Household garbage contains high quantities of zinc, cadmium, lead, magnesium, copper, potassium, barium, and calcium, not to mention whatever gets included in the vast quantites of plastic containers and wrappings we use, much of which is poisonous when burned. Fortunately much of this can be also be recycled and most of which can't should definitely not be burned. burning increases the concentration of the unburnable materials (lead, copper, cadmium) in the ash, so the ash is probably going to be more toxic than leaving those elements where they were in the first place. If recycling is not an option, bury it. Granted landfills are not the ideal solution. Recycling is obviously preferred, however many modern landfills are made on tightly compacted clay layers which make migration of harmfull elements into water supplies much more difficult than in past years. Some landfills can be tapped for the methane they generate after certain areas are filled in and capped off.
I would have thought composting might be an attractive option, especially in rural areas where the space for composting is more than likely available and the composted products can generally be readily used for improvement of existing soils and growing a really nice vege patch.
For some tips on composting see,
http://users.imag.net/~lon.trea/level1.htm