Cited by 21Municipal Solid Waste ManagementWaste Management and RecyclingPublic Policy and Administration Research

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 63 of the 63 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 4 of the 59 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Untangling the critical success factors of the latest compulsory waste sorting initiative in Shanghai: The role of accountability governance

Open access
Xie, Shenghao, Gong, Yu, Zhang, Abraham, Liu, Yanping, Li, Changjun·2024·Journal of Cleaner Production

Abstract

Municipal solid waste sorting is an essential element of urban sustainability as cities transition to a circular economy. As a mega-city, Shanghai has achieved remarkable milestones in its latest compulsory waste sorting program. This success has garnered widespread attention, and most studies have primarily focused on policy interventions from either a macro perspective or micro-analysis of individual behaviours. However, these studies have often overlooked the intricacies of multi-stakeholder coordination and the division of responsibilities, which frequently contributed to the failure of waste sorting initiatives. Furthermore, existing research lacks a systematic theoretical framework to elucidate multi-stakeholder accountability mechanisms. Therefore, this research adopts a case study approach to untangle the factors that led to Shanghai’s success. Through the lens of accountability theory, this study systematically elaborates stakeholder accountability mechanisms and offers a distinctive multi-stakeholder perspective to explain Shanghai’s success across vertical, horizontal, and felt accountability dimensions. This informative exemplar provides crucial empirical insights for other cities, especially those grappling with challenges in promoting and managing waste sorting initiatives.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This case study uses accountability theory to explain Shanghai’s compulsory waste sorting success through vertical, horizontal, and felt accountability mechanisms. It argues that top-down legislation and enforcement, coordinated social/community actors, and residents’ internalized responsibility jointly produced sustained sorting performance.

Key findings

  • Shanghai’s success is explained by three accountability types: vertical accountability (hierarchical government enforcement), horizontal accountability (voluntary/social coordination among salient stakeholders), and felt accountability (residents’ perceived responsibility and engagement).
  • Vertical accountability included mandatory legislation implemented on 1 July 2019, fines of 200–50,000 RMB, and strict enforcement; one recycling-company CEO reported that after six months the government issued more than 30,000 tickets, of which more than 25,000 were issued to businesses.
  • Reported performance figures include sorted dry waste reaching 15,518.24 tonnes per day, a reduction of almost 20% compared to previous years; nearly 83.62% of household food waste could be separated, with purity of 99.50%; and one NGO project manager cited food waste final disposal reaching 6,000 tons per day after legislation.
  • Horizontal and felt accountability operated through community “triad” governance, policy toolkits such as the Green Account and “certain time and place,” agile policy adjustment, and resident norm formation; one recycling-company project manager said volunteers had been reduced from three to two, and now even only one volunteer.

Methods

  • Single exploratory case study of Shanghai’s compulsory waste sorting programme, selected as an exemplar, using abductive theory elaboration guided by accountability theory.
  • Data included 45 semi-structured interviews conducted between October 2021 and February 2022, plus two follow-up online interviews after February 2022; interviewees spanned government, society, community, and individual levels, with interviews ranging from 20 to 124 minutes, alongside field visits and secondary documents.
  • Analysis followed iterative thematic coding: open coding by two authors produced 39 first-order categories, condensed into 12 second-order themes, then pattern-matched to vertical, horizontal, and felt accountability constructs.

Limitations

  • The paper states that Shanghai’s success is unique to its context and may have its own ecological characteristics; the accountability perspective is only one possible explanation, and other perspectives such as government leadership, social organisations, agent-based approaches, or stakeholder views may yield additional findings.
  • The paper calls for comparison with other municipalities, longitudinal studies of dynamic performance, and further work on smart waste management, other stakeholder roles, ecosystem perspectives, and interdisciplinary empirical verification.
  • Evident from the text: the design is a single case and the authors explicitly aim for analytical rather than statistical generalisation; several quantitative performance figures are drawn from secondary sources or interviewee quotations rather than independently measured by the study.

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Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141268

Cites

63 of 63 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

40 No basis given · 38 Own interpretation · 30 Own result · 27 No full text of the sources · 15 Not checked yet · 6 Sources not found · 4 Partly supported · 4 Own method · accuracy not yet measured

Verify all 9 references — free account

Show all 87 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 53
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 34
77 of 77
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Shanghai's compulsory waste sorting initiative is successful.

    “Select the exemplar case which is hailed as successful.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The Shanghai compulsory waste sorting initiative was successful.

    “The success is the result of the combined effect of multiple ac­ countabilities.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The Shanghai compulsory waste sorting programme achieved phased success.

    “This study takes an exploratory case study approach to untangle the success of Shanghai ' s compulsory waste sorting programme.”
3 of 3

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

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Citations

Cites

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Metadata

Authors
Xie, S., Gong, Y., Zhang, A., Liu, Y., & Li, C.
Affiliations
  • Nanjing Agricultural University (CN)
  • University of Southampton (GB)
  • University of Glasgow (GB)
  • Nankai University (CN)
Corresponding author
Li, Changjun
Venue
Journal of Cleaner Production
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2024-03
Volume
444
Pages
141268
ISSN
0959-6526 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4391818728
Cited by
21
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 2
FWCI
4.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Cleaner Production (publishedVersion)
  • ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
  • ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (2016YFE0103100)
  • University of Glasgow
  • Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (SKQY2023002)
  • State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (B17024)
  • British Academy (SRG21\\211282)
  • Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China
  • Nanjing Agricultural University (804107)
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (42371305)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Municipal Solid Waste Management
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Waste Management and Recycling
  • Social Sciences › Public Administration › Public Policy and Administration Research
Keywords
Shanghai, multi-stakeholder coordination, vertical accountability, horizontal accountability, felt accountability, circular economy, urban sustainability, waste management policy

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