Journal
RESOURCES CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING
Volume 107, Issue -, Pages 10-17Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2015.12.003
Keywords
Urban waste management; Resources recycling; Beijing
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41271548]
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Waste is wicked because of its inextricable mix of social, economic, and environmental attributes. This paper presents the unexpected explosion of a waste city, Dongxiaokou, on the northern fringe of Beijing in the 2000s and its recent crash due to urban expansion. These events occurred within the background of the municipality's efforts to remake the waste/recycling space into an urban circular economic system. We illustrate the distressing challenge of waste as it is gradually exposed to urban governance in China. Our findings show that waste can be wicked because of the limits of its problem definition, which focuses on the environment and resources, but excludes the migrant scavengers from the local citizenry regardless their efforts for inclusion by the city. This limitation of the definition of the problem leads to conflicting values on waste and recycling between various stakeholders who are involved when the system needs to be upgraded. Conclusions suggest collaborative initiatives at the community level to build an inclusive space for recycling activities in cities in China. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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