Solid Waste Management in China: the Case of Zhejiang Province

Faculty of Arts Department of Chinese Studies

Master’s thesis

2019 Bc. Terézia Hegerová

Faculty of Arts Department of Chinese Studies

Solid waste management in China: The case of Zhejiang province

Master’s thesis

Bc. Terézia Hegerová

Supervisor: Mgr. et Mgr. Dušan Vávra, Ph.D. 2019

I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and it contains no other materials written or published by any other person except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis.

Brno, 14thof August, 2019 …………………………..

The thesis was completed within the cooperation framework between the Department of Chinese Studies (Masaryk University) and the Institute of China Studies (Zhejiang University). During my two-semester stay in China, the thesis was supervised by Prof. Gao Fangfang 高芳芳, Associate Professor in the College of Media and International Culture at Zhejiang University, China.

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, the harmonious coexistence between man and nature is the center of the attention of many discussions ongoing all over the world. Degradation of nature became one of the most pressing issues the human race has to face. The handling of environmental problems is the task not only of governments and scientists, but also of many volunteers, non- governmental organizations, and individuals. In China, Chinese central and local governments, NGOs, and common public cooperate side by side to save the environment. Each of them has different approaches and, especially, agenda. It is interesting to observe how they cooperate and interlink with the official discourse of environmental pollution in China. Do their agendas differ or do they complement each other? The most significant environmental issues in China are air and water pollution. Solid waste pollution might not be so widely discussed in China; nonetheless, it also deserves attention, since it is a global problem which is continually growing. It is getting more and more evident that solving of this environmental issue deserves at least as much attention as air pollution and others. The main focus of this thesis is the solid waste management in China. Through looking at the solid waste pollution problem in China I am analyzing the difference between the approaches of the Chinese government and official policies compared with approaches of environmental non-governmental organizations when it comes to environmental protection. Since China is one of the largest countries by area in the world, it is challenging to analyse the situation of the whole Chinese territory in general. For this reason I am using as a case study only one part of China, namely Zhejiang province, and environmental non-governmental organization Green Zhejiang, which is operating in this province.

Key words: solid waste management; hazardous waste; industrial waste; municipal solid waste; environmental protection; environmental problems; ENGO; Green Zhejiang; Zhejiang province; China;

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. et Mgr. Dušan Vávra, Ph.D. for being patient and for his support not only while writing both my bachelor’s and master’s thesis but also during my whole studies at Masaryk University.

I would also like to thank my family for encouraging me, and my classmates for discussing with me the correct forms of citations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 10 2 ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMINOLOGY ...... 13 List of abbreviations ...... 13 Terminology ...... 13 3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...... 15 4 METHODOLOGY ...... 15 5 ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSE IN CHINA ...... 17 The environmental situation in China ...... 17 Environmental protection policies in China ...... 19 A, Environmental protection policy law of China ...... 20 B, Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People´s Republic of China ...... 23 C, Ecological civilization ...... 24 D, Circular economy ...... 27 Summary ...... 30 6 ENGOs IN CHINA ...... 32 NGOs in China...... 32 A, Evolution of NGOs in China ...... 32 B, NGO Laws ...... 34 B1, The Charity Law of the People´s Republic of China ...... 34 B2, The Foreign NGOs Law ...... 36 ENGOs in China ...... 36 Summary ...... 40 7 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN CHINA ...... 41 Solid waste management laws ...... 41 A, Law of the People´s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste ...... 41 B, General Office of the State Council's declaration on limiting the production, sale, and use of plastic shopping bags for retail purposes ...... 43 C, Ban on import of foreign waste ...... 44 Solid waste management in China in brief ...... 45 8 ZHEJIANG PROVINCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ...... 47 Zhejiang province ...... 48 Zhejiang province environmental policies ...... 48 A, Zhejiang and ecological civilization ...... 49

Beautiful Zhejiang ...... 49 B, Zhejiang and circular economy ...... 52 911 Action Plan ...... 52 C, 811 ...... 53 D, Inspections ...... 54 E, Following of laws ...... 56 Interim Provisions on the Online Publicity of Environmental Protection Administrative Punishment Results in Zhejiang Province ...... 56 Summary ...... 57 9 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN ZHEJIANG PROVINCE ...... 57 A, Solid waste management and ecological civilization ...... 58 B, Solid waste management and Beautiful Zhejiang ...... 59 C, Zero Waste Action Plan ...... 60 D, Solid waste management and public reporting ...... 62 The Interim Measures for Reporting Reward for Environmental Violence of Solid Wastes in Zhejiang Province...... 62 Demolition Action Plan ...... 63 E, Industrial solid waste classification plan ...... 65 F, Conferences and forums ...... 66 G, Zhejiang province´s solid waste management in the context of Chinese environmental policies ...... 68 Green Zhejiang and solid waste management ...... 68 Green Zhejiang ...... 69 A, Agenda ...... 69 B, Green Zhejiang, and solid waste management ...... 72 Environmental watch ...... 73 Municipal solid waste classification ...... 75 Turning waste into fertilizer ...... 76 Popularizing via media ...... 78 Being international ...... 78 Social responsibility ...... 79 Educating ...... 82 Conferences and forums ...... 83 Ecological civilization ...... 84 Green Zhejiang´s solid waste management in the context of Chinese environmental policies .... 85 10 CONCLUSION ...... 85

11 APPENDIX ...... 89 12 REFERENCES ...... 91 Primary sources ...... 91 Secondary sources ...... 94

1 INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, awareness about environmental issues is getting more widely spread and essential for many people in China and all over the world as well. There are many environmental problems China has to handle. For this research paper, I decided to choose as the topic of my studies solid waste pollution. Solid waste pollution is all around us; we can see it, smell it, and even breathe it almost everywhere we go. Hence solid waste pollution can and should be considered to be one of the most pressing environmental l issues in China.

Currently, there is a global movement called BreakFreeFromPlastic spreading through the countries of the world, with the task of encouraging people to stop buying and using so many plastic products. People are now realizing more than ever that all the plastic packaging and other forms of solid waste that are all around us are just as harmful to our environment and health as air pollution and water pollution are (In: BreakFreeFromPlastic official website). People are slowly trying to change their overly-consumer lifestyles in order to waste less. China and its citizens are no exception. In the last two years, the Chinese government started to pay more attention to the Chinese situation regarding solid waste. China is trying to find new ways how to make the situation better and dispose of the tons of solid waste pollution flooding China. In order to do so, many environmental laws were issued by the Chinese government.

However, there is only limited action that the Chinese government can take and spend its time on when it comes to solid waste management. It is thus necessary for Chinese citizens and civil society organizations like environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) to help the Chinese government implement steps to help make solid waste management in the country more efficient. In this master thesis, I am observing the relationship and connection between Chinese official environmental policies and the actions Chinese environmental non- governmental organizations are conducting in the area of solid waste management.

Since the most important part of this thesis concerns Chinese ENGOs, it is crucial to take a look at some background information regarding this group of civil society organizations at first. Environmental non-governmental organizations are nowadays considered to be the most active group of Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Many of them appeared in China since the 1990s. They operate mostly through educating at primary and secondary

10 schools and raising public awareness via various means. Just like their counterparts in the West, they concentrate on issues such as water pollution and over usage, deforestation, plastic waste, or biodiversity conservation.

What is the main focus of environmental NGOs? “They seek to educate and guide the public, to promote public involvement, and to lobby government on issues of environmental protection policy. They also monitor what is happing in the field of environmental protection and help enterprises develop greater concern for environmental issues” (Wu, 2002). This definition is standard for both Chinese and Western ENGOs.

Interest in Chinese ENGOs as a research area is getting more and more attention. Many online articles are describing the situation ENGOs in China currently face when it comes to funding or official registration. As for the relationship-making process, scholars Aimei Yang and Maureen Taylor in 2010 published their study under the name Relationship-building by Chinese ENGOs´ websites: Education, not activation (Yang and Taylor 2010, 342-351). As the title alone suggests, authors found out that environmental NGOs in China use their official websites to provide information to the public and members but do very little to make them participate in the environmental, social movement. In 2012, Aimei Yang came with another article, When Transnational Civil Network Meets Local Context: An Exploratory Hyperlink Network Analysis of Northern/Southern NGOs' Virtual Network in China (Yang 2012, 40-60). Here she concentrates on the case of transnational NGOs trying to find their place in the local Chinese environment. She proposes that glocal and local NGOs should cooperate and create new kind of transnational NGOs.

Although there are articles and works published about ENGOs, there is only a little research done on concrete cases of Chinese ENGOs and their agendas. Even less so in the are of solid waste management. As for solid waste pollution and solid waste management in China, as a research area, the situation is a little bit better. There are many scholars analyzing waste management in China, some focusing on waste administration (Chung and Lo 2008, Local waste management constraints and waste administrators in China), most of the researchers concentrating on municipal solid waste (Zhang, Tan and Gersberd 2010, Municipal solid waste management in China: Status, problems, and challenges; Dong Tong and Wu 2001, Municipal solid waste management in China: using commercial management to solve a growing problem), others chose as their topic of interest e-waste (Orlins and Guan 2016, China´s toxic informal e-waste recycling: local approaches to a global environmental

11 problem), or rural waste (Wang, Zhang, Shi, Rozelle, Osborn and Yang 2017, Rural solid waste management in China: Status, Problems and Challenges). While going through research papers done in this area, two things come into the mind. Firstly, most of the researchers are either concentrating on the situation in big Chinese cities like Beijing or Shanghai or are talking about solid waste management in China in general: analyzing the ways of disposal of solid waste, transportation of solid waste and so on. There is only very little research in the English language done in the area of solid waste management in China by ENGOs. Secondly, most of the research papers were published in the period between the years 2000 and 2010. Of course, it is possible to find academic papers also from a later period; however, there are not many accessible works introducing the most current state of affairs.

Therefore, this project will help to develop further the picture of how Chinese ENGOs operate and how they are currently handling the issues of solid waste management. Besides, it will also introduce some of the new official policies and projects of Chinese central and regional governments in the field of solid waste pollution. For this reason, I am firstly offering insight into the discourse of environmental policies in China, moving on to how China handles solid waste management and finishing with demonstrating the approach and agenda of Chinese ENGOs in the field of solid waste management, all of it instituted into the context of environmental protection policies of China.

To understand the current trends is also vital in order to find new ways for solid waste reduction and to choose the best possible approaches and ways how to promote public participation in the future. Chinese officials, experts, and people started to discuss the problem of solid waste pollution more widely after the year 2009, which is considered the starting point of the solid waste crisis in China. Because of this, I decided to concentrate mainly on the situation in the last three years, from 2017 until now, when the real anti-waste mobilization in China started (Luo and Wang 2018, 2-4).

2 ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMINOLOGY

List of abbreviations

Before diving into the environmental issues of China, it is needed to mention abbreviations commonly used in this research paper:

Solid waste management – SWM

People´s Republic of China - China

Non-governmental organization – NGO

Environmental non-governmental organization - ENGO

Zhejiang Province – Zhejiang

The policy of creating Beautiful Zhejiang – Beautiful Zhejiang

State Environmental Protection Administration – SEPA

Renminbi – RMB

Green Zhejiang – GZ

Terminology

To make it easier for readers to follow the text of this paper, some basic introduction into the main and most often used terms in the thesis follows:

Solid waste – according to the definition in BusinessDictionary, solid waste is material that is no longer useful, coming from agricultural, construction, industrial, and everyday activities. Solid waste can be divided into multiple categories, such as hazardous waste, demolition, and construction waste, industrial waste, agricultural refuse, and municipal solid waste (In: BusinessDictionary, solid waste entry).

Municipal solid waste – is a type of solid waste generated in households in the towns and cities, including household and construction waste, sanitation residue, waste from streets (In: ScienceDirect, municipal solid waste entry).

Hazardous solid waste – is a type of solid waste, which disposal can be harmful to people and the environment, and can be toxic, radioactive, or explosive. Amongst hazardous solid waste also belong gases and liquids in containers, industrial and medical waste if containing toxic substances (In: ScienceDirect, hazardous solid waste entry).

Industrial solid waste – is a category of solid waste generated by companies´ industrial or manufacturing activities, which is not dangerous in the way hazardous solid waste, including plastics, paper, cardboard, scrap metal, wood and others (In: Southern Waste and Recycling website, Characterizing the different types of industrial waste entry).

Solid waste management – includes the processes of solid waste collecting, transferring, and disposal, after the waste is no longer useful (In: Encyclopaedia Britannica, solid waste management entry).

Fly ash – are gray powder-like particles, a by-product of burning of waste during the incineration process, discharged as an airborne emission (In: Corrosionpedia, Fly Ash entry).

Incineration – is the process of waste destruction by burning, mostly happening in special incineration plants (In: BusinessDisctionary, incineration entry).

Landfill – is the process of waste disposal by burying in the way that “it will be isolated from groundwater, will be kept dry and will not be in contact with air” (In: HowStuffWorks, How Landfills Work entry).

Recycling – according to the Climate Change Guide, recycling is “collecting a waste product and reprocessing it so that it can be consumed once again” (In: Climate Change Guide, Recycling Definition entry).

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

One of the official roles of environmental non-government organizations in China is lending the helping hand to the government in spreading environmental awareness and public participation in the issues of environmental degradation. It is interesting to research whether these organizations are just mere tools for propagating the interests of the government or whether they also come up with their additions to the official policies and improvement plans. For this reason, my main research question is how Zhejiang province´s solid waste management practices and ENGO Green Zhejiang´s solid waste management practices fit into the official ecology politics of China.

In order to answer my central research question, it is necessary firstly to answer other partial questions: What is the official environmental protection discourse in China? How does solid waste management in Zhejiang province represent the official environmental discourse in China? And finally, how do solid waste management practices of Zhejiang´s ENGO Green Zhejiang fit into the context of environmental policies in China?

4 METHODOLOGY

In order to answer my research questions, I had to look further into how are Chinese environmental non-governmental organizations and government itself solving and promoting the solutions for the problem of solid waste pollution in China.

As a case study, I decided to use the case of Zhejiang province. Zhejiang province is one of the smaller provinces of China; however, there are other reasons why choosing Zhejiang province as a key example for solid waste management analysis makes sense. The first reason is the relationship between Zhejiang province and the country´s current head of the state, Xi Jinping (习近平). Xi Jinping in the year 2000 moved to Zhejiang, firstly as its governor and year later started serving as a party secretary. Under his lead, Zhejiang started to prosper and innovate, especially in the area of cleaner industries (Ho, 2012). He stayed in the province for 3 and half years and even after he became the leader of the People´s Republic of China came back to visit and support Zhejiang on many occasions. Secondly, Zhejiang is one of the provinces which participate in the Zero Waste City national project. The third reason is that I

15 spent one year of my studies in Zhejiang province and visited many of the places mentioned in this research paper, so I had a chance to see for myself how the solid waste treatment in Zhejiang province works.

I am using both primary and secondary sources to analyze concrete examples of solid waste management projects. My primary sources consist of official government policies and laws regarding environmental protection in China; Zhejiang´s official environmental department´s notices and policies in the areas of environmental protection and solid waste management; official websites and media posts of Chinese ENGO Green Zhejiang. My secondary sources consist of academic papers written by scholars researching environmental protection and solid waste management in China, alongside online articles from Chinese and European news sources.

The thesis is divided into four parts. In the first part of my thesis, I am describing the central environmental policies and laws, introducing the concepts of circular economy and ecological civilization. Here I am combining information from already published literature dealing with the official environmental protection policies in China just as from primary sources – the actual laws in Chinese, in order to draw out the discourse in which solid waste management by the Chinese central and local government and ENGOs is done.

The second part´s main topic is how Chinese NGOs, especially ENGOs, operate in China. I am also offering insight into the governmental politics towards NGOs and ENGOs, explaining the main agenda given to these organizations by the central government. As primary sources for these parts, I used the Chinese and English versions of officially issued and published Chinese laws. The first and the second part of my thesis are both necessary for drafting the main context into which I set information received via my analysis of concrete examples of solid waste management practices.

The third part introduces Zhejiang province´s environmental policies and the analysis of how solid waste management practices of the province fall into the environmental discourse both in Zhejiang province and in China in general. I draw from official notices published in Chinese on the official websites of Zhejiang´s environmental protection governmental bodies.

The fourth part offers an analysis of concrete examples of ENGO Green Zhejiang´s approaches to solid waste management, fitting them into the context of official environmental politics in China. What are the strategies Green Zhejiang uses in promoting and handling

16 solid waste management? How do its practices fit into the official governmental policies? Is Green Zhejiang merely a tool of propaganda for China's government´s goals or does Green Zhejiang come up with its projects and specific goals?

In the end I conclude the observations when it comes to the differences between Chinese official steps to decrease the solid waste pollution with those of Green Zhejiang, trying to fit the work of Chinese ENGOs in the sphere of solid waste management into the official ecology policies of China, and in this way answering my main research question.

5 ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSE IN CHINA

In this part, I sum up some of the leading environmental policies in China; what is their primary purpose and what is their meaning in the area of solid waste pollution management. In order to be able to analyze how Chinese environmental organizations fit into the discourse of Chinese eco-politics, it is necessary first to get to know these laws and policies a little bit better. After seeing the official approach of the Chinese government, it will be easier to see whether Chinese ENGOs are simply the tools for spreading the awareness of environmental issues and promoting public participation, or they also come up with their action plans and ideas.

The environmental situation in China

There is a wide variety of environmental problems people living on this Earth have to deal with. The degree of degradation is different for every country; every country is facing its local ecological issues. For example, some countries might not be concerned with the case of deforestation on the same level as one of its neighboring countries; however, it might have to deal with massive water pollution. The consequences of environmental problems differ from one place to another.

It is fundamental to realize that all these problems are global, and the cooperation between countries all over the world is necessary. Michael Hoel, professor of economics at the University of Oslo, agrees with this statement, adding that “global environmental

17 problems are characterized by the environmental effect on each country only depending on the worldwide aggregate emission of some harmful material, and not on each country´s contribution to these total emission” (Hoel 1991, 56). Hoel adds that environmental groups´ task is to promote the idea that each country should undergo unilateral actions to reduce global environmental degradation, even if there is only little one country can do (1991, 56-57). David L. Uzzell, professor of environmental psychology at the University of Surrey, agrees with the idea that local and glocal factors should collaborate (Uzzel 2000, 309).

Hoel divides countries into two groups, material consumption-oriented countries, and environmentally concerned countries. If looking at things from this point of view, the most suitable situation would be if consumption-oriented countries would include worrying about the environment into their agenda and so the third group of countries would emerge, consumption and environmentally oriented countries. This thesis demonstrates that even though China has some of the characteristics of the first group, but in recent years, it also started to continually work on and paying attention to its environmental issues (Hoel 1991, 62). Therefore I claim that China is on the way to become a country with both environmental and material consumption concentration.

The fact that there is growing attention paid to the eco-problems and promoting of environmentally friendly lifestyle is most evident when we look at the international environmental organizations and groups like Greenpeace. They are gradually opening new branches in both the developed and developing countries and swiftly increasing the number of members. We can find such examples not only at the international level but also at the national level in China. Greenpeace opened its branch for the East Asia region in 1997, establishing the first office in Hong Kong. In 2002, other offices opened in Beijing and Guangzhou. Greenpeace East Asia also works in Taiwan and South Korea (In: GreenPeaceEastAsia official website).

Global warming and climate change could be considered the most pressing environmental problems. Other big-scale and most discussed issues include air pollution, water pollution, and water scarcity, soil pollution and degradation, depletion of natural resources, waste disposal, deforestation, biodiversity vanishing, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, acid rains. Overpopulation is considered another cause of environmental problems (Zimmermann, 2016).

In the article China´s Top 6 Environmental Concern (Lallanilla, 2013), published online on livescience.com website in 2013, most environmental severe issues mentioned are:

1. Air pollution: the significant amount of cars, manufacturing industries, coal-burning electrical plants is the main reasons behind the alarming air pollution of Chinese cities

2. Water pollution: chemical leaks into the rivers, pollution from factories and other factors all determine that the Chinese surface water and groundwater are both harmful and not suitable for use

3. Desertification and deforestation

4. Drop in biodiversity: the killing of some animal special for commercial purposes, using the natural habitat of animals for building factories, enlarging cities or creating more farmlands are causing the depletion of biodiversity

5. Cancer villages: these villages or cities are proof of how dangerous the pollution of the Chinese environment is. Cancer villages are villages where there are no inhabitants as a consequence of the pollution of the city being so harmful that it cannot combine with living there at all. The cancer rates in these places are unmatched by any other place in China. Currently, there are about 459 cancer villages in China (Shagun 2014, 191).

6. Population growth

Even though solid waste pollution is not in this list, it should be counted as one of the most pressing environmental issues in China, since solid waste pollution has also impact on both air and water pollution situation. Also, the worsening situation of solid waste pollution in China is caused amongst other factors by population growth, rapid urbanization, and rapid consumption (Lallanilla, 2013).

Environmental protection policies in China

Lijun Wang, Associate Professor of biological engineering at NC A&T State University, agrees that China´s environmental problems are not only problems of one country but the whole world. To make the worsening situation better, it is necessary to implement and promote the eco-friendly lifestyle, low carbon economy, and lower consumption strategies.

Otherwise, the social and economic growth of the country cannot be harmonious, as it should be according to the Chinese policy goal of creating a harmonious society (Wang 2010, 1211).

A, Environmental protection policy law of China

The first Environmental Protection Policy Law of China (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo huanjing baohufa 中华人民共和国环境保护法) was issued in 1989. In addition to this law, China also became one of the first countries amongst the developing countries that officially took sustainable development as a goal for the future (Zhang, Wen and Peng 2007, 6). China´s environmental agenda started in 1972 because of the United Nations Conference on Human Environment, when China decided it was time to start handling the country´s pollution circumstances. In order to understand the primary notion behind this change in politics, it is essential to realize that it was not only the result of following the global trends of environmental protection but the country´s situation. At that time, almost all of the main Chinese rivers were already victims of deepwater pollution (Wang 2010, 1206). A few years later, after the Rio conference of 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, strategies for sustainable development were drawn (Zhang, Wen and Peng 2007, 7).

As explained in the Article 1 of the Environmental Protection Law of China, this policy was emulated to improve the ecological and people´s environment current and future situation, care for the health of Chinese residents and to help in the process of socialist modernization. The law concerns conditions of water, atmosphere, land and seas, forests, minerals, grasslands, wildlife, nature reserves, and natural resources, but also historic and scenic sites and urban and rural areas. Article 4 precisely orders “the implementation of environmental protection strategies into economic and social development plans of China” 1 (The Environmental Protection Policy Law of China, Article 4). It is evident that already since the beginning of environmental policies in China; the government realized the importance of economic progress and environmental protection having the same tempo. However, it took some time to realize that to achieve balance; it is crucial to implement a new model of development. This

1 Guojia zhiding de huanjing baohuguihua bixu naru guomin jingji he shehui fazhan jihua 国家制定的环境保护规划必须纳入国民经济和社会发展计划

20 realization came at the beginning of the second millennium. The beginning chapters of the law also emphasize the necessity of popularizing and spreading scientific knowledge about environmental protection. According to Article 6:

一切单位和个人都有保护环境的义务，并有权对污染和破坏环境的单位和个人进行

检举和控告。

Every unit and every citizen must protect the environment and has the right to report everyone who conducts any action or behavior which would be polluting or harmful towards the environment (The Environmental Protection Policy Law of China, Article 6).

Above all, the appointed departments should control and investigate the state and affairs connected to environmental protection in all of the regions of China.

The national standards for environment quality need to be drafted; Chinese standards for the discharge of pollutants need to be established. Provincial governments along with autonomous regions and municipalities are allowed to set up local standards for the discharge of pollutants, for things that were not included or more closely specified in the national standard criterion (The Environmental Protection Policy Law of China, Article 10). Article 13 describes the process the units implementing projects causing environmental pollution have to undergo in order to get approval for continuing with those projects. Firstly, they need to issue the environmental impact statement, including information about how much pollution will be created and what measures will they implement to avoid environmental degradation. In the next step, authorities will investigate the matter, and the project, and then the statement will be given to a more competent department handling environmental protection for approval or disapproval (The Environmental Protection Policy Law of China, Article 13). In Article 24, we learn about the measures all the units causing environmental pollution needs to undergo. They are obligated to incorporate environmental protection steps into their plans and establish responsibility systems. They also need to effectively control the harm they are causing by waste material, wastewater, dust gases, radiation, and noise created in the process of production or different activities they conduct (The Environmental Protection Policy Law of China, Article 24). Article 16 states:

地方各级人民政府，应当对本辖区的环境质量负责，采取措施改善环境质量。

Local governments should be responsible for the quality of the environment in the areas belonging under their jurisdiction, and they should adopt measures for improving the environmental quality in these areas (The Environmental Protection Policy Law of China, Article 16).

Furthermore, individual attention and protection should be given to areas with the occurrence of endangered and rare animals or plants and precious trees, areas representing different ecosystems, areas with main water sources, regions with fossil deposits, volcanoes, hot springs, and glaciers areas. It is strictly forbidden to damage these areas (The Environmental Protection Policy Law of China, Article 17). What is unclear is what the punishment would be and what the level of damage must be in order for the law to be considered broken. The law only states that if the unit produces excessive pollution, it will receive a fine.

In 2014, a new version of this law was issued and implemented in January 2015. The previous six chapters consisting of 47 articles, expanded into seven chapters consisting of 70 articles. Robert L. Falk and Jasmine Wee introduce the changes this new version of environmental law brings. New parts include the threat for enterprises emitting pollution that they can be publicly named and shamed for their actions and violating of law. There is also the possibility of the polluting unit to be completely shut down if the pollution control and treatment will be considered not right, lawful, or overdue (Falk and Wee, 2014). Lei Zhang, together with Guizhen He and Arthur P.J. Mol conducted a closer analysis of the revised law and the process of its formulation. The process of drafting the law into its final version took three years, and what is interesting is that many versions of drafts were publicly released and waiting for public and NGO´s comments and advice (Mol, He and Zhang 2015, 164). The call for public advice is something that is not very common in the Chinese legislative process. One of the main achievements of this new law is that for the first time in history, it verifies environmental protection as a vital national guiding principle. Another change from the 1989 version is the formulating of the idea of economic development and environmental protection collaborating, where economic development must match the environmental protection and not vice versa (Mol, He and Zhang 2015, 164-165).

One of the main achievements of the new version is the fact that the law further supports public participation and dissemination of information about environmental protection and environmental problems amongst the public. Starting from the county level upwards,

22 governments have the duty of informing citizens about the quality of the environment, administration, and regulation. When it comes to industrial polluters, they are obliged to freely publish information about how they handle the release of pollution. We can sense that the Chinese government counts on NGOs to promote the environmental law and supervise the following of rules set up in this area. Besides, NGOs also get to have a say in the process of drafting and revision of environmental laws. Since the new version of the law came to effect, NGOs can set off public interest environmental lawsuits (Corne and Browaeys, 2017).

B, Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People´s Republic of China

More recently, the country´s first Environmental Protection Tax Law (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo huanjing baohu shuifa 中华人民共和国环境保护税法) was drafted in 2016 by the National People´s Congress and implemented at the beginning of the year 2018 (Environmental Protection Tax Law of People´s Republic of China, Preface). This new law is established to state taxes that any units producing pollution in 4 categories: water, air, solid waste, and noise pollution will be charged with. The central government is paying still more and more attention to the following of environmental protection rules. China-briefing website concludes that implementation of the law falls perfectly into the context of spreading the concept of creating ecological civilization by the Chinese government (Cicenia, 2018). The group that the tax payment regards are businesses, public institutions, and enterprises that are active in producing contaminants. This law is mainly aimed at manufacturing firms. The new law encourages the units producing emissions to reduce it by promising special treatment in these 2 cases:

纳税人排放应税大气污染物或者水污染物的浓度值低于国家和地方规定的污染物排放标准百分之三十的，减按百分之七十五征收环境保护税。纳税人排放应税大气污染物或者水污染物的浓度值低于国家和地方规定的污染物排放标准百分之五十的，

减按百分之五十征收环境保护税

If pollutant emissions are 30 percent less than the permitted pollutant disposal standard, polluters can get a 25 percent cut off from the payable amount. If the pollutant emissions

are 50 percent less than the set up standard, a 50 percent cut off from the payable amount will be granted to the company (Environmental Protection Tax Law, Article 18).

This law is replacing in effect the previous Pollutant Discharge Fee (Paiwu fei 排污费), which was issued 40 years ago. However, the new law is much stricter. One of the main changes is that the collected money from the taxes will be kept hold of 100% at the local level, while at the time when the Pollutant Discharge Fee was valid 10% of revenues went to the central government. Another new rule is regarding the level of pollution produced, which means that the units' emitting more heavy pollutants will need to pay a higher fee. Zhang Jiaqi, in his online article about two new environmental laws of 2018, adds that one of the main tasks of this new policy is to improve further the process of Chinese green taxation. He also agrees that it is part of the effort to promote the building of ecological civilization (Zhang, 2018).

C, Ecological civilization

The year 1972 was the marking point from which the environmental narratives started to be more widely discussed in China. The reason behind this were two catastrophes that occurred this year, the first one was the red tide in coastal water near Dalian, leading to the deaths of many shellfishes. The other was the discovery of toxic chemicals in the flesh of fishes sold in the capital city, Beijing. In response to these events, the State Council decided to establish an investigation and treatment committee on environmental issues (Geall and Ely 2015, 2). Besides, China got its seat in the United Nations organization in 1971, after which the Chinese government realized that if China wants to keep its seat in the UN, it needs to work on the same agenda as other members of the organization, including the handling of own environmental affairs. So in 1973, China held its first national conference on environmental protection and entered into the era of higher interest in dealing with environmental degradation.

After the 1970s, many environmental laws and policies started to be drafted, namely Marine Environment Protection Law (1982), Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law (1984), Atmospheric Pollution Prevention and Control Law (1987), Solid Wastes Pollution Prevention and Control Law (1996), Cleaner Production Promotion Law (2002), Circular

Economy Promotion Law (2008) and many others. Besides, Chinese citizens also started to realize the importance of having a clean environment and started to protest voicing their environmental and health concerns. This public attention was also one of the forces that made the Chinese government promote its environmental concerns and steps the government was undertaking (Iswaran, Hong and Yi 2015, 352).

The 18th Congress of the Communist Party of China, which took place in November 2012, officially implemented the policy of building ecological civilization (shengtai wenming 生态文明) in China (Iswaran, Hong and Yi 2015, 354). However, Sam Geall, executive editor of chinadialogue.net, and Adrian Ely, senior lecturer at the Sussex Energy Group, argue that the phrase firstly appeared already in 2007 in the speech of Hu Jintao (胡锦涛), during the 17th Party Congress (2015, 7). The central concept of this policy lies in implying that there should be ensured the return of harmony between humankind and nature. Although the rapid economic growth, modernization, and industrial progress help China to reach the top places of the world's most influential and powerful countries, the environment pays the price.

According to the scholars Geall and Fly, the real challenge is to make the Chinese population believe their country cannot progress only based on material wealth and improvement in science, technology, and industry. China needs to progress in the area of environmental protection and conservation as well (2015, 9). To cite Ishwaran (2015, 351), the vision of creating ecological civilization is a “challenge in engineering and sustaining harmony among economic, social, environmental, cultural and political trajectories of change.” Ecological progress in 2012 thus became officially part of the plan for developing the concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Every Chinese citizen should make sure of supporting ecological progress and should work side by side with administrators and planners (2015, 357).

There are six principles to work on in order to achieve the state of society labeled as ecological civilization. Those principles are:

1. Strategy on functional zoning: urbanization should be greener, more intelligent, low carbon. Also, China should become a leading maritime nation 2. To eliminate excess production, underpin the role of scientific and technological advancement in ecological progress and to develop circular economies 3. Conservation of resources, conservation of energy and reducing emissions

4. Better control the situation when it comes to pollution (water/soil/air), actively deal with the issue of climate change 5. Being more active in promoting and issuing the laws and policies concerning environmental protection and degradation 6. Promote green-lifestyle and public participation in environmental protection activities, problems, and discussions. 2

The policy of ecological civilization goes hand in hand with the practicing of reaching sustainable development (kechixu fazhan 可持续发) which was included as the official phrase for the first time in the Ninth Five Year Plan (1996-2000) (Chun 2013, 73).

Sustainable development is a principle where the interconnectedness of resources, environment, and people is underlined in order to ensure the future existence of humankind (Chun 2013, 74-75). Environmental issues China is facing are slowly starting to interfere with Chinese social and economic progress. It is thus essential to find a way to eliminate as many ecological problems as possible. In the industrial parts of China, environmental degradation is mostly caused by emissions from cars and other vehicles, industrial pollution and consumerism lifestyle. In rural regions, the main issues are using pesticides and other products created during agricultural production. The environmental protection is thus the responsibility of China as a whole, in both urban and rural areas. In order to fulfill this concept, Xu Chun implies that China should concentrate on these factors:

1. Continue with an eco-friendly production 2. Halt rapid consumerism 3. Promote a better understanding of environmental issues amongst Chinese citizens, and later promote broader public participation in dealing with those issues 4. Modernize agricultural and rural regions

To sum up, ecological civilization should stand on the pillars of recycling, cooperation, harmony, and humanity,

2生态文明体制改革. In: 中国共产党新闻 [online].06.09.2019. [Cit. 26.6.2019]. Available on: http://theory.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0906/c413700-29519542.html.

create sustainable industrial structures and ways of production, and constructing a framework for the development of an ecological civilization with the government taking the lead and enterprises forming the bulk of the framework ( Chun 2013, 75).

In a society organized in this manner, civil society organizations should serve as a driving force, and their task is also to encourage public participation (Chun 2013, 75).

D, Circular economy

Closely interconnected both with ecological civilization ideology and sustainable development is the implementation of the concept of the circular economy (xunhuan jingji 循环经济) into Chinese environmental policies. Chinese rapid economic development cannot continue following the same path any longer. It brings about many problems and challenges which need to be faced, like rapid urbanization and environmental problems. As Li and Yu point out (2011, 103), high consumption together with high emissions and low efficiency are the main reasons behind environmental problems in China.

It is thus apparent that China needs to implement a new model of development, which would be sustainable and would, at the same time, protect the Chinese environment. Such a model already exists, and it was accepted by the Chinese government in 2002, under the name circular economy (Geng and Doberstein 2008, 232). Li and Yu add that the concept of the circular economy was introduced to China already in the 1990s, and since then became an essential part of national development strategies and plans (2011, 104). The circular economy is based on the idea that it is necessary to meet environmental, community development and economic goals both at the same time. The concept of the circular economy was firstly adopted in Germany and Japan. As Geng, Sarkis and Ulgiati (2016, 76) demonstrate in their article Sustainability, wellbeing, and the circular economy in China and worldwide, the policy of circular economy is closely linked with the ecological civilization strategy of the Chinese government.

According to Geng and Doberstein (2008, 233), the concept of the circular economy “advocates that economic systems could and should operate according to the materials and energy cycling principles that drive natural systems.” One of the main tasks of the circular

27 economy is to minimize the urban and industrial waste production, promote the utilization of recyclable resources (Li and Yu 2011, 104), and promote the exchange of wastes and reuse networks (Geng, Sarkis and Ulgiati 2016, 76). To sum it up, a circular economy adopts a closed circle of the flow of materials, energy and wastes between individual companies/enterprises/individuals in general (Geng, Zhu, Doberstein and Fujita 2009, 996).

There are three levels on which the circular economy should be implemented. The first level is created by micro-level operations ongoing on the corporate-level or single company level, in the production area, like waste minimization, eco-design manufacturing plants, and cleaner production. Li and Yu explain that it is essential for enterprises to reduce air pollution and liquid and solid wastes as well (2011, 105). From this level, cleaner production could be considered the most crucial task. In 2003, China enacted Cleaner Production Promotion Law (Qingjie shengchan cujinfa 清洁生产促进法), which in turn was accepted by corporations all over the country.

For this reason, many new cleaner production centers have been established, offering training programs to people from corporations (Geng and Doberstein, 2008, 233). This law was later, in 2005, followed by the implementation of amendments done to the Law on Pollution Prevention and Control of Solid Wastes, which demands from companies to manage their solid wastes. The development of scavenger companies is also being encouraged at this level (Su, Heshmati, Geng and Yu 2013, 217).

The second level of implementation of the circular economy is the meso-level, the inter-firm level, and it is pointed mainly at the eco-industrial parks. These parks should be based on “the exchange of materials, information, and energy” (Li and Yu 2011, 105). As each of the levels need specialized tools to implement the circular economy development model (Geng, Sarkis and Ulgiati 2016, 76), companies and firms should use the by-products including wastes as new materials for their further production (Park, Sarkis and Wu 2010, 1496). Either new parks are built, or already existing ones are rebuilt according to the principle of 3Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle (Yong 2007, 124).

The third level is the macro-level or the social level. Here the circular economy is mostly implemented by the development of eco-cities. This level considers not only the production concerns but also the consumption concerns (Geng and Doberstein2008, 234). On this level, the necessary task is to optimize material use eco-efficiency. Local governments promote scavenger companies that deal with waste recovery and reuse and decomposer

28 companies, which task is to divide wastes into reusable organic, metal, plastic, and other components. On this level, the circular economy also supports and teaches people the importance of creating a conservation-oriented society, with the need to minimize both the consumption and production of wastes. As Ren Yong adds, at the regional level the main goals are the development of waste reuse and treatment industries, the development of eco- farming and activities like energy savings in offices and households, issuing certificates for eco-friendly products (Yong 2007, 124).

The idea behind the implementation of the circular economy in China is indeed very well thought-through. However, China still faces some challenges that hinder the full implementation of this concept. As Geng and Doberstein (2008, 234) discovered, some of China´s tax regulations in 2008 were causing that enterprises and the overall public were discouraged from recycling resources. Since resource taxes in China were meager, companies did not feel the need to buy recycled materials which often need to be further processed. They also argue that China could not encourage public participation in this area, mostly because there are not enough environmental management facilities and governmental officials lack the profound understanding of environmental principles (Geng and Dobersteing 2008, 236). Awareness is, thus, still minimal. Geng, Sarkis, and Ulgiati believe that it is crucial to start awareness-building programs not only for the common public but also for governmental officials and organizations (2016, 78).

Li and Yu (2011, 105) declare that the Chinese government pays much attention to solid waste management, actively promoting the 3Rs of solid waste, which is: recycle, reuse, and resource. In January 2009, the Circular Economy Promotion Law of the People´s Republic of China (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo xunhuanjingji cujinfa 中华人民共和国循环经济促进法) came into effect, with the main principle for the promotion of the circular economy being the 3Rs as mentioned above. This law encourages businesses and other actors in waste production to follow the requirements set up generally for waste prevention of resources and discharging of emissions. Furthermore, the producer responsibility system was extended to the producer being responsible also for waste recovery, recycling, and disposal stages of the production (Li and Yu 2011, 107).

The management structure of promoting and implementing the recycling and reuse of solid wastes starts with the Ministry of Environmental Protection (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo shengtai huanjingbu 中华人民共和国生态环境部), which work is to enact laws,

29 policies, standards, and plans for solid waste, hazardous waste and the importation or exportation of solid wastes. Geng, Sarkis, and Ulgiati argue that the primary agent for the successful implementation of the circular economy in China is the Chinese government. Besides, urban municipalities are also relevant (2016. 78).

Ministry of Environmental Protection in 1999 started several projects to promote the circular economy, launching projects on cleaner production, establishing recycling regions and setting up guidelines, especially for eco-industrial parks. At first, these projects were focusing on the recycling of wastes until 2002. Since then, however, the main focus moved from recycling to implementing steps to better help the development of industrial structure and policies (Park, Sarkis and Wu 2010, 1496), or in other words more efficient “flow of materials at all stages of production, distribution and consumption” (Su, Heshmati, Geng and Yu 2013, 216).

Ministry of Environmental Protection further works on registration of industrial solid wastes, the implementation of time-limited storage of hazardous waste permits for operations and transfer of hazardous wastes and implementing extended producer responsibility (Li and Yu, 2011, 106). Appointed governmental bodies work on issuing policies like tax reductions for enterprises that comply with the strategic plan of the circular economy when it comes to value-added tax or enterprise income tax. Other instruments helping to implement the circular economy are eco-labeling, cleaner production, wastewater recycling and reuse, pollution levies. The central government mostly promotes guidelines for the circular economy, especially when it comes to ecological-industrial parks (Geng, Zhu, Doberstein and Fujita 2009, 996-997).

Summary

To sum up, what is clear from eco-policies issued and promoted in China, in the past few decades, the Chinese government started to shift its focus on finding new ways how to achieve sustainable development. Since the rapid economic growth and rapid spreading of consumerism lifestyle, resources are being slowly used up; a significant amount of waste is generated. The Chinese government decided to tackle these issues by enacting various laws guiding how the environmental pollution of different kinds should be approached, being very strict when it comes to the language used in these laws and official policies.

There are threats of shaming, and penalization mentioned all over the laws. The public is asked to report any signs of infringement of environmental laws and practices mostly by enterprises. There are also individual taxes set up for those who do not follow the policies and special exceptions from taxes for those who do. These laws are indeed helping with the task of warning people and discouraging them from behavior, which would harm the environment even more. On the other hand, there is a shortage of trained personnel and officials able to monitor whether the behavior of enterprises and individuals is in accord with the laws. To make this system work a little bit better, the Chinese government asked non-governmental organizations to serve as watch-dogs for government, appointing them the duty to monitor and report any illegal or unlawful behavior they spot. Environmental laws thus might seem only as a means to promote public participation.

Chinese government is taking up the role of the defender, showing Chinese people how government will do everything to make their future bright, peaceful and green. Regarding the ecological civilization concept, it might mostly work as a propaganda tool for the interests of the Chinese central government, giving ordinary people the feeling that the government does care about their health and environmental issues they are facing. The idea behind the concept of Chinese ecological civilization might sound very elevated, however in reality it is mostly just vague and empty words; just like the other mentioned environmental protection policies giving lots of advices what to do and what not to do, scaring people from not behaving properly towards the nature, but at the end not really offering anything concrete and still not wanting to leave the continuous economic development lag behind. My task in the third part of this thesis is to offer concrete examples of projects implemented either by the Chinese government or Chinese NGOs, in order to demonstrate to which extent the environmental policies of China can be useful and practical.

6 ENGOs IN CHINA

The main focus of this chapter is to paint a picture of how Chinese ENGOs (huanbao feizhengfu zuzhi 环保非政府组织) operate, what are their agendas, and challenges they have to face since their concrete actions and projects are limited by the regulations put on the NGOs in general.

NGOs in China

A, Evolution of NGOs in China

The spreading of NGOs (feizhengfu zuzhi 非政府组织) in China had its leading cause in the economic reforms of the 1970s. As Jonathan Schwartz (2004, 31) proclaims, after the reforms started in 1978, economic development became the main point of the agenda of the Chinese government. However, environmental issues were big problems already back then, and so the government decided to delegate non-state actors to deal with these problems. The role of the central government in the field of environmental protection lies in creating and issuing new policies and laws dealing with problems of environment and conservation of biodiversity, which in turn should be implemented by sub-national governments, as we have seen in the previous chapter. The particular unit appointed for drafting these policies is SEPA, The State Environmental Protection Administration (Guojia huanjing baohu zongju 国家环境保护总局 ). The other task of SEPA is the education and promotion of the seriousness of environmental degradation amongst government officials. As Schwartz mentions, “Chinese law requires that all provincial and municipal governments enforce national environmental protection policies” (2004, 29). Many units were appointed for this cause on all regional levels. These units are not independent and are under the supervision of SEPA.

Because of the seriousness of the situation, the Chinese government actively supports public participation in environmental protection and uncovering the violation of environmental protection laws. The Chinese government also decided to give some power over dealing with environmental issues not only to official governmental bodies and organizations but also to civil society organizations. These NGOs do not have enough power

32 to create laws, but they can cooperate with the government and have some influence over to- be-implemented policies.

The ENGOs started to spread through mainland China in 1994 when international organizations started to bloom throughout Chinese territory. Civil society organizations became more frequent, and since environmental problems were also spreading through the minds of ordinary citizens, ENGOs had good soil for growing.

A significant part of Chinese NGOs are governmental non-governmental organizations established by governmental bodies (GONGOs). There are only slight differences between the two types of organizations and so Jonathan Schwartz offers a clear definition of what ENGO is: non-governmental organizations that do not receive any state funding and have to register under the Ministry of Civil Affairs (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo minzhengbu 中华人民共和国民政部). The registration is mandatory, and it gives power to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to monitor and watch over the citizen activism and operations of the NGOs. Environmental GONGOs are thus, organizations that are both registered with the Chinese government and have direct ties with the government. The third group of NGOs is semi-NGOs, which are not registered but have some affiliation with the government. Although they do not register under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, these semi-NGOs usually register under Chinese universities (2004, 37).

According to Setsuko Matsuzawa, professor of sociology and Curriculum Committee Chair of East Asian Studies at The College of Wooster, government decision of letting more and more organizations operate as NGOs instead of GONGOs has its base in the image of modernization and attention supposedly drawn by this step in the eyes of the rest of the world, improving China´s international image (Matsuzawa 2012, 83).

Although environmental degradation China is facing is considered a global problem and thus is well known and discussed all over the world, there is no much information available about Chinese citizen environmental activism. When it comes to ENGOs, Jonathan Schwartz argues that the main tasks these organizations are engaged in are spreading awareness and small-scale actions like tree planting or recycling (2004, 40). It is essential to remind that until 2002, the main agendas not only of ENGOs but also of Chinese governmental steps for implementation of the circular economy system concentrated mainly on recycling.

Different official bodies and units have different approaches to ENGOs. Some of them, like the Ministry of Environmental Protection, count on these organizations to play an active role in environmental protection especially on the local level, where the success of actions taken against environmental degradation is usually dependant on the level of concern these problems raise in local governments (Matsuzawa 2012, 82-83).

B, NGO Laws

B1, The Charity Law of the People´s Republic of China

The Charity Law of the People´s Republic of China (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo cishanfa 中华人民共和国慈善法 ) started to be effective from September 2016. This law was implemented to coordinate and regulate charitable activities, to protect the rights of charitable organizations, and to promote social progress. According to Article 1 of the law, charitable activities are described as 是指自然人、法人和其他组织以捐赠财产或者提供服务等方式，自愿开展的下

列公益活动：（一）扶贫、济困；（二）扶老、救孤、恤病、助残、优抚；（三）救助自然灾害、事故灾难和公共卫生事件等突发事件造成的损害；（四）促进教育、科学、文化、卫生、体育等事业的发展；（五）防治污染和其他公害，保护和改善生态环境；（六）符合本法规定的其他公益活动。 Pointing to natural, legal persons and other organizations donating assets or providing services, that are voluntarily conducting public interest activities as: 1. Poverty alleviation 2. Aid and help to older people, orphans, people with disabilities, ill people and providing special aid 3. Help in case of natural disasters, accidental disasters, public health incidents, and other emergencies

4. Promoting the development of education, science, culture, health, and sports 5. Prevention of pollution and other publicly harmful incidents, protection and improvement of the environment 6. Other public interest activities following provisions of this law (The Charity Law of the People´s Republic of China, Article 1).

Other important information is incorporated into Article 4, which explains principles under which these charitable activities should be conducted:

开展慈善活动，应当遵循合法、自愿、诚信、非营利的原则，不得违背社会公

德，不得危害国家安全、损害社会公共利益和他人合法权益。 Charitable activities should follow the laws, principles of voluntariness, integrity, non- profit, they must not violate public ethics, must not be harmful to national security, damage public interest and other people´s lawful rights (The Charity Law of the People´s Republic of China, Article 4).

Article 13 more closely establishes the duties of these organizations, including each year submitting annual work and financial report, that should contain information on annual fundraising and donation assets, use of charitable assets, implementation projects, list of salaries of the staff and so on. As article 15 once again stresses out, the organizations are forbidden to engage and financially support activities dangerous to national security or which could be considered immoral (The Charity Law of the People´s Republic of China, Articles 13 and 15). In Article 88, the state's role in promoting charity work of organizations and spreading awareness about charity organizations amongst the public is stated. Media are also given the duty to conduct public interest activities and educate the public about charity culture (The Charity Law of the People´s Republic of China, Article 88).

As Jessica Batke, ChinaFile Senior Editor, in her online article Social Organizations and the 19th Party Congress points out, when it comes to NGOs, there is no mentioning of non-governmental organizations in the political reports from this meeting. Instead, the term social organization (shehui zuzhi 社会组织) was used. Social organizations group includes domestic non-profit registration of various types, like social groups, private non-enterprises, foundations. She also mentions the report about establishing an environmental governance

35 system with the CCP as the head, enterprises as the responsibility actors, and social organizations and public as participants (Batke, 2017).

B2, The Foreign NGOs Law

Law of the People’s Republic of China on Administration of Activities of Overseas Nongovernmental Organizations in the Mainland of China (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo jingwai feizhengfu zuzhi jingnei huodong guanlifa 中华人民共和国境外非政府组织境内活动管理法) was adopted in April 2016 and since 2017 came into effect. The law is in most articles and parts identical to the Charity Law mentioned above. In Article 5, the emphasize is again on the fact that foreign NGOs have to abide by the Chinese laws, cannot undergo any action that could turn out as harmful to the national reunification, ethnic unity, and national security. They also cannot take part in any political and for-profit action in the Chinese territory (Law of the People’s Republic of China on Administration of Activities of Overseas Nongovernmental Organizations in the Mainland of China, Article 5). According to this new law, the foreign NGOs are subjected to more strict control, and they need to offer to the government more profound reports about the activities they are conducting. On the other hand, the right was given to the Chinese public security organs to make visits to NGO offices, search their documents and conduct controls, at any time they choose. Foreign NGOs also have to register under the Ministry of Public Security or its local branches (Gan, 2017). The law is part of the process of a new accent on further ensuring state security. Law also prohibits organizations to participate in any political activity.

ENGOs in China

The main task of this part is to introduce necessary information about Chinese ENGOs. Previous chapters included data about under which circumstances Chinese ENGOs and NGOs in general evolved, what laws they need to obey, and in what assignments the Chinese government counts on them. In this part, instead of using articles and studies published by other scholars as the primary source of information, I decided to include my analysis of the

36 current state of Chinese ENGOs.Using the website www.chinadevelopmentbrief.cn/directory/ as my source, which is an online platform created by the Chinese NGO Beijing E-share Civil Society Centre and serves the purposes of collecting information for civil society in China, I selected 134 NGOs mentioned under the environmental protection field (In: ChinaDevelopmentBrief, NGO Directory). Out of these 134 ENGOs, 73 have Chinese registration, 58 international registration, and three had not stated their registration but are local Chinese NGOs. Sixty-one of all these ENGOs implement their projects on the whole national scale; the rest of the ENGOs are concentrating in individual provinces or geographical regions. Amongst them, 9 ENGOs are registered as foundations, all of them being of international registration type. Except for foundations, there are also eight funds concerning environmental protection, all of them being of foreign origin.

What I found interesting is that there are five registration types for ENGOs or NGOs in general. These non-governmental organizations can be registered as social organizations, civil non-enterprise units, non-profit organizations, industry, and commerce (business), or as tax- excepted organizations. From the sample of ENGOs, I was able to search out on the afore- mentioned website; only 75 organizations included in the provided information its registration type. The most common type of registration appeared to be a civil non-enterprise unit.

ENGOs in China and all over the world, in general, have to face many issues. It is not only that they need to find some way how to achieve real impact with their projects, how to make the public see the importance of the mission they are promoting and the goals they are trying to achieve. Another big problem these organizations are facing is where to find money, so their work could shift from spreading of words to practical demonstrating what they are saying and helping the environment. The annual budget of Chinese ENGOs differs, based on factors like whether the organization is local or international, on the size of the organization, on the ability to find partners and sponsors. As published on the website, the annual budget for Chinese ENGOs ranges from 5000 RMB to 3 500 000 RMB. The annual budget for most of the new organizations established after the year 2010, which are smaller and still in the first development stages, lies on the scale between 5000 RMB and 120 000 RMB. The role partners and funders play in the life of Chinese ENGOs is especially important. The partners are usually local governments, schools and universities, research institutes or other ENGOs, both local and international. Funders are mainly wealthy Chinese foundations, private donors or global institutes and foundations.

The areas on which Chinese ENGOs concentrate are the same as the interest areas of countries all over the world. Chinese non-governmental organizations that deal with the issues of environmental protection are trying to get hold of the problems which are a concern not only for mainland China but are as well concern for the whole planet Earth and its inhabitants. To speak more concretely, the main fields in which Chinese ENGOs are working are biodiversity conservation, water protection (the protection of rivers and oceans, drinking water, issues of wastewater), wetlands protection, climate change and global warming, deforestation, energy conservation, wildlife and animal protection, soil pollution and plastic waste problems, air pollution, green economy, emission reduction, desertification, promoting eco-agriculture.

However, if we take a look at how most of them describe their agenda, the tasks they take upon themselves are more theoretical and abstract looking. Most of the environmental NGOs are strongly emphasizing their role in environmental teaching and learning, spreading environmental education, and raising public awareness of issues our planet is facing when it comes to ecological degradation. One of the popular means how to spread awareness is sharing information on the internet. Some ENGOs described one of the main points of their agenda as being helpful in the process of strengthening laws and policies dealing with environmental safeguarding. They also engage in preparing conferences, whether within the Chinese borders or international conferences, meetings of people interested in ecological problems, establishing cooperation between ENGOs or between ENGOs and government and other exchanges of ideas and advice. Besides, ENGOs are also focusing on conducting scientific research, collecting information, and monitoring the situation of the environment.

Interesting is that in their ideological and educating agenda, many ENGOs state that there are explicitly concentrating on young people and spreading their environmental knowledge, trying to persuade them into taking environmental actions and educating their parents at home. For this reason, many ENGOs also organize various training at colleges and universities or summer camps. Besides, some also provide environmental training for companies and enterprises. To state an example, Green Point Youth Environment Education Center (Ludian qingnian huanjing jiaoyu zhongxin 绿点青年环境教育中心), as the name itself implies, took upon their shoulders to “assist young people to become activist” 3 by the means of capacity building, implementation of youth-interesting projects, cultivating green leadership through

3Rang daxuesheng chengwei huanbao xingdongzhe 让大学生成为环保行动者

38 the Growing Plans in Universities that took place in Guangdong province for the first time between the years 2009 and 2011, and later between 2011 and 2012 (In: NGO Directory, Green Point Youth Environmental Education Centre entry).

As already mentioned, the primary role of Chinese ENGOs is not that much coming with solutions for ecological degradation, but the promoting of public participation and environmental awareness. Chinese oldest ENGO, Friends of Nature (Ziran zhiyou 自然之友), wants to help the public take part in the practice of decision making about environmental safeguarding (In: NGO Directory, Friends of Nature entry).

Moreover, ENGOs are often seen as one of the key players helping to build the ecological civilization concept embedded in Chinese official policy by the central government. This might be the case if we take a look at the official websites of Chinese ENGOs. In the NGO directory, many ENGOs, both local and international, state as their primary objective help in the process of creating Chinese ecological civilization. Beijing Green Cross´s (Beijing lu shizi 北京绿十字) main agenda is to endorse the harmonious relationship between economy, ecology, society, and culture (In: NGO Directory, Beijing Green Cross entry). The Blue Moon Fund (Lan yueliang jijin 蓝月亮基金), international ENGO with its base in the United States, takes upon itself the duty of being useful on the route to transforming the relationship between consumption and nature (In: NGO Directory, The Blue Moon Fund entry). The best example of connecting the goal of public participation and ecological civilization support is Changsha Wild Life Conservation Association (Changshashi yesheng dongzhiwu baohu xiehui 长沙市野生动植物保护协会), seated in Hunan province. This organization aspires to guide Chinese citizens to take part in the construction of an ecological civilization, firstly by raising their understanding of ecological destruction, using the means of intervention, education, and protection (In: NGO Directory, Changsha Wild Life Conservation Association entry).

Amongst the ENGOs operating in China, there are many concentrating either only in rural areas or concentrating on improving the exchange between rural and urban areas in order to lessen the imbalanced relationship. Those concentrating their work mostly on Chinese villages are emphasizing the importance of organic farming. Initiative Développment, international ENGO from France, is implementing the strategy of using digested material from the biodigesters to replace the usage of artificial fertilizers which are harmful to the soil and the products as well (In: NGO Directory, Initiative Développment entry).

Summary

To conclude this chapter, the main task given to the ENGOs in China by the Chinese government is to propagate public participation in environmental affairs, preparing training and educational seminars and serve as a propaganda tool for the promotion of Chinese official policies of building an ecological civilization. The agenda of ENGOs operating in China thus seems more theoretical than practical, with ENGOs being under the strict control of the Chinese government and being dependant on the funding from the government. On the other hand, the Chinese government realizes that in order to promote the enacted laws and policies, it needs the help of organizations that are closer to ordinary Chinese citizens. Chinese ENGOs fit the brief, engaged as bridge communicating governmental interests to the Chinese public. For this reason, the Chinese government lets the ENGOs flourish and enlarge their numbers, while at the same time keeping the reins in their hands via restrictions put upon the NGOs in general and the regulations when it comes to registration of new NGOs. My case study conducted on the ENGO Green Zhejiang demonstrates how Chinese ENGOs manage to push forward their action plans under these circumstances or whether they follow the lead.

7 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN CHINA

In this part, I will briefly introduce official laws regarding solid waste management (guti feiwu guanli 固体废物管理) in China and add some necessary information about how waste is handled in China in general.

Solid waste management laws

A, Law of the People´s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste

The Law of the People´s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste (Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo guti feiwu wuran huanjing fangzhi fa 中华人民共和国固体废物污染环境防治法) concretely concerns the problem of solid waste pollution in China. This law, adopted in 1995, has undergone many rounds of changes. Its goal is to prevent and control the environmental pollution caused by solid waste in the People´s Republic of China. However, the law does not count as law for solid waste marine environmental pollution, neither as law for the control of radioactive solid waste pollution. The beginning chapter of the law clearly states that the Chinese state supports and wants to promote clean production and encourages the decreasing of the amount of solid waste on the Chinese territory. According to Article 4, the Chinese government “adopts economic and technical policies and measures that facilitate the comprehensive use of solid waste” (The Law of the People´s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, Article 4). The same goes for people´s governments at or above the county level. Chinese state also supports scientific research and technological development in the area mentioned above.

Article 11 points out the necessity to establish a system for monitoring and controlling pollution caused by solid waste. Every individual or unit which collects, transports or treats solid waste has to follow specific measures to make sure no waste will leak or scatter (The Law of the People´s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, Article 11). All products should have easy to recycle packaging or

41 one which should be easy to dissolve naturally in the environment (The Law of the People´s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, Article 17). Although the law is regulating this, in reality, China is still a long way from practicing this regulation.

Article 18 “encourages research institutions and production units to research and manufacture agricultural film that is easy to be recycled or treated, easy to dissolve or be absorbed in the environment” (The Law of the People´s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, Article 18). Further, it is forbidden to build installations for centralized storage and handling of industrial solid waste in the areas of nature reserves, historical and scenic sites, and areas where sources of drinking water are. For the first time, we also learn that is it forbidden to dump solid waste from abroad in the territory of China. Only the solid waste that can be used as a raw material can be imported, but only to a certain degree.

Even though this law was enacted in 1995, the real complete ban for waste importing came into practice just at the beginning of 2018. Regarding units creating industrial solid waste, they have to provide information about the quantity and storage treatment of the waste they produce. The citizens of Chinese cities are required to dump their domestic waste only at appointed places. If containers contain hazardous waste, it needs to be marked on them. Article 45 further explains that “units discharging hazardous waste must report and register according to the relevant regulations of the State.” Those transferring hazardous waste need to adopt many measures for the prevention of any accidents happening on the way. As for the transportation of hazardous solid waste, it cannot be carried in the same vehicle as ordinary passengers. Enterprises must report and register the industrial solid waste and hazardous solid waste they produce, and accept on-spot inspections by the appointed administrative department of environmental protection (The Law of the People´s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, Article 45).

As for ordinary people, every citizen has to pay the fee for pollutants discharge. If they fail to do so, they will be charged with a financial penalty (The Law of the People´s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, Article 45). We can see that on the paper, the Chinese government knows precisely what to do in order to make the solid waste pollution situation better. On the other hand, in reality, there are many obstacles and things that need to be continuously monitored so the law could be

42 effective. One of the biggest obstacles is the low awareness of Chinese citizens, officials, and enterprises when it comes to the seriousness of solid waste pollution. Another problem is the lack of companies appointed to deal with the discarding of solid waste.

In 2018, the Chinese central government, together with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment started to prepare the newest draft for amending the already existing law. They made lawful new restrictions on solid waste released from the industrial factories and on how much pollutant emissions they can let out. Another point of change deals with the mandatory contracts between waste generators and third parties, the handlers to transport, use or dispose of solid and other types of waste. The reason for this amendment is said to be the wakeup call that was given to Chinese officials when they went to inspect the industrial facilities and discovered the real situation about how they dispose of the solid waste their produce. One of the governmental bits of help is thus the monitoring of the situation in enterprises, businesses, and factories and making sure they discharge their waste according to the law. They are watching over matters of the permit system for pollutant emissions and have the right to punish the actors which do not comply with it (Luo and Wang, 2018). If some factory or other vendor does not work according to the legitimate solid waste practices, the Chinese officials will have the power to shut it down or let them pay high fees.

The most interesting part of the new amendment is that it allows citizens as well as NGOs to start environmental public interest litigations; factories have to fully accept public supervision and inform people about the activities they conduct in the area of solid waste disposal. Another change is concerning hazardous waste when all of the vendors producing this kind of harmful waste mandatory have to participate in environmental pollution liability insurance programs (Luo and Wang, 2018).

B, General Office of the State Council's declaration on limiting the production, sale, and use of plastic shopping bags for retail purposes

Other changes are currently awaiting the regulation from 2007 banning the production and selling of plastic bags thinner than 0.025 millimetres and making it compulsory for shops and other facilities to ask money from their customers for every plastic bag they would like to use, officially called General Office of the State Council’s declaration on limiting the production,

43 sale, and use of plastic shopping bags for retail purposes (Guowuyuan bangongting guanyu xianzhi shengchan xiaoshou shiyong suliao gouwudai de tongzhi 国务院办公厅关于限制生产销售使用塑料购物袋的通知). This decree made it necessary to add information on the bags, naming which material they are made from, which unit produced them and an environmental notice. This new initiative of the National Development and Reform Commission (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo guojia fazhan he gaige weiyuanhui 中华人民共和国国家发展和改革委员会) for further amendment wants to issue the complete ban on using all of the plastic bags, also called white pollution (Davies and Westgate, 2018).

C, Ban on import of foreign waste

From the beginning of 2017, the Chinese government started to pay much more attention to the solid waste produced in China but also especially to the solid waste imported to China from abroad. The reason lies in the fact that China was being used for many years by many other big countries as a dumping place, and although it was in some ways beneficial for the country, it became an even bigger problem when Chinese officials realized China is barely able to handle its domestic waste growing with the spreading of consumer lifestyle. On the first of January 2018, the Chinese government officially issued the ban on import of 24 kinds of solid materials from abroad, including the materials commonly used in plastic bottles (Davies and Westgate, 2018). This ban is still going through new amendments, one of them requiring the ban of all imported plastics that come from non-industrial sources, banning even the import of clean-plastics. Additional ban on another 16 types of solid waste (scrap cars, boats), came into effect on 31st of December 2018, so it is the most recent addition to the legitimized ban list. Until the end of 2019, all of imported waste should be forbidden (Hou, 2018).

Solid waste management in China in brief

The significant amount of hoarding solid waste is a problem both for Chinese villages and cities as well. Since more inhabitants are living in the cities, especially in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing, it is only logical that there are more consumers and more waste is produced there. On the other hand, there are more opportunities for recycling and waste disposal, more promoting of these activities is undergoing, and more funding for handling the solid waste pollution problems is accessible. As for the villages, households are the main actors holding in hands the power to separate and manage their waste. Since there is not so much official attention turned on the villages, they are having bigger issues with the management of landfills than it is common in the cities.

In the cities and municipalities, the main processes of solid waste disposal preferred by the Chinese government are landfills and the incineration process, which is the process of turning solid waste into energy, that being electricity, or steam for heating (Brooks, Wangan and Jambeck 2018, 4-5). It is safe to state that the incineration process has both its pros and cons as well. The process itself is quite fast and successful in reducing the amount of solid waste flooding the cities. The negative aspects appear during and after the process finishes, when the combustion process during which the methane and other synthetic fuels are created, is causing the leaking of harmful CO2 into the atmosphere. The process takes place in the incineration plants, the building of which occupies the soil that could have been used for farming or planting of forests. Besides, the plants disturb the natural appearance of the land and the discharge from the plants is harmful to the people and nature. The advantage of this method remains the fact that since China is the second-largest energy consumer in the world, it desperately needs new ways how to produce energy and incineration is a cheap and easy process for doing so (Cheng and Hu 2010, 3817-3818).

How does waste disposal work in Chinese cities? Things like papers, plastics, wet wipes, tissues and other things from wet garbage bin together with things from dry garbage bin go to official transfer centers, where they are compressed and then go to landfills and incineration plants. Even though landfills are one of the ways that commonly used for solid waste management, the Chinese State Council decided in March 2017 to handle the situation and adopted a new goal for the year 2020, stating that at that time there should be zero landfills in China (Qian, 2018). To make achieving this goal possible,

45 hand in hand also goes the need to make the sorting of domestic waste compulsory for every Chinese citizen.

The year 2020 thus marks as well the deadline for issuing new legislation about this compulsory waste sorting, so far concerning only some of the Chinese cities. This idea seems like a good step on the way to handling the problem of spreading waste in Chinese cities; however, there is another problem that makes the whole future legislation questionable. According to many specialists, it is not enough to make Chinese citizens sort and separate the waste their produce, but it is also needed to make the formal state waste pickers continue with the separation as well. Just like in many European countries, the waste disposal vehicles often end up mixing all of the separate waste bins into one. This is one of the reasons why in the eyes of many Chinese people and people in the whole world separating of waste looks pointless, and it might be so if the whole waste picking and disposal system is not under more strict laws and watching over (Cheng and Hu 2010, 3820). This nicely summarize how the Chinese government in this sphere operates: its primary role is to issue laws and regulations, think about what things to change and supervise people; however, the real power of changing and following the plans proposed by the government is in the hands of Chinese citizens, every one of them, be it individual or organized group.

To voice my own opinion, the situation in Chinese villages when it comes to waste management is more complicated than in the cities. To support this observation, if we look at the collecting of waste, the rate of the collected waste in the cities is around 65%. However, it is only 5% in the villages (The Collective, 2015). That does not mean that the Chinese government closes eyes before the solid waste pollution in villages. It is more the task of local governments to help the Chinese central government achieve progress in waste management in villages as well. To state one example, in Ge´ er township, situated in Sichuan province, from 2007, the local government decided to cooperate with local NGO Partnerships for Community Development directly. Together they started a new project aimed at better waste separation in the county. The research conducted in 2013 has shown that thanks to this project, more locals started to pay closer attention to the way how they dispose of their waste. The project also helped to lower the volume of greenhouse gas emissions that the township was producing. Before, there was no waste treatment system in the township. The project consisted firstly of teaching the citizens

46 how to divide their garbage into dry and wet waste. For the wet garbage, it was recycled into compost and methane gas (suitable for home cooking), which in turn was given to the local farmers. Glass and plastics went through the process of recycling, and the rest of the waste went to landfills. Funding for the project came both from the local government and the NGO, but their duties varied. The local government was in charge of the burial of the garbage and in charge of the process of composting, while the part the NGO played besides helping with its own money was mainly supervision and providing advice. The money from Partnerships for Community Development was used for the education of the locals and for preparing workshops, while the government was sponsoring the transportation garbage trucks. Majority of the people in the township had positive attitudes and opinion of the whole project and were willing to separate their waste according to the environmental education and instructions they received from the NGO volunteers (In: Partnerships for Community Development, official website). On the other hand, in many less-developed rural areas of China, it is challenging for any solid waste management project to succeed. The obstacles are mainly caused by the insufficient number of facilities like dumpsters or waste storage buildings, not enough stuff to help with collecting solid waste in villages and lack of supervision by higher authorities.

8 ZHEJIANG PROVINCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

China covers the area of 9597000 km2 (In: Zhejiang province official website). Such a significant territory also has big differences across the many provinces, cities, municipalities, and villages. Since it is such a diverse country, it is quite challenging to describe how solid waste management works in general. Furthermore, most of the Chinese ENGOs are operating across the country, in different cities of different provinces have different tasks and projects going on, based on the local circumstances, environment, or local governmental policies.

The previous chapters introduced how the Chinese government plans to handle environmental issues and solid waste management. In the following part of the thesis, the practical one, the span of this work is narrowed down to concentrating on Zhejiang province. Firstly, I am offering insight into how solid waste management is handled in this province. In

47 order to do so, I firstly pay attention to the policies about environmental protection in the province in general. Then I turn the attention to the solid waste management policies and projects done for Zhejiang province by local government since each Chinese province was appointed by the Chinese central government to handle issues of their territory. I am also analyzing these policies and projects in a way to be able to find out how they fit together with the official discourse of environmental protection in China. Lastly, I am adding the analysis of the environmental agenda of local Zhejiang ENGO, Green Zhejiang, in order to answer the research question, which is how Chinese ENGOs cooperate with the Chinese government and how they promote through their projects the official discourse of environmental protection in China.

Zhejiang province

Zhejiang Province (Zhejiangsheng 浙江省) is located to the southeast of the Chinese territory and covers the area 105,500 square kilometers. The population of the province is 56 570 000 inhabitants (as for years 2017-2018). Mountains seize most of the area (74% of the province´s area). Zhejiang has the most islands from the whole country, more exact speaking around 2900 islands. The climate is humid with often monsoons. Hangzhou (杭州) and Ningbo (宁波) are both sub-provincial cities. Besides, there are nine prefecture-level cities, 22 county-level cities, 36 counties. The number of municipal towns in the province is 32. Zhejiang is very popular among Chinese tourists, for its beautiful nature and rich culture (In: Zhejiang province official website).

Zhejiang province environmental policies

Amongst the central government bodies that take care of environmental protection in the Zhejiang province belongs Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment (Zhejiangsheng shengtai huanjingting 浙江省生态环境厅). The official website of this governmental body offers to the public many official notices and regulations about environmental protection in the province. For this reason, I chose the documents published on

48 the website of this department as one of the primary sources, together with notices published by The Environmental Protection Department of Zhejiang Province.

A, Zhejiang and ecological civilization

Beautiful Zhejiang

The Environmental Protection Department of Zhejiang Province (Zhejiangsheng huanjing baohuting 浙江省环境保护厅), another governmental body in the province dealing with the issues of environmental degradation, published in 2018 the Opinions on High Standards for Prevention and Control of Pollution, and Construction of Beautiful Zhejiang (Guanyu gao biaozhun da hao wuran fangzhi gongjianzhan gao zhiliang jianshe meili zhejiang de yijian 关于高标准打好污染防治攻坚战高质量建设美丽浙江的意见). The notice was directed at provincial level party committees, governments and relevant units, namely Provincial People's Congress Standing Committee, Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department, Provincial Attorney, Provincial Agricultural Office, Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Provincial Department of Education, Zhejiang Insurance Regulatory Bureau, Zhejiang Energy Supervision Office, Hangzhou Customs, Zhejiang Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Zhejiang Maritime Safety Administration, People's Bank of Hangzhou Central Branch and many others. The Environmental Protection Department was via the letter informing relevant units how to help in creating Beautiful Zhejiang. The whole letter was concerning fighting pollution in the province. The first task, which was given to the units helping to promote the concept of Beautiful Zhejiang was to “deeply understand and fully implement Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought” 4since it is a basic plan for the sustainable development of Chinese nation.5 Furthermore, another special notice was issued in 2018 for other units that can be especially helpful and capable in the technical demand area of building beautiful Zhejiang and ecological civilization in China. Those units were mostly Zhejiang´s universities: Zhejiang

4Shenke linghui quanmian guanche xi jinping shengtai wenming sixiang 深刻领会全面贯彻习近平生态文明思想 5浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅关于征求《关于高标准打好污染防治攻坚战高质量建设美丽浙江的意见》（二次征求意见稿）意见的函. In: 浙江省环境保护厅 official website [online]. 09.07.2018 [Cit.24.04.2019]. Available on: http://www.zjepb.gov.cn/art/2018/7/23/art_1201813_19607559.html 49

University of Technology, Zhejiang University of Commerce and Industry , Zhejiang Institute of Technology, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou Normal University; and environmental technology and research units: Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, Zhejiang Environmental Protection Public Technology Innovation Service Platform, Zhejiang Feida Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd.,.6

Zhejiang is one of the main places in China from where Xi Jinping's new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics shall grow since it is a birthplace of the concept of “Clean Water and Lush Mountains Are like Gold and Silver” (Lushui qingshan jiu shi jinshan yinshan 绿水青山就是金山银山). This concept, voiced by Xi Jinping in 2017, promotes the idea that a clean and healthy environment is as much valuable as money and other treasures and so should be taken care of with the same priority. The building of Beautiful China (and Beautiful Zhejiang) alongside building an ecological civilization in China are the main milestones on the road to realizing the rejuvenation of China and coming back to the basis on which stands the five thousand long history of China. Every cadre should follow this concept, just as every individual in China should participate in realizing the concept as well. For this reason, all mentioned units should feel a responsibility in putting in practice and promote the construction of green, ecological, and beautiful Zhejiang. However, the primary responsibility for ecological protection lies in the hands of local committees and local governments, which should put it on high-importance positions on their agenda, supervising the implementation. It is crucial to “hold high the great banner of Xi Jinping's new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics” 7. 8

All people should be encouraged to participate in environmental protection activities, incorporate education about environmental protection and ecological civilization into the national education system and training not only at schools and communities but also in enterprises and amongst government cadres. Zhejiang province should try to cooperate with foreign countries and companies in the area of environmental protection, and in this way spread Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought not only throughout the province but also internationally.

6 浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅关于征集生态环境领域重大战略技术需求的通知. In: 浙江省环境保护厅 official website [online].. 10.07.2018 [Cit.25.04.2019]. Available on: http://www.zjepb.gov.cn/art/2018/7/10/art_1511868_19438003.html 7Gaoju xi jinping xin shidai zhongguo tese shehui zhuyi sixiang weida qizhi 高举习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想伟大旗帜 8浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅关于征求《关于高标准打好污染防治攻坚战高质量建设美丽浙江的意见》（二次征求意见稿）意见的函.

The plan for constructing beautiful Zhejiang is divided into three stages:

Until 2020, the average concentration of fine particulate matter in the provincial cities should reach 35 μg/m3, and there should be 82% days with better or good air quality. A fresh air demonstration zone will be built, the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions reduced by 17% compared with the year 2015, and oxygen emissions decreased by 19.2%. From July 1st, 2019, the national motor vehicle emission standards were set up, and the crackdown on production and sale of non-standard vehicles started.

By 2022, the ecological civilization system will be further improved, and a beautiful Chinese demonstration zone established. In 80% of provincial cities, a clean air demonstration zone should be built. More than 80% of cities or counties should establish ecological civilization demonstration zones and cities.

By 2035, “the blue sky, white clouds, green water, and green mountains will become the norm” 9. By then, the construction of beautiful Zhejiang will be finished, and people will finally live in harmony with nature. Heavily polluting companies will relocate, and enterprises not able to pass the transformation and meet the standards will be shut down (Opinions on High Standards for Prevention and Control of Pollution, and Construction of Beautiful Zhejiang Chapter 4, Article 2).

Province also has to make sure to promote green manufacturing and the use of artificial intelligence to promote the clean transformation of traditional industries. Furthermore, another task is to promote the green industry and supply chain and build a green manufacturing system with clean processes and recycling of waste. It is also crucial for citizens to change their lifestyles and become “greener”, use more energy-saving products and green transportation. As for green transportation, the efforts are visible in all of the cities in Zhejiang province, where the public bicycle rental companies Ofo and Mobike are becoming more and more popular and wanted.

It is needed to improve the public supervision and public feedback mechanism, alongside strengthening of awareness when it comes to environmental laws, in order to make the citizens feel more responsible. For this purpose, the social action system has to be set up as a bridge between local and central government, public, and enterprises (Opinions on High

9Lantian baiyun lushui qingshan chengwei changtai 蓝天白云绿水青山成为常态).

Standards for Prevention and Control of Pollution, and Construction of Beautiful Zhejiang Chapter 5, Article 1).

In rural areas, the rural sewage and garbage revolution is promoted as a part of the rural revitalization plan. In order to deal with the problem of rural domestic sewage, new treatment facilities should be built. Until 2020 the plan is to dispose of 30 tons of rural domestic sewage daily. Besides sewage and garbage treatment, the promotion of the reduction in the use of fertilizers and pesticides is essential as well (Opinions on High Standards for Prevention and Control of Pollution, and Construction of Beautiful Zhejiang Chapter 6, Article 1).

What I find interesting about this proposal for building Beautiful Zhejiang is encouraging local government to promote the development of environmental protection social organizations and volunteer teams. Currently, there are only three official local ENGOs in Zhejiang province: Green Zhejiang, and Shaoxing Zhaolu Environmental Protection Center (Shaoxingshi zhaolu huanbao gongyi fuwu zhongxin 绍兴市朝露环保公益服务中心) and Zhejiang Society for Protection of Small Animals (Zhejiangsheng xiao dongwu baohu xiehui 浙江省小动物保护协会). Furthermore, these self-governing organizations and community organizations should promote environmental protection laws and regulations and spread environmental knowledge.10

B, Zhejiang and circular economy

911 Action Plan

In 2005, Zhejiang issued another round of projects, this time regarding the building of a circular economy in the province, under the name Plan of the Zhejiang Province for the Development of the Circular Economy, also called 991 Action Plan. Nine fields of circular economy developed and 100 projects in this field were implemented, such as recycling of renewable resources, reuse of recycled water, kitchen waste reuse, or garbage power generation (Pan and Shen 2019, 83). Zhejiang province started working on projects for the industrial circular economy, implementing individual ratings for industrial parks and

10浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅关于征求《关于高标准打好污染防治攻坚战高质量建设美丽浙江的意见》（二次征求意见稿）意见的函.

52 enterprises. Other already implemented projects are in the area of ecological circular agriculture (namely recycling of agricultural wastes), green manufacturing, and ecotourism (Pan and Shen 2019, 23).

To introduce some of these projects, China Everbright International 11 develops projects dealing with waste to energy transition in some of the Chinese cities, amongst them also Shengzhou city (嵊州) in Zhejiang province. This project in Shengzhou should be on for 30 years, starting from the year 2020, handling the transition of 1,200 tonnes of household waste, firstly building furnaces with the capability of 400 tonnes per day and processing capacity of 800 tonnes (In: China Everbright International 2019, Everbright International Secures Multiple Waste-to-energy Projects in Succession, Marking Strong Momentum for Market Expansion).

C, 811

811 Action for Promoting Ecological Development is a crucial environmental strategic plan for Zhejiang province, which was implemented in 2004 and now is undergoing its fourth round of projects.

Zhejiang province became the first province in the country to build a beautiful Chinese demonstration zone. This 811 project´s main agenda is to promote ecological development in the province, promoting the development of green economy, reduction of emissions, energy conservation, control and prevention of pollution, capacity building for environmental safety and institutional enhancement when it comes to environmental protection. Eleven particular actions should be conducted in the field of the circular economy, energy conservation, reduction of emissions, creating green towns and clean villages, safeguarding clean water resources, clean soil and air, protecting the forests in Zhejiang, and so on (Pan and Shen 2019, 107-108).

All of the actions aimed at improving the environmental situation in the province going hand in hand with economic and social development. As Pan and Shen (2019, 200-201)

11 China Everbright International is a Hong Kong based company providing integrated environmental solutions in China. For more information, please see the company´s official website, https://www.ebchinaintl.com/en/about/profile.php. 53 explain, these action plans are called 811 because they are happening on eight main Zhejiang´s rivers and waterways and across eleven Zhejiang´s cities and areas where the pollution situation is the worst.

The first round lasted three years and was dedicated to solving the most pressing environmental problems, control of environmental damage, the building of centralized facilities for treatment of municipal sewage and domestic garbage, however only above county level, so it did not touch rural parts of Zhejiang province (Pan and Shen 2019, 201). All of the chosen areas reached the standard level, which was considered a big success of the first round of 811 plans.

In the name of this plan, in 2013, the Zhejiang Piyi textile company finished its sewage-treatment project of 4000 tons of sewage (In: Zhejiang Piyi textile company, official website). To state another example, Zhejiang Asijia New Material Technology Co. is researching and developing new environmental technologies. They developed unique technologies for the treatment of wastewater from printing and dying practices and reuse of recycled water and in 2012 won the prize “811 Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Technology Achievements Transformation”, awarded by the Zhejiang Science and Technology Department (Zhejiangsheng kexue jishuting 浙江省科学技术厅) (In: Asijia New Material Technology Co., official website).

D, Inspections

Alongside the steps to the creation of Beautiful Zhejiang, Zhejiang Provincial Environmental Protection Department also points out the need for inspecting system implementation in order to correspond with the ecological civilization ideology. Firstly, the central government will inspect local governments for their role in informing citizens about environmental protection in the province. Local governments should actively respond to social concerns about environmental degradation, regularly disclosing information about environmental issues, making the information available to the public. Provincial governments should also make sure that appointed departments and companies are publishing information like monthly monitoring report on surface water and drinking water, which is the task of the Water

Department and Monitoring Centre alongside Marine Ecological Station. The same plans are for soil pollution control and monitoring.

Besides, companies and businesspeople should apply to obtain special administrative licenses (such as radiation safety license or transfer permit). Local governments will keep an eye on issuing these licenses. 12 Furthermore, information about industries and firms discharging pollutants needs to be publicly accessible, in accord with the Measures for the Administration of Pollution Discharge Permits (Wuranwu paifang quan jiaoyi guanli zanxing banfa 污染物排放权交易管理暂行办法) and the information on the issued discharge permits as well. 13

The inspection mechanism for environmental protection needs to improve in the future, the link between central and provincial inspections strengthens, and a better responsibility system has to be implemented and promoted. This responsibility system does not only exist for enterprises and appointed units but also party and government cadres in the area of ecological damage. The ones who will violate the requirements of scientific development in the province and who will be responsible for caused environmental damage will be strictly punished, even if already retired or promoted. 14

After looking at the articles published by Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, we can sense Zhejiang's government following the lead of the Chinese central government in stressing the importance of public participation and inspecting the obeying of environmental policies by Zhejiang organizations, enterprises, and public. The second type of inspecting the following of environmental laws is public interest litigation done by the provincial public prosecution. In July 2017, Zhejiang province prosecution implemented a system for public interest litigation in the field of environmental and resource protection. Since then until July 2018, over 300 cases were filed together with many other

12浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅办公室关于印发《2018 年政务公开实施方案》的通知. In: 浙江省环境保护厅 official website [online]. 22.06.2018 [Cit.16.7.2019]. Available on: http://www.zjepb.gov.cn/art/2018/7/4/art_1201814_19285608.html 13浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅办公室关于印发《2018 年政务公开实施方案》的通知. 14浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅关于征求《关于高标准打好污染防治攻坚战高质量建设美丽浙江的意见》.

55 proposals for prosecution. Besides, the compensation system for environmental damage was set up and approved by the provincial party committee and provincial government. 15

Zhejiang province attorney office decided to implement the environmental protection system based on the “two mountains” (liang shan 两山) strategy. That means that in the eyes of the local public prosecution office and also local government the matters of land and sea are equally essential, and land environmental protection should be as strictly compensated for as for water environmental protection. To state a concrete example, in the name of this strategy, the Jiangshan City (江山) attorney office issued a procuratorial proposal to supervise and clean up the hidden dangers of high-risk chemicals left over from a company's production for a long time and disposed of more than 1,000 barrels of nearly 400 tons of high-risk chemicals. 16

In order to promote the litigation system, it is necessary to ask grassroots organizations, masses, and other subjects to cooperate in the name of environmental protection. Through civil public interest litigation, the infringer has to compensate for the environmental damage he created. One of the means of how to spread this system is to open a public interest litigation hotline and report typical cases. It was successfully implemented throughout the whole province. 17

E, Following of laws

Interim Provisions on the Online Publicity of Environmental Protection Administrative Punishment Results in Zhejiang Province

The blacklisting of enterprises and individuals violating environmental protection laws and policies is one of the main ways how the Zhejiang province officials are handling the solid waste damage done by the units. One of the leading provincial policies regarding environmental protection is incorporating the blacklist of environmental law violations into

15浙江省环境保护厅. 深化公益诉讼彰显检察担当全力助推美丽浙江建设. In: 浙江省环境保护厅 official website [online]. 04.07.2018 [Cit.12.05.2019]. Available on: http://www.zjepb.gov.cn/art/2018/7/4/art_1201815_19285684.html. 16浙江省环境保护厅. 深化公益诉讼彰显检察担当全力助推美丽浙江建设. 17浙江省环境保护厅. 深化公益诉讼彰显检察担当全力助推美丽浙江建设.

56 the provincial public credit information system platform. In this way, citizens are not only concretely informed about the things that should not be done, but also about the units, individuals, and companies who did violate the environmental protection laws. 18Appointed governmental bodies, namely the Inspection team and the Environmental supervision department, need to disclose the information of the key cases and their administrative punishment and litigation. This blacklisting process needs to follow a document called Interim Provisions on the Online Publicity of Environmental Protection Administrative Punishment Results in Zhejiang Province (Zhejiangsheng huanjing baohu xingzheng chufa jieguo xinxi wangshanf gongkai zanxing guiding 浙江省环境保护行政处罚结果信息网上公开暂行规定). 19

Summary

To briefly sum up environmental protection policies of Zhejiang province, it is quite obvious that they are strictly following the official environmental policies of China. Almost every strategy or policy special for Zhejiang is somehow connected to the idea of beautiful, peaceful and ecological Chinese civilization of the future, where government is taking care of environment by asking people to help uncover the crimes against natural environment.

9 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN ZHEJIANG PROVINCE

This part of my research paper is the first “practical” part, the case study of solid waste management in Zhejiang. I am analyzing how Zhejiang province´s solid waste management policies, strategies, and projects fit into the discourse of environmental protection policies in China, in order to be able to compare and combine it later with the analysis of Zhejiang´s ENGO Green Zhejiang.

On the first of November 2018, the Provincial Ecological Environment Department held the first press conference since its establishment to inform the media and citizens about the clean-up projects and successes in the province. The reports were mostly concentrating on

18浙江省环境保护厅. 关于进一步深入推进全省环保系统“最多跑一次”改革的通知. In: 浙江省环境保护厅 [online]. 09.08.2018 [Cit.12.05.2019]. Available on: http://www.zjepb.gov.cn/art/2018/8/9/art_1201812_20203457.html. 19浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅办公室关于印发《2018 年政务公开实施方案》的通知, Chapter 1, Article 3. 57 the operations in the area of illegal waste dumping, with 1091 cases for the year 2018, and penalties given with the total sum of with 42, 18 million RMB. Zhejiang is mostly concerned with the hazardous waste disposal, and for this reason, a comprehensive disposal system combining incineration, landfill and cement kiln co-processing was established in the province. At present, the total hazardous waste disposal and utilization capacity in Zhejiang province is 7.928 million tons/year, including 344,000 tons of incineration, 168,000 tons of landfills, 877,000 tons of cement kiln and other co-disposal. 20

The biggest problem of solid waste management in Zhejiang is the insufficient management capacity, with an only limited number of solid waste management facilities and adequately trained personnel, alongside with the lack of supervision capacity. Since there are many small enterprises in Zhejiang, provincial units need to strengthen the utilization capacity of solid waste treatment. An online monitoring surveillance system should exist. Such a system is essential for in-depth information collecting about hazardous waste, monitoring major pollution factors in the province's waste incineration enterprises. Furthermore, the province should set up monitoring data display screens in the incineration plant, so citizens could see the data by themselves and could help with the social supervision of this kind of company. 21

A, Solid waste management and ecological civilization

As shown above, it is safe to state that one of the bases on which environmental protection policies of Zhejiang province stand, is the principle of following the spirit of building an ecological civilization in China. The Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Zhejiang Province (Zhejiangsheng renmin daibiao dahui changwu weiyuanhui 浙江省人民代表大会常务委员会) conducts inspections throughout the province, visiting cities and villages, in order to inspect the law enforcement of the Prevention and Control of Solid Waste Pollution Law. They dedicate their visits to controlling urban and rural domestic waste. Not only individual households are inspected, but local enterprises are also examined for how they

20浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省生态环境厅清废行动攻坚战新闻发布会媒体报道摘编. In: 浙江省环境保护厅 [online]. 02.11.2018 [Cit.14.03.2019]. Available on: http://www.zjepb.gov.cn/art/2018/11/2/art_1201819_23004345.html. 21浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省生态环境厅清废行动攻坚战新闻发布会媒体报道摘编.

58 deal with hazardous solid waste and sludge. After one of these inspections in 2018, the inspection team stressed to the newspaper Hangzhou Daily (Hangzhou Ribao 杭州日报) the importance of following Xi Jinping´s ecological civilization thoughts while conducting to action, since it is a criterion for becoming one of the world´s advanced cities. They especially pointed out the importance of waste sorting, planning, and promoting domestic garbage and hazardous waste disposal. To sum up by the words of the inspection team, “the garbage revolution should be promoted” 22. 23

B, Solid waste management and Beautiful Zhejiang

How can the management of solid waste in the province help build Beautiful Zhejiang? The first step has to be eliminating the odor in cities and treatment facilities dealing with garbage and domestic solid waste. The emanating smell needs to be controlled in the whole process of waste disposal, from collecting to utilizing. To help eliminate the odor and make the utilization of waste more productive and secure, the province has to strengthen the classification of urban and rural domestic wastes. Unofficial dumping points should be rectified and shut down. Units producing solid waste paying to the transport unit for transferring and disposing of their waste, have duty supervise and inspect whether all of the solid waste was disposed of.

Beautiful Zhejiang will fully adopt the law prohibiting the import of foreign garbage. It is the responsibility of Hangzhou Customs (Zhonghua renmin gongheguo haiguan 中华人民共和国杭州海关) to supervise the imported waste which can be used as raw materials, thus further helping the development of the circular economy. Another task they have to handle is cracking down on smuggling imports of foreign garbage. If they uncover entry of such a waste, they are also responsible for ordering the importer to return the illegally imported solid waste out of the country.

Furthermore, Beautiful Zhejiang of the future will have collection and classification mechanisms separately for industrial solid waste, medical waste, construction waste. Another

22Tuijin“laji geming”xiang zongshen fazhan 推进“垃圾革命”向纵深发展 23 黄,宇翔. 浙江省人大常委会来杭开展固废污染防治“一法一条例”执法检查. In: 杭州日报 [online].13.06.2018 [Cit.05.07.2019]. Available on: http://huanbao.bjx.com.cn/news/20180613/905488.shtml. 59 serious problem of solid waste management, which is fly ash from the incineration plants, will also be eliminated in Beautiful Zhejiang. As for how it is so far unclear. There will also be special containers for separating old household appliances and other electronic waste, agricultural waste, pesticide waste packaging materials, and even dead animals.

In summary, the main task is to ensure the balance between the production amount of solid waste and general solid waste utilization. 24

C, Zero Waste Action Plan

One of the main reasons for choosing Zhejiang province as a case study for observing how China handles solid waste management is the new strategy of Zhejiang towards solid waste. This strategy, published officially in July 2019, is Zero tolerance of solid waste. This new initiative is connected to the Pilot Work Plan for the Construction of No Waste Cities (“Wufei chengshi” jianshe shidian gongzuo fang´an “无废城市”建设试点工作方案), which was issued in July 2019 by the General Office of the State Council. This pilot project will be implemented in 11 cities, including Zhejiang's Shaoxing (绍兴).

Firstly, in order to better understand the situation of solid waste pollution in the province, the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment came to the province with his team and held a forum with professionals and responsible persons in this area. To become a Zero Waste city, it is necessary to create new disposal units for hazardous and industrial solid waste, strengthen industrial waste treatment and cement kiln disposal of waste salt. The new type of environmental-protection companies should be created, combining in their work capacities and capabilities to transfer waste from pharmaceutical and chemical companies, separate and transfer industrial raw materials, domestic garbage, waste oil barrels, and river sludge treatment. In Shaoxing, Shaoxing Fengdeng Environmental Protection Co., Ltd., (Shaoxing fengdeng huanbao youxian gongsi 绍兴凤登环保有限公司) is this type of factory. The tanker trucks of the company are every day filled with waste liquid from pharmaceutical and chemical companies. Industrial raw materials such as liquid ammonia are transported to Zhejiang Zhenyuan Pharmaceutical company (Zhejiang zhenyuan zhiyao 浙江

24浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅关于征求《关于高标准打好污染防治攻坚战高质量建设美丽浙江的意见》.

震元制药), and other enterprises. In this way, industrial waste is recycled, and the circular economy system promoted. 25

However, another article implies, that the idea to create a no-waste city came to the minds of Zhejiang province officials already in 2018, with The Bulletin on the State of Ecological Environment in Zhejiang Province in 2018 (Zhejiangsheng shengtai huanjing baohu gongzuo zeren guiding 浙江省生态环境保护工作责任规定). This bulletin informs Chinese citizens about the state of solid waste pollution in Zhejiang. The notice declares that solid waste treatment with both ecological and economic benefits has become a common practice in Zhejiang province. If looking at the number of facilities for urban domestic garbage treatment (147 facilities with the capacity of 86000 tons a day) and 90% rate for harmless treatment of both urban and rural domestic garbage, the situation looks good. 26

However, as the bulletin pinpoints, this should not be the only goal for solid waste pollution management in Zhejiang. One of the main objectives is implementing closed-loop management of the whole process of solid waste. 27

The ultimate goal should be the utilization of resources, and for that, the concept of no waste cities is the way to go. Shaoxing was chosen as the pilot city mainly because its exceptional results in the area of clean up of solid waste in the city, where the disposal capacity of town's solid waste is balanced with the amount of solid waste that needs to be disposed of. 28 The plan is that by 2020, the total amount of urban domestic waste will be zero. 29

25念初环保. 生态环境部副部长庄国泰带队调研浙江省固体废物管理工作). In: 念初环保[online].15.07.2019 [Cit.25.07.2019]. Available on: http://www.nianchuhuanbao.com/a/hangyedongtai/384.html. 26浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅关于征求《关于高标准打好污染防治攻坚战高质量建设美丽浙江的意见》. 27浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅关于征求《关于高标准打好污染防治攻坚战高质量建设美丽浙江的意见》. 28浙江生态环境 .《2018 年浙江省生态环境状况公报》站在绿色发展新起点上浙江如何再突破?). In: 北极星环保网 [online]. 26.06.2019 [Cit.24.07.2019]. Available on: http://huanbao.bjx.com.cn/news/20190626/988752.shtml. 29浙江省环境保护厅. 浙江省环境保护厅关于征求《关于高标准打好污染防治攻坚战高质量建设美丽浙江的意见》.

D, Solid waste management and public reporting

The Interim Measures for Reporting Reward for Environmental Violence of Solid Wastes in Zhejiang Province

Public reporting of a violation of environmental laws is one of the most widely spread policies of environmental protection of Zhejiang province. A best-case displaying how public reporting works was the case from 2018 when Zhejiang Provincial Ecological Environment Department awarded 70 000 RMB to a man who reported on cross-border dumping of solid waste. In May, a witness reported by calling to the Provincial Department of Ecological Environment that one of the industrial units in Hangzhou was illegally transferring and dumping industrial solid waste. After receiving the report, the department started to act and passed on the clues to the Provincial Public Security Department (Zhejiangsheng gong´anting 浙江省公安厅). The investigation started, and lawbreakers got arrested. Besides, 26 vehicles were seized up by the police alongside five whole properties.

The witness of this case was the first person ever who received a reward for reporting the infringement of the Solid waste pollution law of China. Zhejiang province just a few months before the incident, in January 2018, implemented the Interim Measures for Reporting Reward for Environmental Violence of Solid Wastes in Zhejiang Province (Zhejiangsheng guti feiwu huanjing weifa xingwei jubao jiangli zanxing banfa 浙江省固体废物环境违法行为举报奖励暂行办法). This is one of the measures of local governments to mobilize the masses into participation in the supervision of following environmental laws and help to spread the crackdown on violations of law in the field of solid waste pollution. The Interim had to be signed by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment first. The Provincial Department of Ecological Environment organized a conference when the content of this Interim Measures was published and pronounced for citizens and media. 30

Interim Measures for Reporting Reward for Environmental Violence of Solid Wastes in Zhejiang Province became valid from January 1st, 2018. The witness can officially get reward only if:

1, has clear reporting targets, specific reporting facts, and evidence;

30季, 建荣. 浙江一个举报 "跨界倾倒固废" 电话被奖 7 万元!. In: 北极星环保网 [online].25.12.2018 [Cit.01.08.2019]. Available on: http://huanbao.bjx.com.cn/news/20181225/951848.shtml. 62

2, the content of the report has not been picked up by the competent department of environmental protection before;

3, the contents of the report have been verified and dealt with according to law

Reporting of crimes against solid pollution laws include the cases of illegal dumping of industrial solid waste or medical waste; illegally transferring or disposing of hazardous waste, and other environmental violations involving industrial solid waste or medical waste. 31

Demolition Action Plan

Keeping in track with the policy of supervision over following environmental laws and policies, from May to the end of June 2018, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China drafted a unique plan called Demolition Action 2018 (Qingfei 2018 xingdong 清废 2018 行动. The main task of this action plan was to inspect the Zhejiang province's solid waste storage points. Thirteen problem points were found, and the Ministry required relevant provincial governmental bodies to publish online information about appropriate punishments, and traceability of the crimes, under the name Demolition Action 2018 Provincial Supervision. One of the crimes happened in Xiachang Village (下厂村), Pingyang County (平阳县) in Wenzhou (温州), concerning randomly stacked 3000 tons of construction waste and domestic waste nearby the local river. The process of cleaning up the dump was very fast since Pingyang county officials immediately organized sanitation workers to go to the site and separate the domestic waste, transferring it to the Pingyang County Green Power Renewable Energy Co., Ltd. (Pingyangxian luse dongli zaisheng nengyuan youxian gongsi 平阳县绿色动力再生能源有限公司) for disposal. A few days later cleanup and transport of construction debris started. Responsible persons from the third administrative division of the Wenzhou

31浙江生态环境. 浙江省环保厅下发关于征求《浙江省固体废物环境违法行为举报奖励暂行办法（征求意见稿）》修改意见的通知. In: 工业固废应用技术专业委员会[online]. 28.09.2017 [Cit.24.07.2019]. Available on: http://www.iswac.org/index.php?m=&c=index&a=show&catid=122&id=1215. 63 town administrative for law enforcement were dismissed. Aside from this, in order to prevent the same situation from happening again, regular inspections started in the area. 32

Inspection team discovered another violation of law in Haining Leather City, Haining China Leather City Management Co., Ltd. (Haining zhongguo pigecheng jingying guanli youxian gongsi 海宁中国皮革城经营管理有限公司). The company randomly stacked 90 tons of construction waste, in the open air, on the premises of Haining Leather City complex. This time, however, the Municipal government of Haining (Hainingshi zhengfu 海宁市政府) did not send appointed sanitary workers to come and handle to situation. Instead, Haining Municipal Government requested Haining China Leather City Management Co., Ltd. to clean the dumping point on their own accord. The company responded immediately, making sure the waste was transferred away within the same day. Right after that, Haining Leather City designed a special dumping place for garbage. This time, the punishment of responsible persons were less strict, making the relevant leader of the parent company of Haning Leather City Management Company reflect on the issue and conduct self-criticism profoundly.33

Demolition Action Plan is the Policy of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment on Further Strengthening the Environmental Management of Industrial Solid Wastes. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in 2012, the central government has taken solid waste pollution prevention and control work as a critical task of ecological, environmental protection. Following this policy, the Demolition Action Plan was issued in 2018 as a means for the prevention of solid waste pollution. 34

According to the requirements of the Demolition Action Plan, enterprises with large industrial solid waste production are encouraged to strengthen the clean production process transformation. For enterprises with an annual output of hazardous solid waste exceeding 5000 tons, it is advised to build their safe disposal facilities for the waste they produce.

The eco-environment departments at all levels shall conscientiously implement the industrial solid waste declaration and registration system, supervise and urge the industrial

32浙江生态环境 . 关于“清废行动 2018” 省级挂牌督办问题整改情况的公示. In: 浙江生态环境 official website [online]. 03.08.2018 [Cit.05.08.2019]. Available on: http://www.zjepb.gov.cn/art/2018/8/3/art_1201989_19941240.html. 33浙江生态环境 . 关于“清废行动 2018” 省级挂牌督办问题整改情况的公示. 34北极星固废网. 《浙江省生态环境厅关于进一步加强工业固体废物环境管理的通知》的政策解读. In: 北极星环保网 [online]. 29.01.2019 [Cit.10.08.2019]. Available on: http://huanbao.bjx.com.cn/news/20190129/960041.shtml. 64 solid waste generating units within the jurisdiction to implement the primary responsibility for the prevention and control of solid waste pollution, and carry out the verification of the production of industrial solid waste on an annual basis. Besides, it is crucial to strengthen the control of the transportation process of waste and strictly control long-distance transportation. For hazardous wastes transferred across provinces, the sub-component approval shall be carried out according to the operating capacity of the hazardous waste utilization and disposal units in the jurisdiction. 35

E, Industrial solid waste classification plan

In the Yongkang city ( 永康市 ) of Zhejiang province, project Internet+Centralized Management (Hulianwang + jizhong chuzhi 互联网+集中处置) of industrial solid waste started in 2019. Following the Notice on Further Strengthening the Environmental Management of Industrial Solid Wastes (Guanyu jinyibu jiaqiang gongye guti feiwu huanjing guanli de tongzhi 关于进一步加强工业固体废物环境管理的通知) from January 2019,

Yongkang city established an industrial solid waste online trading platform to achieve an organic combination of online waste recycling and offline recycling. Using the app, 651 companies in the pilot area have already registered, and 164 companies have signed a clearance service contract, which has completed the clearing of 937.3 tons of solid waste. 36

How does it work? The company has to open the APP, select the solid waste category, input the address and contact information, and then recycling workers will contact the company as soon as possible and will come to clean away the industrial solid waste. After the enterprise makes an online reservation through the APP, the waste recycling workers in the Yongkang area will get in touch with the company to determine the time and place of the door-to-door recycling. Workers will collect various types of waste, such as waste paper and scrap metal, plastics, and used electrical appliances, paying to the company according to the

35北极星固废网. 浙江：探索实施燃煤电厂协同处置油泥、钢铁厂协同处置重金属污泥试点项目. In: 北极星环保网 [online]. 27.01.2019 [Cit.11.08.2019]. Available on: http://huanbao.bjx.com.cn/news/20190127/959515.shtml. 36中国发展网. 工业固废“上网” 浙江永康“破题”无废城市. In: 北极星环保网 [online]. 01.08.2019 [Cit.11.08.2019]. Available on: http://huanbao.bjx.com.cn/news/20190801/997009.shtml. 65 market price. One of the chief merits of this app is that recycling workers have to take all waste, without exceptions. Usually, the recycling workers only receive high-value waste, and other types of wastes are left behind, so the problem of solid waste pollution still exists. 37 This project is also one of the stepping stones in the strategy of creating No Waste Cities in Zhejiang Province.

F, Conferences and forums

Chinese central government, via officially issued environmental laws, actively promotes public participation and education of public, cadres, and enterprises in environmental protection. Preparing conferences and forums open for the public is one of the best ways how to inform the broad public about innovations, actions, and problems in the environmental sphere.

On June 21st, 2017, the second Recycled Plastics Industry Summit (2017 Zaisheng suliao hangye fenghui 2017 再生塑料行业峰会) was happening in Hangzhou. The aim was promoting the development of the recycled plastics industry. The summit brought together thousands of companies from all over the country, including profit-making enterprises, processing and dismantling companies and recycling traders. The main talks were about the fact that domestic recycled plastics have not yet established a social resource recycling system. The public is not well aware, and participation awareness is not secured as of yet. A large number of recycled plastics enterprises and self-employed households have not achieved environmental protection standards. 38 On this summit, the first Chinese Recycled plastics environmental protection public welfare alliance (Zaisheng suliao huanbao gongyi lianmeng 再生塑料环保公益联盟) was established by participating companies. Via this alliance, the public is urged to raise its awareness of environmental protection, starting from garbage classification, and plastic recycling up to the green public welfare. It can also help to gather enterprises to promote recycling, help them upgrade their businesses. 39

37中国发展网. 工业固废“上网” 浙江永康“破题”无废城市. 38浙江在线. 国内首个再生塑料环保公益联盟成立他们准备干点啥. In: 浙江新闻 [online]. 21.06.2017 [Cit.15.06.2019]. Available on: http://fin.zjol.com.cn/201706/t20170621_4344730.shtml. 39浙江在线. 国内首个再生塑料环保公益联盟成立他们准备干点啥.

On May 30th, 2018, the 3rd Recycled Plastics Industry Summit was held in Ningbo, with the message to enhance the economic and trade exchanges between Chinese plastics industries and the world's enterprises and build new supply and demand channels for the recycled plastics industry in China. Many experts from the area arrived to give a speech. Participants also stated that the solution for urban waste also lies in the cooperation between government, enterprises, while the main force is the public and the NGOs. Another raised point was that it is needed to clearly distinguish between regular and hazardous solid waste when talking about imported waste. 40

Speaking about recycling, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Recycling (Zhejiangsheng guti feiwu chuli yu ziyuanhua zhongdian shiyanshi 浙江省固体废物处理与资源化重点实验室) was established in 2011, by Zhejiang Science and Technology Provincial Government Department and Zhejiang Province Development and Reform Committee. The main sponsors are Zhejiang Industry and Commerce University College of Environmental Legal and Engineering. Receiving funds from governmental financial department and school funds, laboratory concentrates on the newest technologies when it comes to recycling of solid waste resources in industry and agriculture, and recycling of domestic garbage. In March 2018, conference forum Food Waste Reduction & Upcycling (Youji feiqiwu de ziyuanhua liyong yu guanli 有机废弃物的资源化利用与管理), launched by Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Recycling, took place in Beijing, as part of the 3rd International Conference on Solid Waste Management and Technology (Guti feiwu guanli yu jishu guoji huiyi 固体废物管理与技术国际会议), organized by Tsinghua University in cooperation with United Nations Environmental Program and Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Technology Centre of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the United Nations Environment Program. In this forum, experts from Chinese universities discussed reports on resource technology and management such as pyrolysis, landfill, and composting. 41

40浙江在线. 推动产业绿色创新宁波举办再生塑料峰会. In: 浙江在线 [online]. 31.05.2018 [Cit.15.06. 2019]. Available on: http://nb.zjol.com.cn/zjss/201805/t20180531_7432645.shtml. 41浙江省固体废物处理与资源化重点实验室网. 我室主办的第十三届固体废物管理与技术国际会议分论坛在北京召开. In: 浙江省固体废物处理与资源化重点实验室 official website [online]. 25.03.2018 [Cit.17.06. 2019]. Available on: http://zjswtr.zjgsu.edu.cn/Show.asp?newid=261. 67

G, Zhejiang province´s solid waste management in the context of Chinese environmental policies

To conclude, Zhejiang province pays a lot of attention to the problem of solid waste pollution and its solution. The initiatives of the local government are really helping to reduce the amount of solid waste pollution in the city, since concrete steps are being implemented. Through solid waste management activities, Zhejiang province tries to rise the interest in people not only for solid waste management practices and supervision, but also the interest for official policies and goals of Chinese central government. Via solid waste management and conferences dealing with searching for solutions in this area, China is trying to portray itself as environmentally aware country, so its international image would improve as well. Again, solid waste management activities in the province are full of governmental supervision: governmental supervision over polluting enterprises, government supervision over people creating Beautiful Zhejiang. Zhejiang government plays on the feeling of social responsibility amongst citizens of the province, while at the same time giving them concrete examples explaining that if citizens help, cooperate and obey the rules, the environmental situation in the province can really improve.

Green Zhejiang and solid waste management

Green Zhejiang (Luse zhejiang 绿色浙江) is the oldest and the most prominent non-profit environmental NGO in Zhejiang province. Most members of Green Zhejiang are volunteers, especially students from Zhejiang´s universities. In this part of my thesis, I am offering an insight into how Green Zhejiang operates in general and also, more concretely, in the area of solid waste management. This research is based on the official annual reports and official online posts published by Green Zhejiang on Wechat (Weixin 微信) social platform. I have searched through approximately 70 posts regarding solid waste management or the agenda of Green Zhejiang in general. Around 60% of all posts was made from posts about Environmental Watch activities, which will be introduced later. Beside Wechat posts I was able to collect small amount of information concerning the basic operating system of Green Zhejiang via questionnaire I sent to the leader of Green Zhejiang´s waste classification group volunteers. I am including this questionnaire and his answers in Chapter 11, as Appendix.

Unfortunately, after returning from China I was no longer able to connect with this member of Green Zhejiang and so I was not able to conduct more in-depth interview with him.

Green Zhejiang

Green Zhejiang is working on environmental protection since 2000, and it is also the first Chinese ENGO that received the 5A grade in the social organizations' evaluation system. It is devoting its efforts into the supervision of environmental situations, community building, and education about nature. According to the annual report about the operations of ENGO, in the year 2015 Green Zhejiang convened six academic or professional conferences, 13 training meetings that attended 450 people, launched 55 public activities and 3 activities for foreigners or concerning foreign affairs. In comparison, in the report for the year 2016, it is stated that 12 training meetings took place, and 426 people participated. Only five public activities took place and 1 activity concerning foreigners (In: Green Zhejiang official website).

A, Agenda

In 2015, Green Zhejiang conducted campaigns in the following main five fields:

1. Eco-community building (shengtai shequ jianshe 生态社区建设 ): helping communities faster adapt to a greener lifestyle, teaching them how to reduce the usage of energy, how to reuse waste and be less consumer-oriented, primarily via educational meetings and small-scale projects like tree planting and waste collecting 2. Management of dumping (faqiwu guanli 废弃物管理): developing of household composting training, putting into practice environmental protection enzyme training and courses, garbage classification courses, clothing re-usage, recycling of discarded clothing, retrieving of expired medicine in households 3. Students’ environmental protection club of the future of water (Shui weilai xuesheng huanbao shetuan 水未来学生环保社团 ): helping students to get a better understanding and more profound knowledge of the importance of water sources protection

4. Launching international campaign for education and inspection in the area of nature and water sources (kaizhan guoji ziran yu shui ziyuan kaocha yu jiaoyu huodong 开展国际自然与水资源考察与教育活动): Green Zhejiang organized the educational gathering of Mongolia, US, and Australia about nature and water sources, attended by 63 people 5. Parental love classroom (Chunhui jiangtang 春晖讲堂): ENGO established Green Zhejiang ecological community, public lecturing team, established training for eco- communities for both children and their parents as well (Green Zhejiang annual report, 2015).

In 2016, the five main areas of interest were:

1. Hangzhou television station Qiantang forum „I say environment“ series (Hangzhoushi dianshitai qiantang luntan huanjing wo shuo xilie jieri 杭州市电视台钱塘论坛环境我说系列节日 ): round-table conference with scholars, professionals, and governmental officials concentrating on the most pressing issues of ecological degradation and discussing the tactics and measures of protecting the environment 2. Green Zhejiang eco-community learning through practice science and technology center (Luse Zhejiang shengtai shequ tiyan keji zhongxin 绿色浙江生态社区体验科技中心): the aim was to promote the development of green housing, to help advance the skills in refuse classification and system of recycling water 3. 2016 global polluting sewage management technique seminar 2016(Quanqiu yinran feishui chuli jishu yantaohui 全球印染废水处理技术研讨会): as the name itself implies primary mission of this seminar was to find new ways how to advance in the sewage management, via discussions between experts, regarding the sewage management not only in China but in the world in general 4. Gathering for interpreting of the Paris agreement (Baxi xieyi jieduhui 巴西协议解读会) 5. Hangzhou air pollution current situation governance strategy seminar (Hangzhou daqi wuran di san fang zhili xianzhuang ji duice yantaohui 杭州大气污染第三方治理现状及对策研讨会): this activity focused on the situation o fair pollution, connecting students, professionals, and governmental officials to discuss the possible

management strategies for this particular problematic (Green Zhejiang annual report, 2016).

Green Zhejiang divides its projects into three core categories: environmental watch, community building, and school of nature.

Community building includes eco-community building, the rebirth of clothing, recycling of expired medicine, intelligent green living, charity shop. The real-life implementation of the eco-community concept started in the Shangcheng district (上城区) of Hangzhou, where there was first attempt to promote the establishment of this kind of community. Professionals, volunteers, and personnel that underwent capability training alongside with enterprises and neighborhood committee in this area all cooperated on the attempt. The idea of the green community consisted of using solar energy, collecting and re-using the rainwater, turning wasted food into fertilizers, fallen leaves into composts and so on. Also, the environmental protection team was organized; trees and plants were grown. The model eco-community was created. In 2013, after receiving the support of the Central government, the organization started another project of the ecological community in the Xiacheng district (下城区) of Hangzhou. In 2014 this project moved to Henan province (河南省), Zhengzhou city (郑州市) (In: Green Zhejiang, official website).

To promote its own projects and ideas, Green Zhejiang chose the strategy of connecting stakeholders together, trying to ignite the collective participation and promotion from government, public, media, and other NGOs. Green Zhejiang mainly cooperates with the governmental management departments. In Hangzhou, it is the Hangzhou Urban Management Committee (Hangzhoucheng guanwei 杭州城管委). At the provincial level, it is mostly the cooperation with the Zhejiang Province Environmental Protection Department and the Environmental Protection Mission Centre (Huanbao xuanjiao zhongxin 环保宣教中心). Another type of relationship is the cooperation with foundations that focus on waste sorting, etc. The central cooperation is in the field of propaganda and education. Governmental cooperation mainly consists of receiving financial aid from public welfare venture capital (Appendix, questions 4, 6, and 7).

B, Green Zhejiang, and solid waste management

Green Zhejiang Solid Waste Branch (full name Solid Waste Branch of Zhejiang Green Science and Culture Promotion Association) (Zhejiangsheng luse keji wenhua cujinhui guti feiqiwu fenhui 浙江省绿色科技文化促进会固体废弃物分会) was established on the 5th of June, 2017, during the World Environment Day (Appendix, question 2). The official celebration happened in the Anji village (安吉村) of Zhejiang province. The main task of this branch is conducting and promoting research on solid waste classification, resource utilization, and research on science and technology cooperation in the solid waste area. The idea for the establishment of this kind of group was born on the 10th of February 2017, during a conference on domestic garbage held in Hangzhou by Zhejiang province´s universities.

However, the whole process before the actual establishing was very well thought- through since Green Zhejiang members organized meeting between experts on solid waste treatment, people in business from the field of waste recycling, and environmental industry lawyers. Investors in the environmental industry from Zhejiang were invited as well. They all together discussed the establishment of Green Zhejiang Solid Waste Branch. Besides, they prepared specialized educational training for the future base members of the Solid Waste Branch (Appendix, question 1). After all, details were sorted out, and the main agenda for Solid Waste Branch was chosen alongside all the necessary work arrangements, Solid Waste Branch finally came to life. Solid Waste Branch operates mostly in the prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang Province, with the main base being set in Hangzhou, where headquarters of Green Zhejiang are as well (Appendix, question 2).

The year 2017 was thus the real starting point for Green Zhejiang activities in the area of solid waste management. Before that, Green Zhejiang paid only a little attention to the problem of solid waste management. The only activities in this sphere between the years 2000 and 2017 were connected with municipal solid waste classification, promoting public participation in the biggest Zhejiang province´s cities (Appendix, questions 1 and 2). Looking at the case of Green Zhejiang and its agenda dealing with the management of solid waste in China, this organization follows the main agenda which was set up for NGOs in China by the Chinese government, and that is to promote environmental protection. As we can see on most of the treads written by Green Zhejiang on Wechat, Green Zhejiang

72 propagates information about solid waste management by posting online articles about how to use old plastic products one might find at home, and others.

Looking at Green Zhejiang´s official Wechat post introducing the establishment of Green Zhejiang Solid Waste Branch, we can observe Green Zhejiang's participation in the building of ecological civilization. The name of the post says “Green Zhejiang Solid Waste Branch was established – we will guard the Clean Water and Lush Mountains!” 42. 43 In this way, Green Zhejiang sends out the message of being the protector of the Chinese environment, protector of Chinese environmental policies.

Environmental watch

The most popular posts of Green Zhejiang are about the Environmental Watch (Huanjing guancha 环境观察) activities. Environmental Watch is almost exclusively dealing with hazardous solid waste management issues. Environmental Watch members are mostly young volunteers. All of the posts have the same structure, firstly stating where the dangerous solid waste pollution was found, what was the source and possible reason, how the Watch member reacted and how higher authorities handled the whole situation, what the result was. In July 2016, one of the Green Zhejiang members was on her Environmental Watch and discovered in Chi Ying town industrial zone big amount of waste paint barrels that still had some dry paint inside and outside of them. It was hazardous waste, and so the police were called. After the incident, Green Zhejiang stuff came back to the place of incident to see whether it was handled and cleaned by responsible organs. 44

This type of posts usually includes also who the guilty party is and what was the following punishment. In 2017, another similar case happened. Green Zhejiang members found illegal small smelting sources of pollution on the riverside in Wuyi. The article begins

42 Luse Zhejiang gufei fenhui chengli la~lushui qingshan jiu you women lai shouhu 绿色浙江固废分会成立啦~ 绿水青山就由我们来守护!) 43 绿色浙江公众微信号. 绿色浙江固废分会成立啦~绿水青山就由我们来守护!. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 06.06.2017 [Cit. 18.02.2019]. 44绿色浙江公众微信号. 【环境观察】绿色浙江协助永康破获路边倾倒危废案，2 人被刑拘. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 09.07.2016 [Cit. 12.01.2019].

73 with the lecture of how serious the small smelting pollution is. 45 The members contacted the Environmental Protection Bureau and later came back to check on the current situation on the site. 46

Amongst Chinese ENGOs, informing about and conducting activities regarding hazardous solid waste is not being promoted on a big-scale, most of them do not talk about this problem as much as about other solid waste categories. On the contrary, Green Zhejiang´s most discussed and propagated topic is precisely the management of hazardous waste. Besides, Green Zhejiang is receiving reports directly from citizens when they come across some environmentally hazardous behavior conduct, confirming that the promoting of public participation that is stated as main agenda of most of the Chinese NGOs, in general, is paying off.

In 2017, Green Zhejiang got information that enterprises in Changshan County Industrial park are illegally dumping hazardous industrial waste. In response, GZ sent there its watch to check on the situation. They found out that one company was putting wastewater into a small pond full of garbage in the nearby forest. The stink emanating from the pond made the lives of residents living not far from the area miserable. Green Zhejiang stated the name of the incriminated company and also posted the video from the wastewater dumping. Similarly to the “public shaming” strategy promoted by Zhejiang government and Chinese central government in general, this strategy is also the way how to teach about the wrong ways of doing things. Also, it is proof of conducting the activities according to the tasks the government expects from ENGOs. In this case, Green Zhejiang decided to co-work with the local TV station and come to record the situation of pollution in the industrial park. Many oil barrels full of industrial waste were discovered, some waste leaking out of barrels, construction and plastic waste everywhere around. Another big concern of the whole case is that the leaking waste was soaking into the soil and thus degrades the soil and water quality. Immediately after, the plastic company from Zhejiang province organized people to come and help with the cleanup of the area.47 On this type of cases we can observe how Chinese

45Xiao yelian fenchen duo, feiqi feizha wuran da, dui huanjing de wuran shifen yanzhong 小冶炼粉尘多、废气废渣污染大，对环境的污染十分严重 46绿色浙江公众微信号. 【环境观察】环境观察丨绿色浙江举报:高污染小冶炼遭取缔. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 12.01.2017 [Cit. 12.01.2019]. 47绿色浙江公众微信号. 【环境观察】常山新都开发区有企业偷排废水、偷倒危废品？绿色浙江环境观察员持续追踪！In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 10.05.2017 [Cit. 13.01.2019].

ENGOs use media in order to promote public participation, in this case firstly by evoking the attention of plastic company, and secondly by calling ordinary citizens to action.

Municipal solid waste classification

Another Green Zhejiang widely discussed topic regards rubbish classification and divination. On the Wechat account, posts concerning this topic are mostly constructed as some kind of comics about a small blue dinosaur. In one of them, this small dinosaur is coming to the Zhejiang University canteen where Green Zhejiang intern is explaining how to divide kitchen waste. This happened during Volunteers Day at Zhejiang University. The article also explains how the waste will be used: kitchen waste will be used as biogas generator (厨余垃圾将用于沼气发电). Waste will go from university kitchen to the Hangzhou Centre for Disposal of Kitchen Waste (Hangzhoushi tiani ling chu yu laji chuli dian 杭州市天子岭厨余垃圾处理点), which is first China´s big-scale waste disposal project center. Later, it is expected to generate methane power to 10 million degrees per year 48. 49 This approach makes it easier for common people to connect with the ideals and agenda of Green Zhejiang, especially grasping the attention of small children and younger generation.

In March 2018, on the Zhejiang Province Volunteer Day, Green Zhejiang and the Solid Waste Branch volunteers joined the garbage classification volunteer activity and helped to battle the city´s domestic garbage management problem. The activity was named “Small hand pull big hand: garbage classification”, and members from organizations, sanitary workers, parents, and young children all lend a hand in the on-spot classification activities. In addition, kitchen waste composting, old medicine disposal, and environmental protection enzyme promotion were introduced as examples to promote the concept of garbage classification further. CPPCC Vice President asked members to conduct independent research and help the development of the kitchen waste disposal machine working principle and processing capacity, and encouraged Green Zhejiang to strengthen technology research and development,

48Zhexie chuyu laji meinian yuji jiang ke chansheng zhaoqi fadian da 1000 wan du 这些厨余垃圾每年预计将可产生沼气发电达 1000 万度 49绿色浙江公众微信号. 不分类的垃圾很丑，绿色浙江实习生 Anna 和她小伙伴们争当校园垃圾分类先锋. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 06.12.2016. [Cit. 12.01.2019].

75 in order to reduce the cost of kitchen waste disposal machines. 50 Again, not only adult, but children as well were invited to participate and brainstorm.

In June 2017, Zhejiang provincial Party Secretary visited Wenzhou´s Longgang, a garbage classification model village. This village uses QR code garbage classifier method (Erweima laji fenleiji shiyong fangfa 二维码垃圾分类机使用方法) to separate domestic waste. Firstly, on the device´s display person can choose the type of garbage they have. Then the machine produces code sticker, with information about the type of garbage and personal information, in order to achieve the garbage traceability, which will be affixed to the garbage and then input into the designed box. The result is a high reduction rate and high resource efficiency. 51 In this way, the problem stated above, that people do not trust the process of waste separation and later disposal, is solved since everyone can check whether they garbage was handled the way it should have been. Solid waste classification projects and schooling are the second most common activities of Green Zhejiang connected to solid waste management. What is interesting is that these activities mostly concentrate on the rural areas, giving the impression that Green Zhejiang mostly conducts concrete actions in villages of Zhejiang province, while on the other hand in the cities Green Zhejiang concentrates mostly on spreading of knowledge about environmental protection and catching the violators of laws.

Turning waste into fertilizer

One of the main missions of Green Zhejiang is to help build eco-communities in the province. Currently, this mission is still in its first stages, with Green Zhejiang members mostly spreading environmental education about greener lifestyle in the communities of bigger cities of the province, but also in Zhejiang province´s rural areas.

In 2014, Green Zhejiang encouraged Liuying community (Liuying shequ 柳营社区) in Hangzhou, being the size of approximately 3000 households, to join in the project of turning kitchen waste into fertilizer (laji feiliao 垃圾肥料), by helping to build community farms. These farms have special garbage waste composting bins and planting boxes for fruits and vegetables inside the residential units. Residents of the community throw their kitchen waste

50绿色浙江公众微信号. 垃圾分类我先行，绿色浙江助力打赢城市生活垃圾处置攻坚战~. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 03.03.2018 [Cit. 13.01.2019]. 51绿色浙江公众微信号. "这个对老百姓很有用！”省委书记点赞绿色浙江固废分会会员企业. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 22.06.2017 [Cit. 10.01.2019].

76 into the special composting box, and then anti-smell and fertilizing bacteria are added inside. The mixture needs to ferment for three months, and after that, it will be turned into fertilizer. From this fertilizer community residents can grow their vegetables and fruits and thus create a sustainable model of living. The plan for the future is in this way to reduce the amount of waste in the community by 30%. 52

In Anji village, Green Zhejiang also lent helping hand in the project of using science and technology to dispose of waste produced in the village. The village received new garbage bins, separately for wet, dry, hazardous and recyclable waste. The “wet” waste separation is the most challenging task for people everywhere since wet garbage produces the worst smell, and people are thus least willing to separate this kind of waste. However, Green Zhejiang, alongside the village head officials, found out how to motivate people to separate even the wet garbage. In order to do so, it is necessary firstly to separate kitchen waste from its packaging and other stuff which might contain any plastics. The village also received two individual kitchen waste grinding machines where citizens put the separated kitchen waste. Every third afternoon the specially appointed person comes and starts the process of grinding, adding anti-smell and fertilizing bacteria inside. After the grinding process is over, the staff puts all of the created mud inside a special white-plastic container and seal it, to let it ferment for three days. When it is finished, the farmers and agricultural workers from nearby counties come to the village and take some of the newly produced fertilizer, which they again need to let compost little bit, reduce the amount of water inside and ferment the mixture at the temperature of 60 Celsius degrees. After approximately 15 days they can use it to grow vegetables, rice or other plants. To make it profitable for local citizens as well, before every person throws in their kitchen waste volunteers weight it and then record the amount number on Wechat official account, where every household possesses its account. For a certain number of accumulated weight, every household can exchange it for the crops that farmers from other counties produce from their kitchen waste. In order to do so, they have to come to the village office and register. Next time the farmers come to the village, villagers can get the vegetables and crops that are allotted to them according to the weight their family or household accumulated. 53 Here, we can see another type of concrete project Green Zhejiang implements to help in the process of solving solid waste pollution problems. In order to make

52 杭州网. 绿色浙江和柳营社区打造社区农场厨余垃圾发酵后成为化肥. In: 杭州网 [online]. 31.07.2014 [Cit. 22.06.2019]. Available on: http://hznews.hangzhou.com.cn/chengshi/content/2014- 07/31/content_5383148.htm. 53 绿色浙江. 杭州电视台:垃圾减量与环保酵素. In: 环保酵素救地球[online]. 21.11.2015 [Cit. 22.06.2019]. Available on: http://www.hbjsjdq.com/thread-187994-3-1.html. 77 a change, it is easier to firstly focus on changing the lifestyles of smaller groups of people, like villagers and communities. These cases also support the argument stated above, that Green Zhejiang mostly implements projects with a direct impact on solid waste pollution in rural areas and city communities.

Popularizing via media

Speaking of tactics Green Zhejiang adopts to promote its activities, in 2017, United Zhejiang TV news channel, Hangzhou Library, NetEase, and Green Zhejiang jointly launched the “Read aloud for the Earth” public action. Provincial leaders, environmental protection volunteers, ENGO members, and around 3000 people altogether participated in the 24-hour long life reading of environmental works. After, there was a round-table meeting prepared, where the discussion turned around topics like promoting cooperation in the field of waste classification and recycling enterprises, support the development of research of science and technology in the solid waste area, and help connect social organizations, communities, and enterprises in the quest of handling the problems of solid waste.54

Besides, in Ningbo and Zhoushan (舟山), the cleaning of beaches from drift garbage was undergoing at the same time, recorded by various TV stations of Zhejiang province. 55 We can conclude that Green Zhejiang is also trying to popularize its goals and projects through media means. Besides, Green Zhejiang also adopted the strategy of two mountains, since handling the situation of land solid waste and litter coming from and into the sea are both essential parts of their agenda.

Being international

On a few occasions, Green Zhejiang does not forget to mention on Wechat its participation in worldwide environmental activities. This participation is not via eye-to-eye contact with international organizations or by going abroad spreading Green Zhejiang´s mission. GZ uses a more relaxed way, which is conducting special cleaning and waste sorting activities during

54绿色浙江公众微信号. 历史会记住绿色浙江的丁酉之年. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 15.02.2018 [Cit. 18.04.2019]. 55绿色浙江公众微信号. 历史会记住绿色浙江的丁酉之年.

78 special environmental days celebrated all around the world, side by side with other Chinese ENGOs.

On the third Saturday in September 2017, Green Zhejiang joined the International Coastal Cleanup day. For the bigger part of the Wechat post, we do not learn how the activity went or what its content was. However, we learn the history of this international day, which started in 1986 in the USA, later joined by Mexico and Canada. It is necessary to stress out the history of Coastal Cleanup day in order to make people realize how important the actions of GZ are locally but also globally. The activity was led in cooperation with other Chinese environmental protection organization like Shanghai Rendu Ocean (Shanghai rendu haiyang gongyi fazhan gongxin 上海仁渡海洋公益发展中心), Green Future (Luse weilai 绿色未来), China Mangrove Conservation Network (Zhongguo hongshulin baoyu lianmeng 中国红树林保育联盟), Macau University of Technology, and Hong Kong Environmental Protection Association. As for the activities itself, the day was full of practicing public welfare and picking up garbage on the beaches in Zhejiang province. Participating volunteers were also asked to help let more people pay attention to marine environmental protection and the issue of marine garbage, by filling bags with marine garbage and showing it later to their friends, families, and at schools as well. 56 Green Zhejiang thus does not only use media and Wechat or Weibo social platforms to promote public participation, but also encourages every member of Green Zhejiang to spread the mission of Green Zhejiang amongst each own´s friends, family and people around, in this way creating a net of collaboration and making everyone feel responsible, important, and part of ecological civilization society.

Social responsibility

Green Zhejiang is also trying to evoke feelings of social responsibility in Chinese citizens. The article about hazardous waste in Chi Ying town concludes that even though there are some cities where the occurrence of hazardous waste is more common because of the industrial production, “it must be strictly taken care of following the solid waste discharge management measures to dispose of dangerous waste”. Author of the article also calls on the

56 绿色浙江. ICC 世界净滩日，绿色浙江在嵊泗花鸟净滩，除了泡沫、塑料瓶、渔网、建筑垃圾，竟然还有一台破冰箱. In: 网易网站 [online]. 24.09. 2017 [Cit. 12.04.2019]. Available on: http://dy.163.com/v2/article/detail/CV4OFNP30511AVHF.html. 79 feeling of social responsibility that the enterprises producing this kind of waste should have, asking the ordinary people to help play supervision role and be “the third eye” (di san zhi yan 第三只眼) in the environmental protection affairs.57

Furthermore, Green Zhejiang stays true to its determination to educate people, in this case, especially about laws and official governmental policies from the field of environmental protection. Around 50% of the posts incorporate the underlying explanations of Chinese laws and policies, using mainly two methods. Firstly, Green Zhejiang shows to the public how the organization cooperates with the official governmental orders and ideas. The concept of Environmental Watch is proof by itself since it is an official policy issued by the Central Chinese government that ENGOs should serve as watchdogs over enterprises and other units causing environmental degradation. Secondly, the posts include added chapters that teach citizens about the possible punishment for this kind of action. The Chi Ying town post is no exception. At the end of the article, there is part talking about the penalty for disposal of radioactive and other dangerous waste according to Chinese Number 338 Criminal Law. 58

In addition to the article about illegal smelting source of pollution found in Wuyi in 2017, there is “Pond over” part at the end of the Wechat post, reminding citizens that small smelting is banned by state and it is endangering the water quality and soil in the area. ENGO Green Zhejiang also expresses its hope that “governmental departments and public alongside Green Zhejiang will continue to monitor this kind of behaviour” 59. 60

Green Zhejiang also introduces the Environmental Protection Tax, which reflects the determination of the State to strengthen environmental protection, and will force companies to accelerate the transition to high-tech and green energy-saving business model enterprises. The substitution of environmental protection tax for sewage charges can solve the problem of insufficient law enforcement in the system of sewage charges, realizing the legislative purpose of promoting the emission reduction and clean production of the enterprises. 61

57绿色浙江公众微信号. 【环境观察】绿色浙江协助永康破获路边倾倒危废案，2 人被刑拘. 58绿色浙江公众微信号. 【环境观察】绿色浙江协助永康破获路边倾倒危废案，2 人被刑拘. 59Xiaolu panwang geji zhengfu zhineng bumen he guangda gongzhong yanmi jiankong weifa yelian xingwei, tongshi, women ye jiang miqie guanzhu 小绿盼望各级政府职能部门和广大公众严密监控违法冶炼行为，同时，我们也将密切关注 60绿色浙江公众微信号. 【环境观察】绿色浙江举报:高污染小冶炼遭取缔. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 12.01.2017 [Cit. 10.01.2019]. 61绿色浙江公众微信号. 环保税开征倒计时 1 天，如何用“绿色税收”守护好“美丽浙江”？In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 30.12.2017 [Cit. 08.01.2019].

Another strategy is that of following a good example and pointing at a bad example. In March 2016, Green Zhejiang published on its official Wechat account a drawing coming from the hands of a small Chinese boy who decided to paint the whole set of values that are dearest to Green Zhejiang. The picture included reflections of all the projects ENGO was working on in 2015 and which I mentioned in the chapter before. The place on the drawing is a paradise village where people are living completely in tune with nature. As part of this drawing, there is a house where people bring their garbage, and the garbage magically disappears as the result of recycling. As stated in the article, kitchen waste (the leftover food) is eaten, and other garbage is recycled. Next to this house, there is a picture of Giant Panda, which serves as a container for old clothes. 62

The article praises the creative and open-minded attitude of the author of the picture, pointing out his passion for the values Green Zhejiang is promoting. Ningwe Chong and his project of an eco-house in Anji village is another example. The story about why Ningwe decided to pay attention to environmental protection serves as an example of how people should care more about things that are happening around them, not only from the local but also the global perspective. 63

Anji village is mentioned throughout the whole history of posts on the official Wechat account of Green Zhejiang. This village is also pointed out as the model village, especially when it comes to solid waste management. To highlight the importance of the village garbage disposal system, Green Zhejiang describes the visit of the United Nations Vice Secretary, who was very impressed by the system for garbage classification in the village. Anji village guides its inhabitants to carry out the classification of garbage, to achieve the full coverage of rural domestic waste production. The villagers can divide kitchen waste, paper, and plastic bags and other types of rubbish. 64 In 2005, the head of the state, Xi Jinping himself paid a visit to Anji.

62绿色浙江公众微信号. 别人家的孩子，给绿色浙江画了一幅神作. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 07.03.2016 [Cit. 10.01.2019]. 63绿色浙江公众微信号. 绿色浙江创会会员任卫中：山村里的生态住宅实践者. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 24.12.2017 [Cit. 10.01.2019]. 64绿色浙江公众微信号. 联合国副秘书长听取绿色浙江固废分会秘书长介绍后，点赞安吉垃圾分类工作！. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 26.04.2018 [Cit. 10.01.2019].

As for the rural waste management, there is the story of Ningwe Chong, Green Zhejiang founding member, who succeeded at building a small eco house and whole mini eco-village in the Anji village mountain area, in the project under the name “My soil, my village” (Wu tu wu xiang 吾土吾乡). The mini-village has hotels, farmers club, bamboo forest, vegetable plots. Original ecological building material was only used to create the buildings, e.g., bricks made out of construction waste rubbish. 65 We can see that the promoted message is that solid waste can be used in many ways and handled in many places if people are willing to give it a try.

Educating

We learn that Green Zhejiang initiated an annual recycle day in June 2014, in Hangzhou´s Low Carbon Science and Technology Museum, to advocate turning waste into new, useful things. In this way, GZ promoted environmental protection through the recycling of old clothes, re-cooking of kitchen waste, and the use of waste oil as soap. During the action, activities were prepared mostly for students of primary schools and their parents.

Children were divided into recycling teams, separately for old clothes, paper, furniture, home electronic appliances, kitchen waste, and plastic bottles. They learned how to create handicrafts from plastic bottles and other waste materials. There was also a workshop on how to make soap from waste oil. The post itself includes the description of the process so that anyone could try it at home. 66

Besides learning how to create soap, we also learn the story of one of the participating children, who started to volunteer in the field of environmental protection when she was six years old. Nowadays, she does not only volunteer but also helps her classmates become more environmentally aware by bringing them with her to the Green Zhejiang´s Recycle Day. 67 Green Zhejiang stresses the importance of starting to care about environmental protection

65绿色浙江公众微信号.绿色浙江创会会员任卫中：山村里的生态住宅实践者. 66 To see how soap can be made out of waste oil, please see the website: http://www.qnsb.com/fzepaper/site1/qnsb/html/2014-09/15/content_513823.htm. 67 绿新闻. 绿色浙江发起循环日倡导变废为宝只要花点心思废塑料瓶可变成工艺品废油也能变成肥皂. In: 青年时报 [online]. 15.09.2014 [Cit. 17.07.2019]. Available on: http://www.qnsb.com/fzepaper/site1/qnsb/html/2014-09/15/content_513823.htm#.

82 from an early age, and the responsibility of everyone to help open the eyes of the people around them as well. If six years old child can participate in public welfare activities, anyone can find the time to do so as well.

Conferences and forums

Green Zhejiang also joins other ENGOs in organizing conferences, environmental discussions, and other meetings. In August 2017, GZ participated in 4 days long China Ocean NGO forum, and in the evening of the opening day, the discussions on problem-solving and garbage management were undergoing.

Another topic to talk about was the marine littering, which is closely connected to the land litter as well. The post about this forum also informed about Chinese ENGOs in cooperation with Hong Kong ENGOs working together on better understanding the reasons behind and solutions for marine litter. It is thus visible that marine litter is an area where there is still some lack of knowledge amongst Chinese organizations, as well as individuals. The forum was also attended by fishermen from authentic fishermen village Tai O, near the Pearl River estuary, informing the participants about the problem of sea garbage being blown by the wind into the community.68

At the beginning of 2018, Green Zhejiang organized a conference in Anji village, where the issues of three types of waste products (san fa 三废) management were discussed. The three types of waste products include wastewater, exhaust gas, and industrial slag. During this meeting, around 20 representatives from different Green Zhejiang city branches or volunteer groups met to share their experience and ideas about how to best conduct and serve the mission of environmental protection. It was decided that in 2018 Green Zhejiang will concentrate more attention on handling the waste situation in the province. 69

68绿色浙江公众微信号. 让更多人认识海洋 | 跟着绿浙小伙伴走进第二届海洋公益论坛. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 02.09.2017 [Cit. 03.01.2019]. 69绿色浙江公众微信号. 2018 年绿色浙江基层服务会议召开，“三废”治理引热议. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 17.01.2018 [Cit. 08.01.2019]. 83

Ecological civilization

As for the Green Zhejiang following the policy of creating Chinese ecological civilization, Wechat post from 2017 states:

2017 年绿色浙江在上级部门领导下，以协会深化改革与创新发展为主要目标，围绕浙江省生态文明建设，继续开展环境保护和宣传工作，让更多的人环保起来。圆

满完成各项任务.

In 2017, Green Zhejiang under the leadership of superior departments, with the main target of deepening reform and innovation to construct ecological civilization in Zhejiang province, continues to work on carrying out environmental protection and propagation work, in order to lead more people to environmental protection.

The article demonstrates that Green Zhejiang´s operations are under the guide of the 19th Party Congress spirit. This guide means that the ENGO is working on cross-border integration, popularization of science using media resources, and promoting international cooperation. 70 Green Zhejiang also helps to raise the awareness of young party members when it comes to the importance of following and helping to build an ecological civilization. Another task of the organization is to bring young children together and carry out service work for the community, “build a social organization platform and serve the members with the whole hearth” . 71 In June 2018, Green Zhejiang members published on the website this slogan:

建设生态文明是关系人民福祉、

关乎民族未来的大计，

是实现中国梦的重要内容.

Building an ecological civilization is related to the well-being of the people. To the future of the nation, It is an integral part of realizing the Chinese dream. 72

70绿色浙江公众微信号. 历史会记住绿色浙江的丁酉之年. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 15.02.2018 [Cit. 26.07.2019]. 71绿色浙江公众微信号. 历史会记住绿色浙江的丁酉之年. 72绿色浙江公众微信号. 历史会记住绿色浙江的丁酉之年.

Green Zhejiang´s solid waste management in the context of Chinese environmental policies

I do believe Green Zhejiang to be a clear example of how ENGOs are doing environmental protection in China. The most significant part of the operations Green Zhejiang conducts are ideas coming from the minds of the Chinese central government. A smaller part comes from the minds of Green Zhejiang members themselves, trying to be responsible citizens of China and let the government see it, via their projects and actions and via taking upon their shoulders the duty to lead other citizens not only towards caring about nature, but bringing them closer to the government as well. Another part is created based on the feeling of responsibility towards Zhejiang province, in an attempt to create a better environment for everyone to live in. My observation thus agrees with other scholars, declaring that the ENGO Green Zhejiang and its solid waste management initiatives work as a propaganda tool for the goals of the Chinese government. This is obvious also from the language used in the Wechat posts of Green Zhejiang, when GZ is using precisely the same strict and threatening language, putting itself into the role of “big brother”, educating people not only about greener lifestyle but also about governmental policies, while at the same time serving as watch-dog over them. On the other hand, Green Zhejiang is helping to change the environmental situation in the province for the better, since it is coming with many practical ideas and projects and makes it as easy as possible for people to get a better understanding of how solid waste management could be done by every one of them.

10 CONCLUSION

To sum up the situation of solid waste management in China, it is evident that the Chinese government, Chinese citizens, and citizen organizations are all putting lots of effort into the treatment of solid waste pollution. On the other hand, it is also visible that Chinese rural areas do not get as much attention as Chinese cities. Most of the activities against solid waste pollution in Zhejiang province are aimed at enterprises and business companies. There are many differences between the approaches to solid waste management in urban areas and villages. In the cities, various projects are going on, regarding either different ways how to

85 dispose of kitchen and other types of solid waste, how to separate better, how to recycle, how to change their lifestyle in order to produce less waste and use fewer plastic products. Many companies, restaurants, enterprises, and governmental bodies are helping to achieve these goals. New incineration plants are being built; new garbage bins are being added to the city center, public transportation, near restaurants or into shopping malls. There are many workshops and conferences, which ordinary citizens can easily and freely attend to learn more about the importance of solid waste management and learn how they can also help by changing one´s everyday habits. Governmental bodies are issuing new regulations to make the solid waste disposal system more transparent for people to understand it and so believe in it, to make enterprises and industries pay more attention while discharging waste pollutants and making recycling and other waste collecting companies do their job more profoundly. New projects are being funded; new online apps and companies are offering easy ways for city inhabitants to change their old things for new ones.

When it comes to villages, village inhabitants are more left to their own devices. There are some ongoing education projects; however, they are mostly connected to other starting action projects, and their first step is to introduce the project and its working to the village citizens. Villages also do not have such a wide variety of waste management activities to choose from. However, it is essential to add that when it comes to waste separation and kitchen waste disposal, the methods that are being implemented in villages and small eco- communities in Zhejiang province far exceed the methods in the cities. Many projects include turning kitchen waste into mixtures that can be used later for growing plants, vegetables, and fruit. There are also many special machines installed in the villages, for a better tracing of disposed waste and for better re-using of thrown away the garbage. Since villages are much smaller than cities and most of the people are traveling for work to the cities, there are not enough people or volunteers from the villages that could take care of the landfills or the waste separating in general. Thereby more prominent involvement and additional funding from local governments are desperately needed.

The most significant difference between governmental ways of dealing with the problems of solid waste pollution and the approaches of ENGOs is the new ideas that they bring into play. The Chinese government is doing a great job at gaining a better understanding of what things should be labeled as mandatory and what requirements should be put upon enterprises and industries to help reduce the solid waste in China. The first step the Chinese government decided to do was to start handling the situation of foreign waste flooding China, even though

86 the import was in some ways beneficial for the Chinese economy. I do believe that is the best way how to start the process of solid waste management since it is not in Chinese capacities to take care of both domestic and international waste. The Chinese government is mostly concentrating on controlling and monitoring the ways how bigger companies and industries are managing solid waste pollution they are producing. In my opinion, it is also necessary to put more regulations on all of the citizens in general, like mandatory separating rule. With this environmental problem, it is safe to say that collective change needs to be done, and I believe that in this case, as in opposition to for example water or air pollution, the change needs to start from individuals. To conclude the part government is playing, it is mostly offering money in the form of projects funding, issuing new laws and regulations, monitoring the operations of enterprises and creating more opportunities for people in the cities to correctly dispose of garbage wherever they go. Thus they promote the change in solid waste management by bigger actors, like already mentioned companies and industrial enterprises.

The government knows that it is not able to spread the message of its environmental policies only by itself. For this reason, it is letting the door open for Chinese ENGOs, to help with monitoring, by making it lawful that organizations or even individuals that find out about the violation of regulations aimed at waste management can either report it directly to the appointed governmental organs or to file lawsuits. From the actions of ENGO Green Zhejiang, we can see that environmental organizations are taking this chance, and many of them adopted the watch-dog role over solid waste discharging units and over society in general. ENGOs are also very good at spreading solid waste handling education and information amongst various groups of people. They are cooperating with schools, young people, families, older people and so on. For every group, they have particular ways how to approach them and educate them. For children, it is via various creative DIY workshops. For families, it is by adding new special garbage bins in the neighborhoods of their houses and teaching them how to dispose of kitchen waste properly. For older people and people with less money, ENGO organizes meetings where people can exchange their old cloth, electronic appliances or books.

ENGOs are approaching the problem of solid waste management from the opposite direction than the Chinese government. They are starting from the individual citizens. I agree with the majority of researchers stating that the central role of Chinese ENGOs and NGOs, in general, is to promote public participation. However, I believe that it is not only the role given to them by government, but most of all it is their primary strategy, because they are aware of the fact that if people get enough information, they are more likely to be able to realize their

87 importance in the whole system and thus become spontaneously willing to help and change their lifestyle (and not because it is required by some law which they often do not even understand correctly). They are complementing the official governmental strategies, adding creativity in projects they are preparing. ENGOs are indeed the connection point between the government and the Chinese people. The governmental approaches and projects are thus more theoretical, while ENGOs projects are more practical.

Green Zhejiang is well aware of its role in the environmental protection politics of China. It realizes the importance of coming with real, effective projects, while at the same time realizing the need to approach the projects and the way Green Zhejiang promotes them to the public and operates before the public in tune with official discourse of environmental policies in China. After all, the main sponsor for its real-life projects is the Chinese government itself. To show the support to the government, Green Zhejiang uses the same language as used in official Chinese environmental policies to inform, scare, publicly punish, and motivate people, linking their projects and strategies how to promote them to the official Chinese environmental policies, like the concept of building an ecological civilization.

To conclude, I would label the strategies and agenda of Green Zhejiang as a preventative effort. The preventative effort, meaning preventing the spreading of solid waste pollution in Zhejiang province. The preventative effort, meaning scaring citizens from breaking the law. The preventative effort, in order to be in harmony with official Chinese governmental goals, and thus prevent losing the watch-dog big brother duty given to Green Zhejiang by the government, and prevent losing the governmental support as well.

11 APPENDIX

Question 1: 请问您的组织如何帮助管理中国的塑料问题？所有的固体废物呢？您的组织是否举办跟废塑料和别的固体废物管理有关的工作坊？您们是否提供关于废塑料和其他固体废物管理的教育训练？还是您们提供其他相关活动？

Answer: 1.我们组织在塑料方面做了主要是宣传工作，倡导公众做好垃圾分类。在固体废物领域上，我们成立了一家专业行业协会，叫浙江省绿色科技文化促进会固体废弃

物分会。(简称绿浙固废分会) 在绿浙固废分会的基础上，我们邀请了固废行业领域的专家学者、嘉宾为我们的分会成员进行了培训、分享。

Question 2: 请问您的组织什么时候开始帮助管理中国的固体废物问题，特别是废塑料问题？为什么？在哪个省或者城市，您最重视这个问题？为什么是这个地方？

Answer: 绿色浙江从 2000 年创立之初就开始关注垃圾分类议题。于 2017 年 6 月 6 与 5 日世界环境日之时，成了绿浙固废分会。开始关注固体废弃物。我们主要活动的范围是在浙江省下辖的八个地级市。最重视的地区是浙江省省会杭州因为绿色浙江主要活动地区实在杭州市

Question 3: 请问您的组织在中国的农村有哪些废塑料管理的特别活动和方法？在城市和大城市呢？

Answer: 1.开展净滩行动 2.主要在社区里做宣传教育活动

Question 4: 请问您的组织如何促进您们的废塑料活动和计划？

Answer: 主要联动利益相关方。撬动政府、公众、媒体、企业、NGO 基金会等等资源一起共同参与，共同推动。

Question 5: 请问您的组织用哪些方法让大家参加您们的活动？您的组织使用哪些媒体宣传您们的理念和活动？大众是否因你们的宣传而受影响？实际参与情况如何？

Answer: 1.活动宣传 2.传统的电视、报纸、广播以及互联网微信等等。 3.以量变带动质变。

Question 6: 拿固体废物，特别是废塑料管理来看，您的组织是否跟别的组织合作？您的组织跟中国政府的废塑料管理合作目前进行的如何？

Answer: 我们主要是与政府直管部门进行合作，在杭州，是杭州城管委。省内的话主要是浙江省浙江省环境保护厅，环保宣教中心。与关注垃圾分类的基金会合作等主要合作上是在宣传教育领域。

Question 7: 请问中国政府有没有一些方法支持您们的活动？

Answer: 有的，主要是公益创投资金资助。

12 REFERENCES

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绿色浙江公众微信号. 绿色浙江固废分会成立啦~绿水青山就由我们来守护!. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 2017-06-06[Cit. 2019-02-18].

绿色浙江公众微信号. 历史会记住绿色浙江的丁酉之年. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 2018-02-15 [Cit. 2019- 07- 26].

绿色浙江公众微信号. 让更多人认识海洋 | 跟着绿浙小伙伴走进第二届海洋公益论坛. In: 绿色浙江公众微信号 [online]. 2017-09-02 [Cit. 2019- 01- 03].

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