The federal government now provides assistance to localities in
developing new means of recovering materials and energy from
solid waste, and encourages private industry to seek similar
goals. One technique being tried involves intensified combustion
of wastes to produce heat for generating power. A second
promising approach is pyrolysis, the thermal decomposition of
wastes in controlled amounts of oxygen to produce valuable
petrochemicals; the residue is an inert char of little bulk.
Another method of reducing solid wastes is to replace
polystyrene packaging with less bulky wrapping made largely of
paper. Wider application of such processes is being advocated
not only to diminish pollution of the environment by solid
waste, but also to conserve natural resources.