Resource recovery is the process of recovering materials or energy from solid waste for reuse. The aim is to make the best use of the economic, environmental, and social costs of these materials before they are permanently laid to rest in a landfill. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and environmentalists have set up a hierarchy for resource recovery: reduce first, then reuse, recycle, incinerate with energy recovery, and landfill last. Following the hierarchy will cut solid waste and reduce resources consumed in production. Solid waste managers have turned to resource recovery in an effort to cut disposal costs, and the hierarchy has become not only an important guideline but a major inspiration for local recycling programs.

After the industrial revolution made a consumer society possible, garbage was considered a resource for a class of people who made their living sorting through open dumps, scavenging for usable...