There are a variety of waste treatment technologies. The long established method of waste treatment is simply landfill. Other technologies include composting and recycling. There are also a number of new and emerging waste treatment technologies which are able to treat a variety of waste streams.

There is a move away from treating waste as a disposal problem towards recognising waste contains valuable resources that can be recovered. Recovery of value from waste can either be in the form of recovery of resources or recovery of energy.