Waste generation and disposal have been a global issue for decades. The total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2019 were 49,758 MtCO2e with waste disposal accounting for 3.2%. With rapid urbanization trends, municipal solid waste (MSW) has become a global challenge which needs to be addressed. A large fraction of MSW such as food wastes, e-waste among others still ends up with unregulated dumps or openly burned in low-income countries. As a response, China initiated the 'zero-waste' pilot program which has been running since 2019. To investigate the potential contribution of MSW management to GHG reductions, this study selected four 'zero-waste' cities in China, namely Shenzhen, Panjin, Xining and Tongling, as case studies to assess the impacts of different MSW management policies on GHG reductions from 2015 to 2019. Results demonstrated that Shenzhen city achieved progress in reducing GHGs, which decreased by more than 40% between 2015 and 2019. This study provides policy recommendations and waste management approaches and practices to optimize MSW management and reduction of GHGs.
Keywords: China; Municipal solid waste; circular economy; greenhouse gas reductions; waste management policies; zero-waste program.