Stocks of finite resources in the technosphere continue to grow due to human activity, at the expense ofdecreasing in-ground deposits. Human activity, in other words, is changing the prerequisites for mineralextraction. For that reason, mining will probably have to adapt accordingly, with more emphasis on theexploitation of previously extracted minerals.This study reviews the prevailing concepts for mining the technosphere as well as actual efforts to doso, the objectives for mining, the scale of the initiatives, and what makes them different from other reuseand recycling concepts. Prevailing concepts such as “urban mining,” however, are inadequate guides tothe complexity of the technosphere, as these concepts are inconsistently defined and disorganized, oftenoverlapping when it comes to which stocks they address. This review of these efforts and their potentialis therefore organized around a new taxonomy based on the umbrella concept technospheric mining,defined as the extraction of technospheric stocks of minerals that have been excluded from ongoinganthropogenic material flows.An analysis on the basis of this taxonomy shows that the prevailing mining initiatives are generallyscattered and often driven by environmental factors, in which metal recovery is viewed as an additionalsource of revenue. However, development of technology, specialized actors and new business modelsand policy instruments, could lead to technospheric mining operations becoming a profit-drivenbusiness.

This article discusses the transformation of landfills from dumps toan alchemist’s dream – gold mines – by highlighting five Swedishcase studies where the landfill has been extracted. It is shown thatlandfills are embedded in broader socio-technical systems, includingtechnology, policies, culture, norms, markets, and networks.These artifacts have aligned into mutual dependencies under thenotion that landfills are garbage dumps, which has entrapped thelandfill in the prevailing “dump regime”. At the present time there isa window of opportunity to escape the “dump regime.” Dumps arebeing challenged by the circular economy, which has establishedinstability in the regime. However, for landfills to transform into“gold mines” creative entrepreneurs with the capacity to understandthe emergent properties of deposition – i.e. giving rise to aresource base – will be key. For further transformation, specializedmining actors, collaboration and further exogenous changes suchas higher metal prices are necessary.

This article examines and contrasts the level of Swedish governmental subsidies to two different ways of producing metal: the metal recycling sector and the metal mining sector. In 2010, the metal mining sector was subsidized by € 40 million and the metal recycling sector € 0.6 million. If the exemption from landfill tax is considered a subsidy, the level of subsidization to the metal mining sector changes drastically to approximately € 4000 million. Regardless of how the concept “subsidy” is defined, the metal mining sector in total and per tonne of metal produced is fundamentally more highly subsidized than the metal recycling sector. The value added per tonne of metal produced for the metal recycling sector appears to be higher than for the metal mining sector. The current dominant trend in the Swedish mineral strategy is nevertheless to increase the level of subsidization to the metal mining sector.

This paper examines the market potential of disposed shredder waste, a resource that is increasingly emphasized as a future mine. A framework with gate requirements of various outlets was developed and contrasted with a pilot project focusing on excavated waste from a shredder landfill, sorted in an advanced recycling facility. Only the smallest fraction by percentage had an outlet, the metals (8%), which were sold according to a lower quality class. The other fractions (92%) were not accepted for incineration, as construction materials or even for re-deposition. Previous studies have shown similar lack of marketability. This means that even if one fraction can be recovered, the outlet of the other material is often unpredictable, resulting in a waste disposal problem, which easily prevents a landfill mining project altogether. This calls for marketability and usability of deposited waste to become a central issue for landfill mining research. The paper concludes by discussing how concerned actors can enhance the marketability, for example by pre-treating the disposed waste to acclimatize it to existing sorting methods. However, for concerned actors to become interested in approaching unconventional resources such as deposited waste, greater regulatory flexibility is needed in which, for example, re-deposition could be allowed as long as the environmental benefits of the projects outweigh the disadvantages.

Recycling of minerals from waste deposits could potentially double the recycling flows while offering an opportunity to address the many problematic landfills. However, this type of activity, i.e., landfill mining, brings many advantages, risks and uncertainties and lacks economic feasibility. Therefore, we investigate the capacity of the Swedish authorities to navigate the environmental, resource, and economic conditions of landfill mining and their attitude to support such radical recycling alternatives towards a resource transition.

By analyzing three governmental commissions on landfill mining, we show how the authorities seem unable to embrace the complexity of the concept. When landfill mining is framed as a remediation activity the authorities are positive in support, but when it is framed as a mining activity the authorities are negative. Landfill mining is evaluated based on how conventional practices work, with one and only one purpose: to extract resources or remediation. That traditional mining was a starting point in the evaluation becomes particularly obvious when the resource potential shall be evaluated. The resource potential of landfills is assessed based on metals with a high occurrence in the bedrock. If the potential instead had been based on metals with low incidence in the Swedish bedrock, the potential would have been found in the human built environment.

Secondary resources in landfills seem to lack an institutional affiliation, since the institutional arrangements that are responsible for landfills primarily perceive them as pollution, while the institutions responsible for resources, on the other hand, assume them to be found in the bedrock. Finally, we suggest how the institutional capacity for a resource transition can increase by the introduction of a broader approach when evaluating emerging alternatives and a new institutional order.