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Emerging Trend in Achieving ‘Zero Waste’ and Sustainable Consumption

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 18787

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Quande Qin

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Guest Editor

College of Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518000, China
Interests: environmental management and policy; environmental management system simulation and modelling

Prof. Dr. Chao-Heng Tseng

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Guest Editor

Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan
Interests: waste management; air pollution

Dr. Junting Zhang

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Guest Editor

College of Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518000, China
Interests: municipal solid waste management; life cycle assessment of waste management system; energy recovery from organic waste

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the ‘Zero waste’ concept has become a viral and omnipresent phrase, and it is expected that a visionary waste management system could be built under this concept to achieve the sustainable development and comprehensive use of resources. A number of countries, provinces or states, as well as a range of companies have already implemented the ‘Zero Waste’ concept in waste management. However, nobody has managed it thus far, given the many scientific and practical roadblocks.

Professionals in waste management systems perceive and apply the ‘Zero waste’ concept in different ways, generating a variety of definitions, including ‘Zero waste emissions (minimum environmental impact to surrounding environment’, ‘Zero waste to traditional treatment (landfill or energy recovery)’ as well as ‘Zero specific type of waste (plastic, food or package waste)’. Currently, most cities have only developed waste management goals targeting ‘Zero waste to landfill’ by diverting waste to other treatment plants. More practical efforts should be undertaken through the whole life cycle of a product from the extraction of resources to the final disposal, including technologies, laws and legislations, as well as product design to establish a ‘Zero waste’ system.

This Special Issue aims to gather research papers regarding recent developments and innovation in applying the ‘Zero waste’ concept to achieve sustainable waste management. We invite researchers to submit research and review articles describing novel insights concerning existing or potential ‘Zero waste’ efforts to inspire cities, companies, individual and the waste management industry to further develop novel ‘Zero waste’ management strategies and implementation plans.

This topic will include a series of research and review articles covering, but not limited to, the following subjects:

(1) Case study applying the ‘Zero-waste’ concept with achievements and implications in waste management at national, regional and local levels;

(2) Policy and regulation system to support, guide and promote ‘Zero waste’ practices within local communities, government institutes and business organizations;

(3) Practices, programs and strategies in improving the management of either a specific type of waste or increasing the efficiency of the waste management system;

(4) Technical progress in increasing material and energy recovery from waste management processes, such as recycling, composting and other advanced waste treatment technologies;

(5) Environmental, economic and social evaluation of waste management system to mitigate the impact of waste and to achieve ‘Zero waste’ sustainability and continued economic growth;

(6) Product or process design to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, as well as to conserve and recover resources.

Prof. Dr. Quande Qin
Prof. Dr. Chao-Heng Tseng
Dr. Junting Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

zero waste
resource recovery
sustainable development
waste management
systematical design

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 2258 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Characteristics of Solid Waste Management Policy in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

by Zhenjie Yang, Canpeng Huang, Fengjie Liao, Fat Iam Lam, Lue Li, Quande Qin and Bi Fan

Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 8160; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15108160 - 17 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1885

Abstract

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) plays an important role in China’s development strategy. With recent GDP growth and high population density, solid waste generation has emerged as a significant challenge for the region. This study sought to clarify GBA’s solid waste management policies by constructing a two-dimensional policy analysis framework covering nearly 99 available policy texts. This quantitative method provides an explanatory framework for solid waste management policy in GBA, identifying the main policy objectives and instruments as well as making comparisons. Additionally, given the variations in policy format resulting from regime differences, this paper utilizes a novel approach to encode the documents. The results of the study indicate that both Macao and Hong Kong have made greater progress than Shenzhen in waste management development. While Shenzhen is primarily focused on source control, Macao and Hong Kong have transitioned to the recycling stage, with Hong Kong having a more advanced system. It is recommended that Shenzhen increase its engagement in information sharing, learning, and collaboration with Macao and Hong Kong. Moreover, it is observed that Shenzhen’s waste management approach relies heavily on administrative measures, whereas Macao and Hong Kong have implemented social participation-oriented and economic incentives-oriented policies, respectively. There is also an adaptation deviation between Waste Collection and Treatment Development (WCTD) and the policy instruments used to achieve it in the three cities. It is imperative that the three governments utilize their policy tools in an effective manner and have a rational use of power and the performance of functions. These findings can provide recommendations for promoting inter-city learning and collaboration in the GBA. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Trend in Achieving ‘Zero Waste’ and Sustainable Consumption)

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19 pages, 2285 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Role of Government in the Construction of Zero-Waste Cities: A Case Study of China’s Pearl River Delta City Cluster

by Zhengliang Zhang and Junfei Teng

Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1258; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021258 - 9 Jan 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1942

Abstract

Urbanization and industrialization have contributed to the rapid growth of solid waste production, posing serious challenges to the urban governance field. Consequently, the concept of “zero waste” (ZW) has gradually become the common goal pursued by human society. At the end of 2021, China initiated the second phase of ZW city (ZWC) construction. Several pilot areas were selected and these areas have exhibited the characteristics of regionalization in distribution. However, previous studies on China’s ZWCs have mainly summarized and reflected on the results of the first phase of practice, ignoring the development requirements of city cluster construction. The transformation from the ZWC to “zero-waste city clusters” (ZWCCs) requires the government, as a leader, to change its role to adapt to the new development trend. This study selects Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta City Cluster (PRDCC) in the pilot cities as the research objects to discuss the successful experience of Shenzhen in terms of the improvement of the legal framework, establishment of a centralized park governance model, and establishment of an information platform. Based on the specific situation of the PRDCC, the study analyzes how the government should accomplish the transformation of its role and re-stablish its positioning. Furthermore, a case study reveals that the government should change its dominant role to a collaborator’s role to effectively promote ZWC construction, given the problems of unbalanced regional economic level, inconsistent solid waste treatment capacity, noncooperation among multiple subjects, and imperfect coordination mechanism. The study provides three recommendations for this purpose, including supporting enterprises and social organizations with institutional incentives and establishing a benign interaction model with multiple actors as well as a sound publicity and monitoring model. In conclusion, the transformation of China from ZWCs to ZWCC is in accordance with the development law, and the government must adapt to the law and change the governance model accordingly. The study provides a reference for ZWC construction in other countries or regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Trend in Achieving ‘Zero Waste’ and Sustainable Consumption)

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14 pages, 1556 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Favorable Fiscal Self-Sufficiency Enables Local Governments to Better Improve the Environmental Governance—Evidence from China’s Lower-Pollution Areas

by Zhijun Gu, Chaowei Tian, Zeyuan Zheng and Shujian Zhang

Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 16202; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142316202 - 5 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1349

Abstract

With the rapid development of industrial economy, local governments in China have invested a large amount of financial funds in environmental protection. In the era of widespread use of clean energy, local governments have a greater responsibility to coordinate fiscal policies with industrial development policies to improve regional environment. Local governments with large fiscal surpluses would make more efforts to improve environmental efficiency, rather than attract heavily polluting industrial enterprises to develop their local economies, and more likely to promote the use of clean energy equipment and raise environmental awareness in government. This paper focuses on testing the impact of abundant fiscal revenue of local governments on the efficiency of regional environmental governance with the data in all prefecture-level cities of China’s Guangdong province from 2001 to 2020. We estimate local environmental governance efficiency score with super-efficiency SBM method, taking unexpected output into account. Then we find that fiscal affluence has significant positive effect on the efficiency of environmental governance and the environmental awareness of the government also has obvious help in improving local environmental efficiency. We hope that these findings will provide practical help for local governments to improve their fiscal policy agendas and the quality of environmental governance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Trend in Achieving ‘Zero Waste’ and Sustainable Consumption)

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14 pages, 1007 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Environmental, Economic, and Nutritional Impact of Food Waste in a Portuguese University Canteen

by Nicol Martinho, Liliana Cheng, Isabel Bentes, Carlos A. Teixeira, Sofia Sousa Silva and Margarida Liz Martins

Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 15608; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315608 - 24 Nov 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2854

Abstract

High food waste values have been reported in university canteens in different countries. This study aims to evaluate food waste related to the consumption stage in a Portuguese university canteen and its environmental, economic, and nutritional impact. Data collection was performed at a Portuguese university with about 7000 students. Food waste (leftovers and plate waste) was assessed over 10 days by physical weighing. The Ecological Footprint Accounting methodology was used, combined with an assessment of the ecological footprint. The energy and nutritional contents of meals wasted were estimated using the software Nutrium^® 4.0. The economic impact of food waste was obtained considering the daily meal price. During study period, 4374 meals were evaluated, corresponding to 1599 kg of food produced. A total of 189.5 kg of food was wasted, being higher for plate waste (164.1 kg) than for leftovers (25.3 kg). The meat group presented the highest total waste value (78.1 kg). Daily food waste represented an economic loss of €140 and an ecological footprint of 0.1 gha. About 8% of energy, 11% of protein, 9% of fat, and 5% of carbohydrates were lost per meal. The high food waste values observed (about 13.4%) estimate a monthly economic loss of €3080, an ecological footprint of 2.8 gha, and a total food waste of 417 kg. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Trend in Achieving ‘Zero Waste’ and Sustainable Consumption)

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14 pages, 652 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Public Policies Are Implemented: A Comparison of Urban Domestic Waste Classification Policy Implementation Models

by Minghua Jiang

Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 15480; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215480 - 21 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1684

Abstract

(1) Background: Domestic waste classification has become a focal point of urban governance. Existing studies lack inter-case comparisons and ignore the precise path of waste separation policy implementation. (2) Methods: I examined the process of implementing domestic waste separation policies in Shanghai, Tokyo, and Taipei using the Policy Implementation Process Model as an analytical tool. Then, I compared the implementation paths of waste classification policies across cities. (3) Results: I discovered that Shanghai typically uses a mandatory strategy, Tokyo uses a benefit-driven strategy, and Taipei uses an administrative-intervention approach. The government’s mandatory strategy for waste classification policies is heavily reliant on grassroots government mobilization. This mobilization technique, however, does not significantly motivate residents. The benefit-driven strategy encourages pluralistic participation and improves the interaction of various social groups. This strategy, however, must achieve equal cooperation among all participants. The timely exit of the intervention is critical to the effectiveness of the administrative intervention strategy. (4) Conclusions: In analyzing the characteristics of policy implementation, I find that literature is primarily grouped into two perspectives: administrative mobilization and pluralistic participation. This approach appears to imply that these two cannot be harmonized in terms of methodology. I divide the policy implementation process into stages, each of which can be distinguished by administrative mobilization or pluralistic participation. When I consider the entire process, I can see that a given policy implementation process can be characterized by both administrative mobilization and pluralistic participation. My approach allows for the methodological integration of these two key features. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Trend in Achieving ‘Zero Waste’ and Sustainable Consumption)

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19 pages, 1395 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Consumer Preference for End-of-Life Scenarios and Recycled Products in Circular Economy

by Yu Cao, Honglei Lu and Chunxiao Zhu

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12129; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912129 - 25 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2264

Abstract

The way consumers dispose of end-of-life products (EoL products) and their acceptance of recycled products largely determine the final direction of resource flow. Therefore, clarifying consumers’ preferences for end-of-life scenarios (EoL scenarios) and recycled products and guiding consumers to participate in a circular economy is of great significance for enterprises and society to transition to a circular economy. However, as far as the existing research is concerned, there is a lack of comparison and summary of consumer preferences based on multi-category EoL products and recycled products. Therefore, this study took four categories of common consumer durables as the object to study consumers’ preferences for EoL solutions and recycled products and, based on the survey results, user segmentation in the market and consumer type segmentation in the CE were performed. The research results show that users generally support product reuse, and they generally have the highest acceptance of second-hand products and the lowest acceptance of refurbished products; meanwhile, consumers’ acceptance of recycled products varies by product type; according to the differences in preferences, consumers are divided into groups with different consumption characteristics; based on the differences in support for product recycling and recycled products, consumers are divided into the high perception group, the general perception group, and the low perception group in CE. The results of this study can provide reference for related research on sustainable waste management and sustainable consumption. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Trend in Achieving ‘Zero Waste’ and Sustainable Consumption)

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Review

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24 pages, 6873 KiB

Open AccessReview

Zero-Waste Management and Sustainable Consumption: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Mapping Analysis

by Leslier Valenzuela-Fernández and Manuel Escobar-Farfán

Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 16269; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142316269 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5489

Abstract

The growth of waste generation is a global problem. Developing effective waste management methods is challenging for companies and the government. This research aims to provide a global perspective regarding scientific research on zero-waste management and sustainable consumption by identifying years of evolution, the most relevant and influential keywords, articles, journals, universities, countries, and authors. This research examines 2534 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection from 2011 to 2021. Numerous bibliometric indices, including the number of publications, the h-index, and citation requirements, have been used as evaluating techniques. Additionally, a relational technique has been developed through graphical maps using the VOS viewer Software. Results show a growing trend in the number of zero-waste management’s publications and citations. Regarding the h-index, the five most relevant journals are the Journal of Cleaner Production, Resources Conservation and Recycling, Waste Management, Waste Management Research, and Sustainability. The most outstanding author is Tsang Dan from Zhejiang University, and the leading university is the Chinese Academy of Science, China. Furthermore, the principal regions and continents are China—Asia, USA—America, and Italy—Europe. The most important keywords are waste management, sustainability, circular economy, and sustainable development. This article is the first quantitative study focused on contributing a complete overview of the progress of zero-waste management and sustainable consumption, providing a collaborative network of researchers for future use in generating knowledge. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Trend in Achieving ‘Zero Waste’ and Sustainable Consumption)

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