Abstract The solid waste management is, in different contexts, a very critical issue. The use of landfills can no longer be considered a satisfactory environmental solution, therefore new methods have to be chosen and waste-to-energy (WTE) plants would provide an answer. Today's WTE plants are a far cry from their polluting predecessors. Using modern combustion and pollution control technology, WTE plants are able to retrieve considerable amounts of energy from waste combustion while minimizing emissions. As we know, is possible to recover thermal energy by combusting municipal solid waste (MSW) for electricity generation and district heating. However, with everincreasing population and rapid growth of industrialization, there is a great demand for fresh water. So, many communities in arid regions could use thermal energy inherent in MSW to desalinate seawater. This paper makes an initial assessment of this concept and concludes that useful quantities of fresh water can be so produced by linking the two processes with significant saving in fuel consumption, determining relevant economic benefits.