Connecticut’s approach can be abbreviated as the 4 Rs: reduce (the amount of waste generated); reuse (items multiple times before discarding); recycle (what can be recycled); and recover (the energy from what cannot be recycled). Connecticut partnered with private sector companies to build and operate five state-of-the-art waste-to-energy facilities to generate clean renewable energy from the waste we were unable to recycle. No longer were we “wasting” that material by burying it. And although it was not a concern at the time, our waste-to-energy facilities actually reduce Connecticut greenhouse gas production by elimination of the methane gasses formed by waste degrading in landfills.