Since realizing his error, Howells has petitioned the Newport City Council to allow him to retrieve the hard drive from the landfill, which is expected to hold 110,000 tons of waste. The initiative to unearth the waste is said to have received up to $11 million in venture capital funding.
The two investors who have offered the funds, Hanspeter Jaberg and Karl Wendeborn, would not release them until Howells obtains City Council consent to dig up the property.
“It's obviously a needle in a haystack, and it's a very, very high-risk investment,” Jaberg added, and Howells acknowledged that he has not yet signed any definitive agreement with the backers.
Howells has been on the City Council's tail to dig the site, but his request has been met with a succession of denials. The Council officials justify their stance by claiming that the excavation will pose ecological concerns, which Howells claims he and his team will work hard to mitigate.
In addition to himself, Howells will sort through the waste with the assistance of human sorters, robot dogs, and an AI-powered scanner that resembles a conveyor belt. The team will also include data analysts.
If the harddrive is located and the funds in it are recovered, Howells would keep 30% of the assets, donate 30% to investors, give a share to each member of the team, and distribute £50 (approximately $61 at current exchange rates) in bitcoin to each of Newport's 150,000 citizens.
With the new plans likely to be submitted to City Council in a few weeks, including rubbish recycling and the construction of a solar station above it after the project is completed, Howells believes he may seek legal redress if his request is not granted as a final alternative.
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