This educational demonstration presents, as a Sankey diagram, the generic waste management chain of a territory. The data is illustrative: it does not describe any particular local authority, but shows the typical structure of a waste management system.
The diagram starts from the waste sources — household waste (residual, recyclables, glass, food waste, paper), drop-offs at recycling centres (green waste, wood, rubble, bulky items, WEEE, furniture) and commercial waste — and then follows their journeys: collection modes (kerbside, drop-off points, recycling centre, reuse centre), transit and transfer sites, sorting centre, and finally the treatments: incineration with energy recovery, recycling by material (glass, cardboard, paper, plastics), composting. The by-products (compost, energy, bottom ash, residues) appear at the end of the chain.
Produced with the OpenSankey software, this model is used as training material. Explore the diagram: flow and node tags let you filter the chain by waste type or facility type.