Solid waste governance in cities

The increasing amount of municipal solid waste continues, bringing sanitary and urban management problems to China, and has become the spotlight in the national agenda. A series of policies and regulations have been implemented to control and prevent the growth of solid municipal waste at both central and local governments. Municipal solid waste management (MSW) also has become a topic in academics. Provided that, literatures on the MSW at the local level under Xi’s administration since 2012 has been reviewed in this chapter with a focus on the MSW experience and strategies deployed in different cities, the stakeholders involved in MSW and how the local governments interact with the stakeholders. This chapter addresses the fragmented governing structure that led to different political opportunity structures in various cities and different responses to the non-state policy actors in MSW, offering significant practical and policy implications to the goal of a zero-waste city in future studies.