Recycling of post-consumer waste is a cornerstone of environmental movements worldwide. But new technologies like high temperature pyrolysis promise to make incineration of solid waste a clean and viable alternative that creates heating and electricity. It compares very favourably to recycling in efficacy, efficiency and cost, yet can’t shake the old image of 20th-century pollution-causing incinerators. Why?

Access all episodes of End of the Line on Engineering TV along with all of our other series.