PROBLEM: Any waste generated by a process, municipality, or company has to be dealt with in an environmentally sound manner.  The most regulated and publicly discussed of these waste streams is nuclear waste.  However; in terms of volume this waste is minuscule compared to municipal and construction waste.  We can all agree that reducing waste and recycling are beneficial to everyone and the environment, costs and society: waste not - want not.  The problem is that reducing, reusing, and recycling to do not eliminate waste.  Medical waste is a prime example of this: you would walk out of the doctor's office if they rummaged a used syringe from the sharps container to give you a shot.  This would be dangerous and is not an area where recycling is always beneficial.   As consumers it is universally agreed that recycling is a good idea, but where is the limit?  At what point do we throw something out instead of recycling it?  When we throw something out is there a way that we can be assured as consumers that if something does get thrown out that it will be used for something beyond building an eternally decaying pile of garbage.  In the united States we are taught all through school to reduce reuse and recycle.  It is the battle cry of environmentalist, environmentally conscious consumers, and even cost conscious business.  So when the three R's are no longer an option do we blast the waste into a proverbial black hole where we don't need to worry about it?  Out of sight, out of mind, right?  It is all sent to the landfills.  It is transported daily to locations out of the view of the beautiful city skyline to rot away until the next generations will forget about it.  Let's be honest about this LANDFILLS STINK!  The United States of America is one of the last remaining places in the world where we have this culture that burning garbage is bad for the environment but burying it in an eternal tomb is better.  In Europe and places where land is a premium, regulators have finally realized the benefits of and the superior advantages of waste reduction through thermal processing.  These regulators are creating mandates that all waste needs to be burned before being buried.  This change in attitude towards thermal waste processing has provided more benefits than previously thought.  Thermal processing of waste is the future of waste management whether we like it or not.  The advantages are overwhelming and make sense not just for small communities that may only have a few hundred tons of waste a year but for increasingly large cities that produce hundreds of thousands of tons of waste per year.  See the Disadvantages of Landfilling Waste here.  See the Advantages of Thermal Waste Processing here.