Municipal solid waste (MSW) composition varies across streams, yet statistically robust system-level assessments remain limited. This study evaluates compositional differences among residential, commercial, and mixed MSW streams using hand-sort characterization data across New York State from 2021 to 2025. A total of 808 field samples (96.7 US tons, 22 sites) were aggregated into 126 composite samples across 16 consolidated material categories. Paper (23.6%), food waste (21.0%), plastics (16.3%), and other organics (15.0%) dominated statewide disposal. Waste stream type was the primary driver of variation: commercial streams contained higher proportions of food waste at 27.0% and packaging plastics at 19.9%, residential streams featured more other organics at 14.7% and yard waste at 7.8%, while mixed streams showed heterogeneous patterns. Paper fractions remained stable across all streams ranging from 23.4% to 24.8%. Multivariate analyses confirmed significant compositional differences (PERMANOVA: F = 2.96, R2 = 0.17, p < 0.001), identifying food waste, plastics, other organics, and paper as primary dissimilarity drivers, while moderate model fit highlighted additional operational influences. These findings demonstrate that MSW composition is systematically structured by stream type, reinforcing the need for stream-specific waste management strategies and demonstrating the value of compositional data analysis in waste research.
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Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.
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