bridge in downtown stockholm ...

Because it has become so good at recycling, Sweden now is importing 800,000 tons of trash each year from other European countries, including Norway, to power its waste-to-energy program, Public Radio International reports. Burned waste powers 20 percent of Sweden's district heating as well as electricity for roughly 250,000 Swedish homes.

Trash-burning facilities in the United States handle only a small portion of U.S. waste, and most of the burned trash ends up in landfills, according to The New York Times.