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Photo of Joakim Johansson

Joakim Johansson

Senior Associate Professor

Hidden away in disused cables and pipes beneath our cities and in landfill sites are vast quantities of unused metals that would be put to better use elsewhere. It is time to put these forgotten and hidden resources back to work.

Circular economy – recycled and renewable resources

A key challenge for a sustainable society is that we must base our well-being on recycled and renewable resources. To achieve this, we need to think innovatively about how we extract, use, recycle and, not least, value and manage natural resources. My research focuses on when, where and how waste and residual products can constitute valuable resources for society and be utilised in a more sustainable way in the long term.

My colleagues and I are working, among other things, on developing methods to identify stocks of materials in society that are no longer in use. Using these methods, we have identified large quantities of metals and other untapped resources left behind in cities’ electricity and telecommunications networks and in various landfill sites. But so far we have only scratched the surface, and there is much left to explore and learn about these forgotten and hidden reserves of resources in our society.

A key part of my research involves developing and evaluating the cost-effectiveness and environmental performance of various strategies, methods and measures for more resource-efficient waste management and recycling. I am currently leading several projects on ‘Cities as Mines’ and ‘Landfills as Mines’. In these projects, we collaborate with recycling and infrastructure companies to analyse the technical, market-related and regulatory measures and changes required to make such resource recovery viable for individual companies and for society as a whole.

I am also involved in teaching at the university in areas such as industrial ecology, waste management and recycling, and methods for the environmental assessment of products, services and systems. In my role as coordinator of an international master’s programme, I meet students from all corners of the globe, which is enriching in many ways.

Short texts

Academic qualifications

  • 2006 Doctor of Technology
  • 2012 Associate Professor in Environmental Systems Analysis and Environmental Management

Teaching

  • Coordinator of the Master’s programme in “Sustainability Engineering and Managementâ€
  • Examiner for the courses “Industrial Ecology†and “Large Technical Systems and the Environmentâ€

Assignments

  • Member of the steering group for the European consortium EURELCO (European Enhanced Landfill Mining Consortium)
  • Editor of a special issue entitled “Urban and Landfill Mining: emerging global perspectives and approaches†in the scientific journal *Journal of Cleaner Production*
  • Member of the advisory board for European research projects, such as the “Christian Doppler Laboratory for Anthropogenic Resources†(Technical University of Vienna, Austria) and “In situ resource recovery from waste repositories†(Cardiff University, UK)
  • Principal supervisor for PhD students Per FrändegÃ¥rd, Nils Johansson and Björn Wallsten
  • Since 2002, member of the research network “The International Society for Industrial Ecologyâ€

Current research networks

  • Competence Center Recycling (CCR)
  • The Re:Source strategic innovation area
  • European Enhanced Landfill Mining Consortium (EURELCO)
  • International Society for Industrial Ecology

Publications

2026

John Laurence Esguerra, Joakim Johansson (2026) Waste Management, Vol. 218, Article 115549 (Article in journal)

2024

John Laurence Esguerra, Annica Carlsson, Joakim Johansson, Stefan Anderberg (2024) Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 468, Article 143014 (Article in journal)
Nils Johansson, Joakim Johansson (2024) Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Vol. 204, Article 107475 (Article in journal)

2023

Eman Hegazy, Stefan Anderberg, Joakim Krook (2023) irc 2023 XVII: international research conference proceedings, p. 85-99 (Conference paper)
Eman Hegazy, Stefan Anderberg, Joakim Krook (2023) irc 2023 XVII: international research conference proceedings, p. 6-19 (Conference paper)

Research

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