Worldwide, about 130 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) are combusted annually in over 600 waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities that produce electricity and steam for district heating and replace metals for recycling.

Since 1995, the global WTE industry has increased by more than 16 million tonnes of MSW. Currently, there are WTE facilities in 35 nations, including large countries such as China and small ones such as Bermuda. Some of the newest plants are located in Asia.

According to a directive from the European Union, landfilling of combustible materials must be phased out within the decade. However, it is not clear that the capital investments required will be made by all of the member countries. Some of them have little WTE capacity and some – for example, Greece – none at all.