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Many organizations in Europe collect data and perform research on municipal solid waste and the secondary raw materials that can be produced from them through recycling, urban mining, or landfill mining. However, the information generated and presented thereby is often highly aggregated, while research activities are many a time isolated. Both reduce the usability of the data and information generated. In order to better structure the knowledge generation on secondary raw materials production from municipal solid waste, we suggest to learn from the traditional raw materials mining industry how to perform an integrated assessment and reporting of anthropogenic resources. This is exemplarily shown for the case of the anthropogenic resource municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash and air-pollution control residues. A network of expert institutions from countries throughout Europe was build up to compile the information on legal and technological aspects for the recovery of different secondary raw materials from these residues, including construction minerals, metals, and salts. We highlight in our article the strength of the combined knowledge of an expert network not only on legal and technological, but also local and site-specific aspects of the recovery of secondary raw materials. By doing so, we hope to kick-off a discussion for how to organize and implement a structure for a better management of knowledge on anthropogenic resources, in order to provide a sustainable supply of secondary raw materials for a greener and more circular economy.

Industrial wastes have the potential to become an alternative source (flow) of strategic metals and, consequently, their valorization can be seen as a move towards resources efficiency and circular economy. This work aims to decipher the critical raw materials potential from solid residues produced by Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI), namely bottom and fly ashes. These solid residues, coming from different leading companies of MSWI in northern Italy, have been selected because they can be accounted for urban mining purposes and represent high elements flows, still poorly explored. In the present work I addressed the potential of MSWI solid residues as an alternative source of critical raw materials by studying the material chemistry, its resources flow and the evaluation of metals upgrading and recovery. Finally, I tackled some environmental and economic issues.

The main objective of my visit to the IRM was to explore the magnetic properties of the solid by-products, i.e., bottom (BA) and fly ashes (FA), deriving from municipal solid waste incinerators. The goal of this project is to decipher the sources of the magnetic properties previously observed in the BA and FA (Funari et al., 2016), and estimate the concentration of SP grains.

Municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI) ashes are being investigated in order to understand recovery opportunities with the final aim of diversifying sourcing and partly overcoming raw materials shortage. Turning waste into resource in the most efficient way is challenging, especially when secondary critical raw materials are the final objectives of recovery. The advances on bio- and hydrometallurgy are crucial for enhanced metals recovery and mitigation of environmental risks directly associated with the treatment of solid waste. Here we present preliminary results of bio- and hydrometallurgical experiments for critical metals recovery from MSWI fly ash and a comparison of the performance characteristics between acid leaching and acid bioleaching. Sulphuric acid leaching showed the advantage of reduction and mobilisation of Ca, thus improving the quality of the final product. Conversely, bioleaching experiments were performed in a mixed culture of T. ferrooxidans and T. thiooxidans and their efficiency was evaluated over a period of several weeks; reagents involved are lower than those needed for acid leaching thus making the process economically feasible and more environmental friendly. The influence of the experimental parameters will be discussed for both acid leaching and acid bioleaching procedures.