Moving waste storage towards a circular economy: barriers and opportunities

Many countries have policies to transition to a circular economy, yet wastes continue to be landfilled despite often containing valuable resources. Conventional landfills are unsustainable and many countries have adopted targets to reduce the amount of waste being deposited in them. This paper explores the barriers and opportunities of a novel approach to landfill design: the 'ASPIRE waste repository concept' where ore-forming processes are engineered in, so that the valuable components of waste can be recovered. To do so, we draw on a literature review and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with twenty stakeholders from the waste management, engineering and environmental management sectors. We found that there are significant opportunities for the ASPIRE concept, particularly in current policy towards a circular economy and the liabilities associated with the long-term storage of waste in landfills. However, the analysis highlighted several interwoven barriers that need to be overcome, including the need to shift the economic conditions and regulatory framework to enable the technology, and demonstrate the environmental performance of the repositories and the long-term efficacy of the resource recovery. If these could be addressed, this ASPIRE concept could provide a practicable circular economy solution for materials that would otherwise go to conventional landfill.