| Steps | Description |
| Collect of mother sample | From waste storage site: Use the amount of load from a waste transporter truck [60] It should represent at least a whole week [28] [58] At household level: Collect wastes from 40 to 857 households [10] IEA: the weight varies from 0.5 to 12 tonnes [54] EU: collect a minimum of six samples from each stratum [28] or 45 m3 of waste sample in total [54] |
| Sub-sampling | Hand sorting of mother sample into multiple categories [16] [28] [50] [52] [54] [56] Weight: 100 kg [28] IEA: 9 to 19 categories (kitchen and garden waste, paper and cardboard, plastics, metals, textiles, fuels, non-fuels, fine fractions and glass) with 2 or 3 levels of categories [28] [54] |
| Prepare sample for the laboratory | Mass reduction by: coning and quartering [45] [50] [54] and the flat pile [45] [52] [53] Sample weight: 2 - 4 kg for each category [52] |
| Drying and shredding | Drying for 1 or 2 days (biowaste: in a laboratory oven at 105˚C for 24 hours [47] [51] [52] [56] , other categories: twice at 80˚C for 24 hours until constant weight [52] ) Shredding of dry samples by Retsch SM300 or SM400 or SM2000 chipper [52] or the ARP CS 2000 shredder [45] Shredding of non-combustible waste and glass by Jaw crusher and a vibrating disc mill, respectively Mass reduction by the Riffle splitter: 5-10 g sample for each category [45] [52] |
| Proximate and ultimate analysis | Proximate analysis: 1 g of sample Ultimate analysis: 1-5 g of sample [49] [53] |