title: Holistic assessment of a landfill mining pilot project in Austria: Methodology and application.
abstract: Basic technical and economic examinations of Austrian mass waste landfills, concerning the recovery of secondary raw materials, have been carried out by the 'LAMIS - Landfill Mining Austria' pilot project for the first time in Austria. A main focus of the research - the subject of this article - was the first devotion of a pilot landfill to an integrated ecological and economic assessment so that its feasibility could be verified before a landfill mining project commenced. A Styrian mass waste landfill had been chosen for this purpose that had been put into operation in 1979 and received mechanically-biologically pre-treated municipal waste till 2012. The whole assessment procedure was divided into preliminary and main assessment phases to evaluate the general suitability of a landfill mining project with little financial and human resource expense. A portfolio chart, based on a questionnaire, was created for the preliminary assessment that, as a result, has provided a recommendation for subsequent investigation - the main assessment phase. In this case, specific economic criteria were assessed by net present value calculation, while ecological or socio-economic criteria were rated by utility analysis, transferring the result into a utility-net present value chart. In the case of the examined pilot landfill, assessing the landfill mining project produced a higher utility but a lower net present value than a landfill leaving-in for aftercare. Since no clearly preferable scenario could be identified this way, a cost-revenue analysis was carried out in addition that determined a dimensionless ratio: the 'utility - net present value quotient' of both scenarios. Comparing this quotient showed unmistakably that in the overall assessment, 'leaving the landfill in aftercare' was preferable to a 'landfill mining project' in that specific case.
authors.affiliation: Montanuniverstaet Leoben, Leoben, Austria robert.hermann@unileoben.ac.at.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hermann
authors.affiliation: University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Rupert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Baumgartner
authors.affiliation: Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vorbach
authors.affiliation: Montanuniverstaet Leoben, Leoben, Austria.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wolfsberger
authors.affiliation: UTC UmweltTechnik und GeoConsulting ZT GmbH, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ragossnig
authors.affiliation: Montanuniverstaet Leoben, Leoben, Austria.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pomberger
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria; D008906:Mining; D010865:Pilot Projects; D064091:Waste Disposal Facilities
keywords: Landfill mining; integrated assessment; mass landfill; net present value analysis; utility analysis