In 2013, 161.5 million metric tons of domestic waste were generated in 261 large and medium-sized cities across China. In 2017, though only 202 of those cities were assessed, the number had jumped by 25 percent to 201.9 million tons, according to the latest report on solid waste control from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Given the dramatic rise, it is hardly surprising the issue has attracted the attention of the central leadership. In an instruction published earlier this month, President Xi Jinping called for the ramping up of efforts to encourage people to understand the importance and necessity of waste sorting.

It was not the first time Xi had delivered such an instruction. In late 2016, he presided over a high-level meeting that mulled measures for a national waste-sorting mechanism.

Meanwhile, in the past three years, the State Council, China’s cabinet, has published two guidelines related to the subject.

This month, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and eight other authorities published a circular ordering more than 300 major cities to introduce garbage-sorting programs this year and to complete the building of garbage-sorting systems by 2025.

Though the earliest trash-sorting pilot program was introduced in 2000, China has yet to see marked progress in the field, but Xi’s latest intervention has encouraged the public and even made a topic as serious as waste disposal an online sensation.

Challenges

Experts said China still faces huge challenges to fully ensure public participation, and the central government should involve and motivate people in a more detailed way, such as via opinion polls, to address the issue.

They added that the government must also coordinate different regions to determine the types of waste low-end, labor-intensive processing businesses can deal with, and implement an overall plan to make sorting and recycling workable.

The biggest challenge is getting people to develop the waste-sorting habit and fully participate in it, said Liu Jianguo, a professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Environment in Beijing.

That view was endorsed by a recent report on people’s environmental behavior, published by the top environmental watchdog in May. It said that while more than 90 percent of the 13,000 interviewees agreed that waste sorting is critical for the environment, only 30 percent said they were doing “well” or “very well” at practicing what they preached.

Moreover, about 64 percent of respondents said there was no point in sorting their household waste because they felt it would be mixed with other types of garbage during transportation.

Liu dismissed that notion. He said the number of people who sort waste remains “extremely low”, which makes special transportation arrangements impractical as a result of high costs. He suggested accelerating the progress of national legislation to address low public participation, as has happened in several regions.

“A law is required to ensure that garbage sorting becomes a compulsory responsibility for residents,” he said.

To that end, the national legislature plans to accelerate mandatory household garbage sorting. On June 25, a draft amendment to the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for deliberation.

Governments above county level will be required to accelerate the construction of garbage-treatment systems, with all materials being sorted prior to dumping, collection, transportation and disposal. Companies and individuals who produce waste will have to pay for the treatment based on charging standards determined by the local governments, according to the amendment.

National plan

Liu called for a national plan to allocate recyclable garbage to processing companies. While many major cities have established basic infrastructure for the disposal of unrecyclable garbage, including that for incineration, landfills and biological treatment facilities for food waste, in some regions the foundations are not yet secure.

China requires an overarching plan for the establishment of dedicated centers for the processing of recyclable waste, some of which has to be transported long distances before it can be dealt with, he said.

However, many local governments are not interested in developing these low-end, labor-intensive processing industries. That means the central leadership should introduce an arrangement to ensure that these industries are allocated materials based on national need, he said, adding that preferential policies should be offered to help businesses better serve the campaign for garbage sorting and recycling.

Zhang Lanying, an associate researcher at the Institute of Rural Reconstruction of China at Southwest University in Chongqing, said the central government needs to promote garbage sorting in a more detailed manner.

“The details determine the success, but China lacks detailed work in promoting garbage sorting,” said Zhang, who has worked in the field since 1999.

She said a lot of work remains to be done to mobilize the public. Opinion surveys, which collect data and also encourage people, may be among the approaches the country could adopt, and NGOs should be encouraged to play a larger role in mobilizing people, which is something they are good at doing.

“It’s very important to understand people’s opinions; without doing that it will be hard to solve the problems,” she said.

Composting

Zhang said one possible direction is on-site disposal of food waste via composting in communities, which is economically and environmentally the most cost-efficient method.

The approach could be an efficient way of ensuring greater participation, and could reduce the amount of waste that needs transporting, and avoid many of the environmental risks posed by landfills and incineration, she said.

The problem is that assessment standards for property management companies are designed to prevent large swarms of flies from gathering in communities, and composting programs for food waste may attract the insects, which makes businesses reluctant to introduce the practice, she said.

In addition, though many people are enthusiastic about planting vegetables, they are not allowed to do so in urban communities. An effective way of encouraging people to participate in garbage sorting would be to allow them to become involved in composting, and then use the compost they produce as fertilizer for plants, she added.

Wang Tianyi, CEO of China Everbright International, Asia’s largest waste-to-energy company which entered the garbage-sorting business last year, said, “Garbage sorting is absolutely the correct long-term way to deal with the growing mountain of waste.”

In January, the State Council unveiled a “no-waste city” pilot plan, which aims to minimize waste generation, maximize its utilization as a resource, safely dispose of solid waste and reduce the use of landfills. The pilot was introduced in 16 urban areas in May, including 11 cities such as Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and selected areas in another five.

Referring to the initiative as a “millennium project”, Wang said it will require an extended period of time to be effective, so it should be promoted step by step.

Garbage sorting cannot address the current waste challenges as it will take time for people to develop the habit and adopt resource-saving, green-consumer lifestyles, even as the volume of waste rises sharply as a result of greater urbanization and rising living standards, he added.

The country’s high population density, with most urban residents living in apartment blocks rather than houses as in Western countries, also adds to the difficulties. “There should be long-term consideration of garbage sorting, but also the introduction of practical measures that can address current challenges,” Wang said.

He believes that a viable choice would be to promote waste sorting, reduce levels of garbage at source and generate power via the incineration of trash simultaneously.

Currently, the majority of waste is disposed of in landfills, which is less effective than incineration. If the use of landfills was reduced, while incineration was increased in the first stage, the country could then halt the two approaches successively as it sees adequate amounts of waste being sorted and recycled, he said.

Wang said it’s possible that Everbright International will not have a waste-to-energy business in the future, and it will simply concentrate on garbage sorting.

In spite of the challenges, Joyce Msuya, deputy executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said she is optimistic about China’s garbage-sorting campaign.

She noted that with regard to air pollution, China has done well in three areas: the active participation of citizens; the introduction of excellent environmental supervision; and enforcement of relevant laws.

“Building on the experience of air pollution, I think there are quite a lot of options to explore for the future of waste management in the circular economy,” she said. “I’m quite optimistic.”