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The Urban Mining Innovation Centre (UMIC) is dedicated to the scientific, business and social approaches to the recovery of valuable materials/metals from urban waste streams. UMIC is a new initiative being developed at the Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering at UBC.
Key Research Priorities
Urban Mining
UMIC goes beyond the recycling of metals from urban curb-side pickup programs and includes the recovery and use of all waste resources in the municipal environment some of which may contain metals and minerals, from e-waste to sewage sludge. Urban mining also involves some significant social and health issues.
Benefits
- UMIC will help policy-makers in both developed and developing countries to transform the current waste management paradigm into a more economically efficient and transparent system producing value added products from the various waste streams with improved environmental outcomes.