James Howells, a British IT worker, mined over 7,500 Bitcoins back in 2009, when they were worth next to nothing. Now a single Bitcoin is worth nearly $100,000, valuing his stash at well over $700 million. Unfortunately, Howells accidentally threw the hard drive he stored the key on in the trash. He has a scheme to get that money back, according to The Guardian. He wants to buy the landfill where it could be buried and dig it up.Howells doesnt exactly know where the hard drive is, but has a solid guess based on when he tossed it in the trash. He has it narrowed down to a particular section of a South Wales landfill that houses 15,000 metric tons of waste. The landfill is approaching maximum capacity, so Howells wants to buy it off the city. Officials have warned that the hard drive is buried under 25,000 cubic meters of waste and earth as it has been there for almost 12 years.While the city hasnt made a final decision, it doesnt look good for Howells and his needle in a haystack plan. There are serious ecological dangers to haphazardly digging up a landfill. The excavation process would be risky and costly. Afterward, the landfill would have to be resealed, another expensive project. The city also has plans to build a solar farm on part of the land.Finally, theres the hard drive itself. Would there be anything recoverable after laying underneath tons and tons of trash for 12 years? It seems highly unlikely, though Howells and his investors must have some serious data retrieval specialists standing by.James Howells threw away $750 million of bitcoin accidentally a decade ago and has been trying to recover the hard drive from a landfill ever since. Today, a judge has rejected his latest attempt to search through 110,000 tons of garbage for his digital gold. pic.twitter.com/douIDzDdQO Documenting itcoin (@DocumentingBTC) January 11, 2025 This is just the latest attempt by Howells to treat the landfill like an archaeological dig site, looking for his lost fortune. Hes been at this for over a decade. In 2017, he pleaded with the city to allow him to dig and officials said no, citing safety concerns and a fear of inciting treasure hunters to descend upon the landfill with shovels.In 2021, he tried to sweeten the pot by offering the city 25 percent of the recovered Bitcoin. Once again, the city said no. In 2022, Howells came up with a particularly bizarre scheme that involved sending in Boston Dynamics robot dogs to do the digging. You can imagine what the city said to that one (it was no.)There was another attempt to turn the landfill into a mining facility, which didnt gain traction. Finally, Howells decided to sue the city of Newport for the right to go traipsing around in the landfill like a really gross, poop-encrusted Indiana Jones. A judge put the kibosh on the lawsuit, ruling that the case had no realistic prospect of succeeding.I lost, they won. Might appeal.See what happens.It is what it is.End of story For Now!!! James Howells (@howelzy) January 9, 2025 So thats where we are now. Howells and his investors are trying to buy the landfill as the city mulls it over. Well update this post when we get some closure on this particularly bizarre story about one mans quest for wealth. In other news, this is totally going to become a limited series on Peacock or something, right?This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-guy-who-accidentally-threw-away-700-million-in-bitcoin-wants-to-buy-a-landfill-to-find-it-165314378.html?src=rss