<p>In today’s world, resource depletion is unprecedented, necessitating a clear and compelling pursuit of sustainable development from both financial and ecological perspectives. Present and future generations need resource management and use. Waste generation, inherent in societal and economic activities, has traditionally been associated with futility, but its potential to generate wealth and employment has evolved. This review discusses several emerging waste-to-wealth conversion techniques based on environmental polluting materials like municipal solid waste, biomass waste, greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) waste. Under this context, some of the state-of-the-art techniques have been reviewed, such as turning plastic material present in municipal solid waste (MSW) into granules for use in road construction, biological conversion of organic materials presents in the MSW into methane, power generation via co-combustion with coal, conversion of waste biomass into biodiesel. The production of methane via biological conversion of MSW promotes the efficient use of sustainable energy sources and eliminates the acute problem arising from landfilling and greenhouse gas emissions. This process also offers a reliable means to harness the hydrogen energy content present in methane, thus making it a crucial source for meeting the growing demand for clean and sustainable hydrogen fuel. This review also discusses the diverse aspects of CO₂ storage and utility, particularly CO₂ conversion into valuable chemicals.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>