Two Case Studies on Landfill Mining: Kössen (Austria), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan)

As a part of mayor flood protection measures in the area (Kössen was the municipality mostly affected in Western Austria by the flood events in summer 2013) it was decided to remove the entire landfill (volume about 50,000 m3) in order to give the river more space. In order to have a sound estimate on disposal cost before starting the excavation works a complex assessment on the physical landfill content and its composition to be expected was performed, consisting of the evaluation of historical data (which was relatively fruitful compared to similar cases), interviews with former operating staff and finally the digging of trenches – total length about 800 m, distance between trenches 10 m – on the entire surface down to the landfill body´s bottom.