In the US, 55% of household waste goes to landfills. In Sweden, though, only 4% of household waste ends up in landfills. That's partially possible because of the Waste-to-Energy Program, which uses waste to power public buildings and private homes.
Sweden has even begun importing trash from other countries in order to feed this program. They are being paid to do this.
More reading: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/10/28/163823839/sweden-wants-yo...
and: http://www.avfallsverige.se/fileadmin/uploads/forbranning_eng.pdf