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The federal government now provides assistance to localities in developing new means of recovering materials and energy from solid waste, and encourages private industry to seek similar goals. One technique being tried involves intensified combustion of wastes to produce heat for generating power. A second promising approach is pyrolysis, the thermal decomposition of wastes in controlled amounts of oxygen to produce valuable petrochemicals; the residue is an inert char of little bulk. Another method of reducing solid wastes is to replace polystyrene packaging with less bulky wrapping made largely of paper. Wider application of such processes is being advocated not only to diminish pollution of the environment by solid waste, but also to conserve natural resources.
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