Shanghai Talks Trash

China is the world’s largest producer of trash. Traditionally, informal trash collectors, often specializing in different kinds of material, have been responsible for keeping recoverable material out of the country’s overflowing landfills. Yet trash in China keeps piling up, and the central government has thus started to take waste management into its own hands by mandating cities to improve their recycling rates. Two reporters from Chinese business magazine Caixin traveled to Shanghai to study how the world’s most populous city is trying to implement an ambitious waste-sorting program. getAbstract recommends their analysis to public policy experts as well as business professionals and environmentalists with an interest in China.