In Sweden and Germany there are heat-plants, which for example burn garbage instead of sending it to a dump.
If the garbage is clean enough, and doesn't contain things like heavy-metals, the process can be surprisingly clean due to the very high temperatures of combustion and exhaust filtering used.
It can also be relatively carbon-neutral, if you pull most of the plastic out of the waste stream first. The rest is going to be mostly wood, paper and cardboard.
If the garbage is clean enough, and doesn't contain things like heavy-metals, the process can be surprisingly clean due to the very high temperatures of combustion and exhaust filtering used.