Grades

You all get an A!
On our last class I'm bringing pizza and brownies! (Not those kind of brownies.)
(I'm not sure how this works when we meet online but that is a problem for the future.)

My class was "renewable energy" not "alternative energy" so while I didn't declare either answer right or wrong, I did consider waste to energy to be renewable. I did a Google search today and found one energy publication that said it is renewable energy and another that said it is not. I told Karen about the question and she said it is not renewable. Then I said that we'll never run out of trash and she laughed and agreed. 

That said, you are absolutely correct. The saying is, "reduce, reuse, recycle." Emphasis should be on the first part, reducing waste. We could go on and on about that, not just consuming less as end-users but "wasting" less in the production process. 

Then we re-use.

Then we recycle everything.

Better design decreases the waste, and the toxicity of the waste, increases the opportunity to re-use, and makes it easier to recycle. 

And only then would we burn this stuff which can provide power and reduce the volume of the final stuff. Some plants, who have taken great care with what goes in, can use the ash for fertilizer. Others can use the residue for construction. So maybe we could argue that this at the end is more re-use?
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This may be naive or idiotic, but I think our new little pet has left. While we have a lovely, welcoming home, I suspect we didn't have exciting food in accessible places. At least, we haven't seen our friend or evidence of our friend for a while.