Council area) of precious land being brought under waste disposal through landfilling.

Biomining is an advanced waste management approach designed to excavate and remediate legacy waste using bio-remediation techniques, transforming landfill waste into recoverable resources. This sustainable method stabilizes waste with bio-cultures and controlled exposure to air, enabling the extraction of valuable recyclables like plastics, metals, and organic materials. By recycling and repurposing these materials, biomining reduces environmental impacts, frees up land for beneficial use, and supports the circular economy. Landfill Mining strives to manage the legacy MSW which were dumped in the open landfills thus causing sometimes irreparable loss to the local communities and the mother earth at large. The technology aims at stabilising, processing, segregating and responsibly disposing the aggregates thus reclaiming the land which were erstwhile engulfed by this mixed legacy MSW