Moving waste storage towards a circular economy: stakeholder perspectives

Abstract

Many countries are moving towards a circular economy, yet many wastes continue to be landfilled despite often containing valuable resources including critical metals and aggregates. We face also serious strategic challenges with the future supply of these materials. Conventional landfills are unsustainable and many countries have adopted targets to reduce the amount of waste being deposited in them, but alternative solutions are not practical for many wastes and we need to find a more sustainable solution for managing the continued multimillion tonne annual arisings of industrial, mining and mineral wastes. Conventional landfills are also unpopular with local communities, causing negative impacts on the environment and wellbeing, and the associated stigma, during their operation and long-term management making it hard to secure the necessary permits. One alternative is to design waste repositories for industrial and/or mineral-rich wastes in such a way as to build in future resource recovery, thereby moving towards a circular economy solution for materials that would otherwise go to conventional landfill (Sapsford et al., 2023). In these repositories wastes would undergo biogeochemical engineering to separate and concentrate resources and contaminants enabling their extraction, use and/or treatment in the future. At the same time, sites could also be managed to achieve other policy objectives, including for nature conservation and recreation.

This research uses the Q Method to examine differing perspectives on this concept. The Q Method is particularly suitable for issues where there is no consensus of opinion. We asked residents of seven areas in England and Wales with a history of industrial and mining waste disposal, and practitioners working in the waste management sectors to ‘sort’ a series of statements based on the extent of their agreement with the participant’s perspective; this is the Q sort. The statements were drawn from interviews with professionals and covered a range of opinions on this alternative waste management, including its value for resource recovery, who should be responsible for its development and long term management, priorities for industry, local people and policymakers. Analysis of the Q sorts revealed differing perspectives on this concept, and provides insights for researchers and policymakers considering more sustainable alternatives for the long-term management of industrial wastes.