This method has three specific advantages:
* Each plot is receiving its topsoil and sub-soil back to its original position before one year, i.e. before its biolife and nutrients are lost. It is expected that in most cases the land will grow at least grass on it naturally (as in grazing fields) leading to a natural soil conservation. It may be worth mentioning here that according to Haigh (1977) spreading a vegetation cover is the best method to check the rate of accelerated soil erosion on the surfaces disturbed by mining activities. Aforestation or plantation or cultivation may be taken up later, if so required. These areas will now be covered by relatively loose soil containing composted mulches and therefore will be suitable for cultivation, which will gradually lead to compaction.

* By this method only two plots of land are getting damaged in a single phase of time, while the rest of the area will remain usable, at least for agricultural purpose.

* The method requires only planned activity and soil rehandling but not much of extra cost to achieve greening of the area.

The natural vegetation and compaction thus obtained should be followed by cultivation. This type of vegetation in two phases is practiced in outer Himalayas (Shastry et al., 1981). Regarding species selection, Kilmartin & Haigh (1988) has indicated that, the first priority is to clothe the ground with some kind of vegetation. Moreover, it is easier to construct a stable self-sustaining ecosystem by using local natural biological resources. The best solution may be to use species which are naturally colonizing in the sites around.

For cases where this system cannot be applied, an alternative to "continuous and concurrent reclamation mining" is "growing greenery without topsoil" as detailed in section 5.4 through Fig. 5.3.

5.6 Solid waste management
5.6.1 Management strategy
The solid waste in case of OC mining is generally OB, or tailings or by-products of mineral processing (SP).

The best way of solid waste management is to use-it-up. That part of solid waste not used in quarry backfilling forms a dump, occupies some land and disturbs the surrounding land also which has already been discussed.

The use of dump material depends on its quality (physical & chemical characteristics). If the dump is composed of igneous or metamorphic or any very hard and compact rock, its crushing strength bearing strength etc. should be tested in the laboratory for its suitability as construction material/road metal etc. and may be used suitably. The softer ones, i.e. those coming out from sedimentary deposits should be better used for backfilling the quarries. Such materials can also be used for stabilising slopes by forming "ripraps" (Coates 1981).

5.6.2 Dump management
Volume of solid waste, which cannot be used-up by any means may be allowed to form "waste dumps".
* The location to form the waste dump should be decided through LUMP. Its topsoil should be scrapped first to use somewhere else or to store for future use. During site selection for forming such waste dumps, the regions LU, topography hydrogeology etc. should be thoroughly studied. The importance and procedure of such activity has been detailed in a model study made on JCF (Ghosh & Ghosh 1990b).
* The final shape of waste dump should be such that the surfaces are stable. The out slopes should not exceed 20° from the horizontal.
* Long slopes allow high surface runoff and hence high erosion, so the slope surfaces should be short lengthed so that the vertical fall in individual terrace donot exceed 10m.
* Drainage lines (grassed water ways) should be constructed to prevent runoff on slope and gully erosion.
* Any gully, if forms even after above care, should be plugged at different places on the slope (across the length of the gully) at a distance of 1 to 2 m such that base of upper barrier is slightly below the top of the next barrier downslope (section 5.7.5).
* The dumps should be bounded by toe-barriers around the base. These should be low height walls with sloping walls outside so that the base is wider than the top with openings at selected sites so that the water can be collected at suitable sites, treated and allowed to flow through planned avenue and not to create any land degradation.

The basic clue of "waste management" is "waste recycling". This is true for "waste space" or "waste dump" even. As a quarry (space) can be best managed by using it for any purpose, similar is the case of a waste dump, when it acts as a "resource". An old example very relevant at this point is the early mining of iron ore in the Adirondack mountains, where the old tailing dumps of ilmenite were rewarked as a resource for Ti and the dump was being used up (as detailed in section 3.3.2).

The basis of LUMP follows from the above. Any piece of land holding some unusable solid, liquid or condition (chemical or physical) needs altering that unusable one to usable state. The exact activity required will be case specific, as the situations may vary between wide ranges, some of which have already been discussed.