Can Circular Economy Legislation Promote Pollution Reduction? Evidence from Urban Mining Pilot Cities in China

Abstract

Major economies, such as the United States, European Union (EU), Japan, and China have enacted Circular Economy Promotion Laws (CEPLs) to promote the development of the recycling industry. The Urban Mining Pilot Policy (UMPP) is an essential provision of the CEPL in China, which promotes a circular economy and environmentally friendly industries and society. In China, the Urban Mining Pilot City (UMPC) program facilitates the addressing of the negative environmental impacts of industrial and urban waste, and conservation of scarce primary resources, which are necessary for sustainable industrialization and urban sustainability in developing countries. In the present study, a time-varying difference-in-difference analysis of city-level panel data was conducted to investigate the impact of the UMPC program on pollution reduction in China. The results indicated that the UMPC program has improved municipal waste management efficiency and environmental quality significantly, with robust results across various models and datasets. Additionally, the mediation test showed the positive impacts of the UMPC program are mainly associated with the economy-of-scale effects. Finally, the UMPP had geographical and social-economic heterogeneous effects. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to quantify the impact of the UMPC program on recyclable solid waste management and pollution reduction in urban China, with potential contributions to resource and environmental economics.

Can the Circular Economy Demonstration Policy Enhance the Green Innovation Level? A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China

“…The NCEDC policy, as an incentive and a guiding regulatory tool led by the central government, aims to promote circular production and green behaviour in relation to production, distribution, and consumption, and to drive green development and low-carbon development through circular development [49,50]. According to the expectations of policy promoters, the implementation of NCEDC policy will bring about the adjustment and upgrading of economic development model, which is manifested in the transformation from the traditional extensive model characterised by excessive consumption of resources to a sustainable development model with resource conservation and environmental friendliness as the core goal, so as to reduce the disorderly destruction and deprivation of the environment and resources of city development [51].…”

Impact of Urban Mining on Energy Efficiency: Evidence from China

“…Sustainability 2022, 14, 15039 2 of 16 Rapid industrialization and urbanization have greatly increased China's demand for mineral resources, mainly those obtained via virgin mining. Compared with virgin mining, which generates massive environmental waste [13], urban mining (UM) has lower environmental consequences because the process of recovering recyclable urban wastes requires fewer inputs and results in less pollution [4,[13][14][15][16]. UM refers to the recycling of steel, non-ferrous metals, rare metals, and other resources produced and stored in urban areas.…”