By Futurist Thomas Frey
I’ve always thought that our most valuable land in the future will be our landfills—because that’s where we’re burying our most valuable resources.
Think about what we throw away: rare earth metals in electronics, copper in wiring, aluminum in cans, plastics that could be reprocessed, organic matter that could generate energy. We’re essentially creating underground treasure vaults and then forgetting about them, piling more garbage on top year after year.
By 2040, someone will invent what I call robotic earthworms—autonomous mining systems capable of tunneling through landfills, extracting valuable materials, and replacing extracted waste with clean soil. And when that happens, the economics of waste management will invert completely.
Landfills won’t be environmental liabilities we pay to maintain. They’ll be mineral deposits we pay to access.
Continue reading… “Mining Our Garbage: How Robotic Earthworms Will Turn Landfills Into Gold Mines”