[imbusy111]

We have landfills that eventually catch fire from all the compostable organic material, and then poison our air. Don't forget the potential leakage into groundwater.

I don't understand, why trash incineration is not a thing in the US. How many years has the landfill fire next to Los Angeles been burning now?

[garciasn]

The US has vast expanses of empty land, making landfilling a relatively inexpensive and straightforward option for waste disposal when compared to the high up-front costs associated with building a trash incineration system, especially one that effectively mitigates the two major waste byproducts of the effort: (1) air pollution and (2) ash.

Now, the air pollution thing is easier to deal with than the ash as the resulting ash is roughly 20% of the original trash volume; however it is LOADED with heavy metals and other toxins which are not removed during the burn. This ash then ends up in not only landfills, but SPECIALIZED landfills which are equipped to handle the environmental issues associated. This obviously lowers the volume in traditional landfills, but at much higher concentration of toxic materials that raise permanent storage costs, (simplistically) doubling+ the costs (incineration cost + toxic storage cost).

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That said, of those trash incinerators active in the US today, many (most?) are heading for the end of their operational lifespan and the high costs associated with meeting modern environmental standards to bring new ones online are generally seen as a serious negative, especially with NIMBYs driving their eradication. This leaves the only other option: trucking the trash somewhere that is just 'hidden' or 'not here'.