Estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indicate the United States produced approximately 59 million tons of hazardous industrial wastes in 1981. Much of this material eventually will be disposed of in landfills. New waste forms produced for improved containment would greatly reduce the hazard associated with movement of the waste into the surrounding environment. Present technology in containment of wastes involves coating grains of waste material in inert material, imbedding waste in polymer matrixes, or coating monoliths with inert material. A number of simple chemical concepts can be used to produce improvements in containment of toxic materials. These include adsorption, chemsorption, passivation, diadochy, and reprecipitation. Each of these concepts is explained and containment of specific waste types are used as examples of each new containment system.