The study described in this report represents a new approach to the analysis of household solid waste. Its purpose is to provide a method by which not only the current materials composition of this waste, but also the effects of new government policies or other significant developments on this composition--and on the possibilities for resource recovery--can be readily ascertained. This approach involves the use of economic input-output analysis as a means of tracing the flows of physical materials from the household sector where they are last used, back to the industries from which they (or the products of which they are a part) are purchased. This analysis is based on a matrix that shows the values of purchases by every sector of the economy from every other sector during a given time period. From such a base, a dynamic model may be developed to show the levels of future purchases, sector-by-sector. By converting the values of purchases into the weights of basic material inputs, it is then possible to infer the kinds and quantities of materials embodied in the products discarded by households.