The trend for material and energy recovery from wastes along with the need to reduce greenhouse gases has led to an increased interest in the thermal exploitation of biomass and/or wastes. In this work, the pyrolysis and combustion behavior of 10 biomass and waste materials was investigated in a nonisothermal thermogravimetric analyzer ( TA Q600) at ambient pressure and 150-250-mu m particle size. The effect of the heating rate (5, 20, 50, and 100 degrees C/min) was also considered. The independent parallel first-order reaction model was elaborated for the kinetic analysis of the pyrolysis results. The thermal degradation of the biomass/ waste samples was modeled assuming three or four parallel reactions. At increased heating rates, enhanced pyrolysis rates were achieved. As a result, a slight decrease in total weight loss was observed, accompanied by a systematic increase in pyrolysis starting temperature and an almost linear increase in maximum pyrolysis rate from 5% to 90%/min. Increased combustion reactivity was found for olive kernel and willow, followed by forest residue. The catalytic effect of mineral matter on char oxidation was pronounced in the MBM ( meat and bone meal) sample, leading to a reaction rate decrease and shifting the DTG curve to lower temperatures between 300 and 400 degrees C.