Short answers, pulled from the story.
Approximately a quarter of all municipal solid terrestrial waste is never collected, and an additional quarter is mismanaged after collection, often burned in open and uncontrolled fires. Combined, this amounts to close to one billion tonnes of mismanaged waste per year.
The first large-scale incinerator was built in Nottingham in 1874, constructed by Manlove, Alliott and Co. Ltd. to the design of Alfred Fryer. These early plants were called "destructors" and faced opposition because of the large amounts of ash they scattered over neighbouring areas.
Effective waste management can be relatively expensive, with one report estimating it usually comprises 20% to 50% of municipal budgets.
The waste hierarchy is a pyramid that ranks waste management strategies by their desirability. Prevention sits at the top, followed by reuse, recycling and composting, material and energy recovery, and finally disposal in landfills or incineration without energy recovery. The goal is to extract maximum value from products and generate minimum end waste.
The Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 projects municipal solid waste to rise from 2.3 billion tonnes in 2023 to 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050. The direct cost of managing that waste could reach 640.3 billion US dollars annually by 2050 if current practices continue without reform.
San Francisco achieved an 80% diversion rate, the highest of any major city in North America. The program uses a three-bin system, blue for recyclables, green for compostables, and black for landfill material, combined with a Pay-As-You-Throw charge based on the volume of landfill waste set out by each resident or business.