• Target the high-reward products. Different materials have different payoffs in terms of how recycling saves energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. According to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, recycling aluminum cans results in the largest net energy and greenhouse gas benefit.
• The ease of recycling – e.g. the proximity of processing facilities.
• The market value of the materials.
• Other environmental costs and benefits for different materials.

Emerging Practices and Technologies

• Anaerobic digestion of organic wastes to produce biogas as an energy source.
• Biomass gasification or pyrolysis to produce liquid or gas fuel - though this use of resources must be weighed against recycling alternatives for different waste materials.
• Co-firing coal and biomass at power plants that now run on coal, as a way of reducing the amount of coal and its heavy toll on greenhouse gas emissions. 
• Landfill bioreactors to maximize landfill gas production as an energy source.