Utilisation of thermal energy from waste incineration makes sense from an economic point of view. It is both environmentally friendly and reasonably priced. District heating is actually a side product of combined heat and power (or cogeneration) processes.
 
In conventional power plants, almost two thirds of the energy is lost as waste heat; in many waste incineration plants this energy is already made use of. This involves removal of this thermal energy in parallel to electric power generation, and transferring it to the consumers via a separate district heating network.
 
Customers using this heating system do not require any further fuels such as oil and gas, as well as saving on space for own heating boilers.
 
The production of district heating however only makes sense if the end user is located in the immediate vicinity of the point of generation. Rapid energy losses are associated with transportation over long distances. The thermal energy is normally transmitted using water as the transfer medium.
 
About 600 kilowatt-hours can be supplied by incinerating one metric ton of waste. This amount of energy would be enough to power an LCD flat screen TV continuously for 4 months.