A case study of system integration application and Life Cycle Assessment of Enhanced Landfill Mining: Strategies comparison of waste-to-material and waste-to-energy

An Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) process, which could convert waste to materials (WtM), was proposed and established for the multi-component recycling of a landfill case. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method was used to evaluate the whole life cycle of WtM, and environmental impact was compared with waste-to-energy (WtE) strategy. It was found that WtE strategy could improve primary energy demand. However, the global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP) and ecotoxicity (ET) of the WtM strategy are significantly improved, with the potential values of 328 KgCO₂eq, 3.29 KgSO₂eq and 0.69 CTUe. The WtM strategy realizes multiple recycling of the remaining waste, and promotes the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. In addition, the sensitivity analysis of the WtM strategy showed that the GWP and PED were sensitive to the changes of the combined sorting rate, the recovery rate of recyclables and the utilization rate of recyclables. <i>Implications</i>: In our manuscript, an Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) process, which could convert waste to materials (WtM), was proposed and established for the multi-component recycling of a landfill case. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method was used to evaluate the whole life cycle of WtM, and environmental impact was compared with waste-to-energy(WtE) strategy. It was found that WtE strategy could improve primary energy demand. The WtM strategy realizes multiple recycling of the remaining waste, and promotes the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction.