And the environmental impact does not stop there: in some countries, including the US, the report says, paper accounts for almost 40% of all municipal solid waste.

BBC: Half paper waste 'could be saved'

Watkins' one-person energy shop, Watkins Pencor , is a principal owner in Masada Oxynol , a Birmingham company that has devised a way to turn municipal solid waste into fuel-grade ethanol.

FORBES: Show Me the Money

For example, the facility at Pitsea in Britain, on the banks of the River Thames near London, accepts only solid municipal and commercial waste, because European law prohibits the mingling of liquid and solid waste, and of hazardous and non-hazardous waste.

ECONOMIST: The charms of modern landfills