Study on the stabilization processes is important to follow the landfill process and evaluate quality of organic matters. However, a simple, yet reliable and widely acceptable analytical tool to evaluate the degree of stability remains to be found. Temperature programmed combustion and pyrolysis tests were carried out to investigate the stabilization degree of sludges and demonstrate applicability of thermal methods in waste management. By the combination of combustion and pyrolysis, we can get more information of the sludges and reaction happened in the programmed heating process than combustion only. TG/DTG analysis of sludge combustion helps us to know about the variation of different kinds of organic matters and the degradation degree of the anaerobic stabilization process. The decreasing tendency of DSC peaks reveals the stabilization process is still ongoing. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.