Promoting Landfill Mining for Sustainable Resource Recovery, Circular Economy, and Climate Mitigation: A Review

Kai Chen Goh¹Tonni Agustiono Kurniawan^2*CHOO WOU ONN³Khurmartbek .jumaniyozov⁴Faissal Aziz⁵Abdelkader ANOUZLA⁶Imran - Ali⁷M Imran Khan⁸Alsultan Abdulkareem⁹Dongdong Zhang¹⁰Kasim Sakran Abass¹¹HIN YONG WONG^12,13Mohammad Tariqul Islam¹⁴Kasun Kumara Dissanayake¹⁵

• ¹Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Batu Pahat, Malaysia
• ²Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
• ³INTI International University, Nilai, Malaysia
• ⁴Urgench State University named after Abu Rayhan Biruni, Urgench, Uzbekistan
• ⁵Universite Cadi Ayyad, Marrakesh, Morocco
• ⁶Universite Hassan II de Casablanca, Casablanca, Morocco
• ⁷Jamia Millia Islamia Centre for Management Studies, New Delhi, India
• ⁸Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia
• ⁹Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
• ¹⁰Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot, China
• ¹¹University of Kirkuk, Kirkuk, Iraq
• ¹²Sekolah Tinggi Multi Media MMTC Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
• ¹³Multimedia University, Malacca, Malaysia
• ¹⁴Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
• ¹⁵Karshi State University, Qarshi, Uzbekistan

Recently, landfill mining (LFM) has emerged as a promising strategy for addressing the challenges of waste management, resource recovery, and climate change mitigation. This work explores the potential of landfill mining to transform traditional landfills from environmental liabilities into assets. By recovering nutrients, energy, and materials from landfill leachate, landfill mining can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly methane (CH₄), while contributing to the circular economy. This study evaluates the technologies applied in landfill mining, such as bioreactors, anaerobic digestion, and leachate recirculation, based on published literature from 2000 to 2025, focusing on their value in resource recovery. More specifically, this study aims at recovering renewable CH₄ energy from leachate and extracting macro-nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) which can be turned into commercial fertilizers. This study further analyzes the advantages of landfill mining, which include reducing CH₄ emissions by up to 30% and the potential energy value of 15 GWh from 1.5 million m³ of CH₄. The study also explores the socioeconomic consequences of landfill mining, focusing on employment opportunities, improved waste management systems, and enhanced local community welfare. Additionally, this work discusses the technological, financial, and regulatory challenges that hinder the widespread adoption of landfill mining for promoting circular economy. Finally, this work calls for further investment, research, and policy development to unlock the full potential of landfill mining as a sustainable waste management strategy and a key contributor to resource recovery in the circular economy paradigm.