A Comparative Study of Municipal Solid Waste Management System in China and the U.S.

China and the U.S., the largest developing and developed countries, accounted for around one third of the municipal solid waste (MSW) generation in the world. The MSW management (MSWM) system in these two countries throws... [ view full abstract ]

China and the U.S., the largest developing and developed countries, accounted for around one third of the municipal solid waste (MSW) generation in the world. The MSW management (MSWM) system in these two countries throws massive impacts on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, material flow, and environmental pollution. Here, a comparative analysis of MSWM systems between China and the U.S. were addressed, including generation, characterization, treatment infrastructures, GHG emissions, institutions, and legislation of MSWM in these two countries. MSW generated increasingly in the last two decades, however, per capita MSW generation in the U.S. was much higher than that of China at both national and state level. With respect to the MSW characterization, the main component in China was food scraps, however, in the U.S. much more materials (paper, metal, glasses, etc.) were discarded along with the MSW stream. China has paid massive efforts on building infrastructures to improve the harmless treatment of MSW. Interestingly, the trends on investing MSW treatment infrastructures were different in China and the U.S. China has built large amount of combustion facilities and increased the combustion percentages of MSW in recent 10 years, surpassing the U.S. in both treatment capacity and percentage. In contrast, the U.S. has invested more composting facilities, however, composting shrunk dramatically in China in the last decade. Owing to the differences in MSW treatment methods, the U.S. emitted 5 times more GHG from MSW disposal facilities than that of China, although the total quantity of MSW discard was at the same level. The U.S. regulated on MSWM around three decades earlier than China, however, in recent decade, China has intensively amended laws to meet the demand of minimizing and recycling of MSW. Policy implications for China and the U.S. from this comparative study were also discussed.