Search

Commonly the product’s life cycle ends up with waste. Conventionally the remains go to the landfill, earlier times – a dumpsite, the least manageable waste disposal method. To ensure that lost to society materials are treated with high priority, the European Union (EU) has implemented the Circular Economy Action Plan, continuing the monitoring of old dumpsites. The hierarchy of waste management points at preventing raw material use at first sight, but the following steps point at material reuse and recycling. The material recovery and revitalisation of old forgotten dumpsites are related to a sustainable and circular economy based direction and the corresponding rules. Candidates for so-called landfill mining (LFM) should be evaluated on a country by country basis. The starting point is inspecting each dumpsite, evaluating prospective materials and space as the real estate benefit and landscapes revitalisation perspective. Another aspect is the emissions diminishment while an innovative approach of landfill closing is taken. A fine fraction of residual waste might be used as a cover – functional composite capping material. It would decrease methane gas emissions in the atmosphere. Last but not least is restoring ecosystem services by revitalising the dump structures as parks and recreation areas and/or transforming them to industry/logistic parks to diminish the need for new urban areas in virgin lands. This study aims to analyse the aspects compulsory when estimating old dumpsites revitalisation projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population growth in coastal areas worldwide call for new challenges to be solved. Blue growth initiatives are elaborated and developed in order to prevent sea resources depletion unsustainably by fishing, mining, transportation, tourism, and waste. The EU Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), EU Groundwater Directive (2002/118/EC) as well as EU Waste Framework Directive (2006/12/EC) are the legislative tools that base the pillars for more detailed action plans that prevents contamination spread, promote clean-up and drives us to sustainable solutions. In EC there are Joint Research Centre (JRC) for Land Management and Natural Hazards Unit to encourage the development and broader use of environmental technologies, including environmental remediation technologies. This paper aims to give different best practices to solve individual cases similarly as in The Network for Industrially Contaminated Lands in Europe (NICOLE), The European Coordination Action for Demonstration of Efficient Soil and Groundwater Remediation (EURODEMO) projects decades ago which also promoted cost-effective soil and groundwater remediation technologies, unifying efforts for joint European Sustainable Development Strategies. Baseline studies and pilot scale test-fields were developed in Baltic Sea Region with Triple helix approach that implements collaboration among stakeholders (firms, authorities and scientists). Interregional collaboration projects on Blue Economy and Sustainable Growth such as “Reviving Baltic Resilience” (RBR), “Enhancement of Green Infrastructure in the Landscape of Lowland Rivers” (ENGRAVE), “Baltic Beach Wrack - Conversion of a Nuisance To a Resource and Asset” (CONTRA) as well as Swedish Institute knowledge exchange project LASUWAMA are just a few examples how to disseminate good practices and implement in local and regional levels. Sustainability and circular economy are steps forward to green innovation revolution [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]