FOCUS SESSION II / 15 October 2025 / 15:30 - 17:00
The future of landfills: sustainable strategies, EU directives, and long-term roles
Moderator: Raffaello Cossu, University of Padova (IT)
Panelists:
Marion Huber-Humer, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (AT)
Robert Gregory, Gregory Environmental Consulting Ltd (UK)
Marco Ritzkowski, HiiCCE GbmH (DE)
Davide Tonini, JRC-Seville (EU)
In recent years, the role of landfills has undergone a profound reassessment, driven by an increasingly stringent European regulatory framework, the need to mitigate environmental impacts, and the transition towards circular economy models.
Once considered merely a residual solution within waste management systems, landfills are now at the center of a technical and scientific debate that is redefining their function, configuration, and future role.
In particular, three strategic directions are emerging:
The integration of sustainable approaches, aimed at minimizing leachate production, promoting energy recovery, and stabilizing waste;
Alignment with EU directives, which call for a progressive reduction in landfill disposal and a greater emphasis on material recovery;
The definition of a long-term role for engineered landfills, including perspectives such as landfill mining, advanced environmental monitoring, and post-operational management.
Alongside these aspects, a new vision is taking shape: the landfill as a sink, a stable geological deposit, designed to safely and permanently contain residual waste streams that are no longer recoverable. In this sense, the landfill becomes a technical component essential to closing the material loop, contributing to environmental stability and to the overall sustainability of the waste management system.
This focus session aims to provide an updated and interdisciplinary overview of the topic, bringing together scientific research, project-based experiences, and regulatory reflections.
The goal is to discuss tools, methodologies, and scenarios for an evolved governance of landfills, aligned with European environmental policies and the principles of technical, economic, and environmental sustainability.
Raffaello Cossu is acknowledged worldwide as a pioneer in the field of waste management He is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Padova (IT). He is Chairman of "Sardinia" International Symposia on Waste Management and Sustainable Landfilling, and “Venice” International Symposia on Biomass and Waste to Energy. He carried out intensive scientific research on landfilling and designed more than 20 landfills in Italy and abroad. President of IWWG (International Waste Working Group) from 2004 to 2009. From 2009 to 2017 he was Editor in Chief of Waste Management, the international scientific journal published by Elsevier. Since 2018 he is Editor in Chief of DETRITUS, the new IWWG multidisciplinary journal for Waste Resources and Residues. In 2017 he was recipient of the IWWG "A Life for Waste" Award. He has given a series of talks and presentations in conferences on Waste Management and Landfilling throughout the world. He has authored more than 200 articles and conference papers and co-edited five international books on waste management and landfilling technology, published by Academic Press, Elsevier, EF and Spon.
