Coal refuse

Piles of coal refuse can have significant negative environmental consequences, including the leaching of iron, manganese, and aluminum residues into waterways and acid mine drainage.

Because most coal refuse harbors toxic components, it is not easily reclaimed by replanting with plants like beach grasses.

[1] Modern fluidized bed combustion with limestone for acid gas control can lower toxin emissions to acceptable levels,[a] concentrating the toxicity into waste ash.

The Grant Town Power Project in West Virginia burns 530,000 tons of coal refuse annually, allowing the reclaimation of 30 acres of land per year.

[7] The word in reference to coal waste is of uncertain origin but goes back over 200 years, long before a false etymology as a backronym for "garbage of bituminous"[17] was humorously invented to "explain" it.

In the 1966 Aberfan disaster in Wales, a colliery spoil tip collapsed, engulfing a school and killing 116 children and 28 adults.