The optimization of household waste collection in China is facing more complex and structural problems related to waste
reduction and recycling than that of disposal. A rigorous decision-making model of matter-element analysis (MEA) combined
with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is developed to validate the feasibility and practicality of five alternatives to separated
waste collection. This model is based on a survey of residents’ cognition and inclination toward the optimization of the collection
of separated household waste. A case study of residential areas in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China, demonstrates that the
alternative of two rough categories of household waste (i.e., kitchen waste and other waste) is preferable according to local waste
management conditions and urban development status in the short term. The combined AHP–MEA model, validated by AHP
hierarchy and evaluated by the MEA process, also facilitates decision-making processes with multiple-alternative evaluation
problems, especially in waste management.