Since the need for raw materials in countries undergoing industrialisation (like China) is rising, the availability of metal and fossil fuel
energy resources (like ores or coal) has changed in recent years. Landfill sites can contain considerable amounts of recyclables and
energy-recoverable materials, therefore, landfill mining is an option for exploiting dumped secondary raw materials, saving primary
sources. For the purposes of this article, two sanitary landfill sites have been chosen for obtaining actual data to determine the resource
potential of Austrian landfills. To evaluate how pretreating waste before disposal affects the resource potential of landfills, the first
landfill site has been selected because it has received untreated waste, whereas mechanically–biologically treated waste was dumped
in the second. The scope of this investigation comprised: (1) waste characterisation by sorting analyses of recovered waste; and (2)
chemical analyses of specific waste fractions for quality assessment regarding potential energy recovery by using it as solid recovered
fuels. The content of eight heavy metals and the net calorific values were determined for the chemical characterisation tests.