those in less developed countries, do not have formal waste-collection systems. waste handling practices curbside collection is the most common method of disposal in most european countries, canada, new zealand, united states, and many other parts of the developed world in which waste is collected at regular intervals by specialised trucks. this is often associated with curb-side waste segregation. in rural areas, waste may need to be taken to a transfer station. waste collected is then transported to an appropriate disposal facility. in some areas, vacuum collection is used in which waste is transported from the home or commercial premises by vacuum along small bore tubes. systems are in use in europe and north america. in some jurisdictions unsegregated waste is collected at the curb-side or from waste transfer stations and then sorted into recyclables and unusable waste. such systems are capable of sorting large volumes of solid waste, salvaging recyclables, and turning the rest into bio-gas and soil conditioner. in san francisco, the local government established its mandatory recycling and composting ordinance in support of its goal of "zero waste by 2020", requiring everyone in the city to keep recyclables and compostables out of the landfill. the three streams are collected with the curbside "fantastic 3" bin system – blue for recyclables, green for compostables, and black for landfill-bound materials – provided to residents and businesses and serviced by san francisco's sole refuse hauler, recology. the city's "pay-as-you-throw" system charges customers by the volume of landfill-bound materials, which provides a financial incentive to separate recyclables and compostables from other discards. the city's department of the environment's zero waste program has led the city to achieve 80% diversion, the highest diversion rate in north america. other businesses such as waste industries use a variety of colors to distinguish between trash and recycling cans. in addition, in some areas of the world the disposal of municipal solid waste can cause environmental strain due to official not having benchmarks that help measure the environmental sustainability of certain practices. waste segregation recycling point at the gdańsk university of technology this is the separation of wet waste and dry waste. the purpose is to recycle dry waste easily and to use wet waste as compost. when segregating waste, the amount of waste that gets landfilled reduces considerably, resulting in lower levels of air and water pollution. importantly, waste segregation should be based on the type of waste and the most appropriate treatment and disposal. this also makes it easier to apply different processes to the waste, like composting, recycling and incineration. it is important to practice waste management and segregation as a community. one way to practice waste management is to ensure there is awareness. the process of waste segregation should be explained to the community. segregated waste is also often cheaper to dispose of because it does not require as much manual sorting as mixed waste. there are a number of important reasons why waste segregation is important such as legal obligations, cost savings and protection of human health and the environment. institutions should make it as easy as possible for their staff to correctly segregate their waste. this can include labelling, making sure there are enough accessible bins and clearly indicating why segregation is so important. labeling is especially important when dealing with nuclear waste due to how much harm to human health the excess products of the nuclear cycle can cause. financial models in most developed countries, domestic waste disposal is funded from a national or local tax which may be related to income, or property values. commercial and industrial waste disposal is typically charged for as a commercial service, often as an integrated charge which includes disposal costs. this practice may encourage disposal contractors to opt for the cheapest disposal option such as landfill rather than the environmentally best solution such as re-use and recycling. financing of solid waste management projects can be overwhelming for the city government, especially if the government see it as an important service they should render to the citizen. donors and grants are a funding mechanism that is dependent on the interest of the donor organization. as much as it is a good way to develop a city's waste management infrastructure, attracting and utilizing grants is solely reliant on what the donor considers as important. therefore, it may be a challenge for a city government to dictate how the funds should be distributed among the various aspect of waste management. in some areas like taipei, the city government charges its households and industries for the volume of rubbish they produce. waste is collected by the city council only if it is put in government issued rubbish bags. this policy has successfully reduced the amount of waste the city produces and increased the recycling rate. another example from a country that enforces a waste tax is italy. instead of using government issued bags like taipei, the tax is based on two rates: fixed and variable. the fixed rate is based on the size of the house while the variable is determined by the amount of people living in the house. the world bank finances and advises on solid waste management projects using a diverse suite of products and services, including traditional loans, results-based financing, development policy financing, and technical advisory. world bank-financed waste management projects usually address the entire lifecycle of waste right from the point of generation to collection and transportation, and finally treatment and disposal. disposal methods landfill this section is an excerpt from landfill. a landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. in the past, refuse was simply left in piles or thrown into pits; in archeology this is known as a midden. some landfill sites are used for waste management purposes, such as temporary storage, consolidation and transfer, or for various stages of processing waste material, such as sorting, treatment, or recycling. unless they are stabilized, landfills may undergo severe shaking or soil liquefaction of the ground during an earthquake. once full, the area over a landfill site may be reclaimed for other uses. a landfill compaction vehicle in action. spittelau incineration plant in vienna incineration tarastejärvi incineration plant in tampere, finland incineration is a disposal method in which solid organic wastes are subjected to combustion so as to convert them into residue and gaseous products. this method is useful for disposal of both municipal solid waste and solid residue from waste water treatment. this process reduces the volumes of solid waste by 80 to 95 percent. incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as "thermal treatment". incinerators convert waste materials into heat, gas, steam, and ash. incineration is carried out both on a small scale by individuals and on a large scale by industry. it is used to dispose of solid, liquid and gaseous waste. it is recognized as a practical method of disposing of certain hazardous waste materials (such as biological medical waste). incineration is a controversial method of waste disposal, due to issues such as emission of gaseous pollutants including substantial quantities of carbon dioxide. incineration is common in countries such as japan where land is more scarce, as the facilities generally do not require as much area as landfills. waste-to-energy (wte) or energy-from-waste (efw) are broad terms for facilities that burn waste in a furnace or boiler to generate heat, steam or electricity. combustion in an incinerator is not always perfect and there have been concerns about pollutants in gaseous emissions from incinerator stacks. particular concern has focused on some very persistent organic compounds such as dioxins, furans, and pahs, which may be created and which may have serious environmental consequences and some heavy metals such as mercury and lead which can be volatilised in the combustion process.. recycling steel crushed and baled for recycling recycling is a resource recovery practice that refers to the collection and reuse of waste materials such as empty beverage containers. this process involves breaking down and reusing materials that would otherwise be gotten rid of as trash. there are numerous benefits of recycling, and with so many new technologies making even more materials recyclable, it is possible to clean up the earth. recycling not only benefits the environment but also positively affects the economy. the materials from which the items are made can be made into new products. materials for recycling may be collected separately from general waste using dedicated bins and collection vehicles, a procedure called kerbside collection. in some communities, the owner of the waste is required to separate the materials into different bins (e.g. for paper, plastics, metals) prior to its collection. in other communities, all recyclable materials are placed in a single bin for collection, and the sorting is handled later at a central facility. the latter method is known as "single-stream recycling." a recycling point in lappajärvi, finland the most common consumer products recycled include aluminium such as beverage cans, copper such as wire, steel from food and aerosol cans, old steel furnishings or equipment, rubber tyres, polyethylene and pet bottles, glass bottles and jars, paperboard cartons, newspapers, magazines and light paper, and corrugated fiberboard boxes. pvc, ldpe, pp, and ps (see resin identification code) are also recyclable. these items are usually composed of a single type of material, making them relatively easy to recycle into new products. the recycling of complex products (such as computers and electronic equipment) is more difficult, due to the additional dismantling and separation required. the type of material accepted for recycling varies by city and country. each city and country has different recycling programs in place that can handle the various types of recyclable materials. however, certain variation in acceptance is reflected in the resale value of the material once it is reprocessed. some of the types of recycling include waste paper and cardboard, plastic recycling, metal recycling, electronic devices, wood recycling, glass recycling, cloth and textile and so many more. in july 2017, the chinese government announced an import ban of 24 categories of recyclables and solid waste, including plastic, textiles and mixed paper, placing tremendous impact on developed countries globally, which exported directly or indirectly to china. re-use biological reprocessing main articles: composting, home composting, anaerobic digestion, and microbial fuel cell an active compost heap recoverable materials that are organic in nature, such as plant material, food scraps, and paper products, can be recovered through composting and digestion processes to decompose the organic matter. the resulting organic material is then recycled as mulch or compost for agricultural or landscaping purposes. in addition, waste gas from the process (such as methane) can be captured and used for generating electricity and heat (chp/cogeneration) maximising efficiencies. there are different types of composting and digestion methods and technologies. they vary in complexity from simple home compost heaps to large scale industrial digestion of mixed domestic waste. the different methods of biological decomposition are classified as aerobic or anaerobic methods. some methods use the hybrids of these two methods. the anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of solid waste is more environmentally effective than landfill, or incineration. the intention of biological processing in waste management is to control and accelerate the natural process of decomposition of organic matter. (see resource recovery). energy recovery energy recovery from waste is the conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat, electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolyzation, anaerobic digestion, and landfill gas recovery. this process is often called waste-to-energy. energy recovery from waste is part of the non-hazardous waste management hierarchy. using energy recovery to convert non-recyclable waste materials into electricity and heat, generates a renewable energy source and can reduce carbon emissions by offsetting the need for energy from fossil sources as well as reduce methane generation from landfills. globally, waste-to-energy accounts for 16% of waste management. the energy content of waste products can be harnessed directly by using them as a direct combustion fuel, or indirectly by processing them into another type of fuel. thermal treatment ranges from