The treatment and disposal of solid municipal waste can be technically achieved by methods other than above-ground landfilling ("Goal 2020" of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment). These methods will not trigger socially unacceptable costs. There is a big variety of ways to achieve the goal 2020. This publication is a contribution to the conference "Abfallkolloquium 2005" organised by SIDAF in Freiberg on 6-7 October 2005. The publication summarises the results of an Ecologic project entitled "Future strategy of municipal waste management – Goal 2020".

The disposal of residual household waste in landfills above ground level can be avoided. This is the outcome of seven scenarios that have been set up in the study entitled "A Future Strategy for Municipal Waste Management (Goal 2020)". Commissioned by the German Federal Environmental Agency, the study was supposed to yield a technical basis for a strategy establishing the entire and ecologically sound recycling of municipal waste (goal 2020).