The mining industry is an important part of the society’s green transition by providing the metals and minerals necessary for an increased electrification. One downside of the mining industry is that the mining operation typically contaminates the land to some degree. Excavation-and-refill is a traditional remediation approach for soil contaminations, a method that often could be very expensive and cause a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. This study aims to compare different excavation strategies to find out how they affect the sustainability dimensions and the climate. This is done by using two measuring tools: SAMLA for contaminated sites and Carbon footprint of remediations and other groundworks. The results show that the largest greenhouse gas emissions occur when transporting the contaminated soils to the designated landfill. The different excavation approaches have a positive impact primarily on the ecological and social sustainability dimensions, including reducing the risks for the environment and people’s health. To make excavation-and-refill remediations more sustainable the main focus should be towards the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, together with developing the knowledge regarding the climate impact of remediation methods and to improve the knowledge of alternative, more sustainable, remediation methods. Implementation of environmental regulations focusing on remediations could also be an important factor in the transition towards more sustainable remediation methods.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-197562 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Åström, Magdalena |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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