- Decision Support for Waste Management in Cities Based on the

The objectives of waste management are the protection of human beings and the environment and the conservation of resources, each measured by the type and amount of either harmful emissions or resource consumption. Effective waste management therefore cannot be achieved without a thorough knowledge of the material flows into, out from and within a waste management system. Hence, Material Flow Analysis (MFA) tracking pathways and stocks of goods and substances in a 2 reproducible and transparent way is a prerequisite for successful waste management. To stimulate the improvement of waste management on a global scale, (i) the benefits of MFA have to be advocated, and (ii) MFA must be easy to perform. In this study, a generic MFA model is developed applying the software ‘STAN’, focusing on typical processes and flows, which can be used by any community with ease. In addition, a manual is prepared that assists the users to understand and modify the generic MFA model according to local situations. Hence, users can facilely produce a transparent and straight-forward graphical representation reflecting a local waste management system, provided the input data is sufficiently accurate. Two examples of applying the generic MFA model to two cities of different world regions were demonstrated. The wide-spread use of such models will in the long term lead to a higher degree of data comparability between different regions of the world, paving the road for global cooperation in effective waste management