China’s regulatory respond to plastic pollution: Trends and trajectories

Abstract

Despite China having an international reputation as one of the largest contributors to plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, research analyzing China’s regulatory approach to governing plastic has been limited and fragmented, and as such, little is known about trends and trajectories dominating China’s plastic policy landscape. In this paper, we seek to address this gap in the literature through the construction and analysis of a complete inventory of China plastic-related policies from 1 January 2000 to 30 June 2021. Utilizing NVIVO (a qualitative analysis software), our analysis of 231 Chinese plastic policy documents shows that China’s serious and concentrated effort to governing plastics really took off in the year 2016. From 2016, China saw a rapid increase in the attention paid to plastic pollution in the regulatory realm. In 2000, there were only four plastic-pertinent policies, but by the first half of 2021, this number has grown to 41, representing an increase of 925%. In this period, China has also significantly transformed its approach to governing plastics; not only has the goal and purpose of regulating plastic increased in complexity, but the type of plastics targeted and the different aspects of the plastic value chain included in various policies have become increasingly comprehensive over time. Concurrently, the deployment of different types of regulatory instruments utilized for the purpose of governing plastics in China has become much more diversified, with a major focus on prohibitive bans and information campaigns currently dominating Chinese plastic policy instruments. Economic policy instruments, on the other hand, especially economic incentives, have only recently been gaining popularity. Finally, today, most government agencies have published policies that are relevant to the regulation of plastic pollution control and prevention in China. Despite the massive increase in plastic pertinent policies in China, the predominant focus is still on back-end policy, with little regulatory attention on the upstream part of the plastic lifecycle (i.e., prodigious production of plastics). China’s fairly recent plastic policy awakening should be understood in light of China’s focus on the circular economy, the county’s ramping up of regulatory focus, and fiscal investment in solid waste management and pertinent infrastructure. Towards the end of the paper, we point to some possible trajectories for the China plastic policy landscape, highlighting the synergies between reducing plastic production, consumption, and waste treatment and China’s carbon neutrality ambition, as well as predicting a stronger policy focus and emphasis on plastic cleanup efforts.

Exploring Plastic-Management Policy in China: Status, Challenges and Policy Insights

“…The Five-Year Plan Related to Plastics Efforts to control plastics greatly accelerated in 2016 as a response to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), which greatly raised the level of ambition to improve China's ecological and environmental quality by 2020 [18] and led to a rapid rise in regulations on plastic pollution. As stated in the Protection of Ecological Environment (2016-2020) of the Plan ('十三五' 生态环境保护规划的通知), "The overall objective is to improve the environmental quality by 2020.…”

“…This became known as "white pollution" and woke up China to the problem of plastic waste. Over the last two to three decades, several developments have taken place concerning how the country governs plastic, and since 2016 it has particularly paid more attention to that of plastic pollution [18]. However, to date, the policy and regulatory landscape regarding plastics has remained relatively uncharted due to scant research on the topic [18].…”

“…Over the last two to three decades, several developments have taken place concerning how the country governs plastic, and since 2016 it has particularly paid more attention to that of plastic pollution [18]. However, to date, the policy and regulatory landscape regarding plastics has remained relatively uncharted due to scant research on the topic [18]. Current policy research mainly focuses on specific policies, such as plastic bans and restriction orders [19][20][21], as well as specific plastic products, such as plastic packaging [22,23], courier packaging [24], and disposable plastics [25].…”

“…Fürst and Feng were the first to set out to comprehensively map and analyse the inventory of Chinese plastic-policy documents since 2000, and found that not only have the goals and objectives of legal measures for regulating plastics become more complex, but the types of plastics targeted by the various policies and the different life-cycle stages of the plastics value chain have become more comprehensive, and the regulatory tools and instruments have become more diverse [18]. However, questions as to the actual efficacy of these policies in preventing/mitigating plastic pollution are left unanswered in this research.…”

Limited knowledge of national plastics policy effectiveness may hinder global progress

“…A number of institutions focus on assessing plastic policies including the Global Plastics Policy Centre at the University of Portsmouth; Duke University's Plastic Pollution Working Group; the World Resources Institute; The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). However, because effectiveness studies are expensive and resource intensive, they are conducted infrequently (Fürst and Feng, 2022) and inconsistently (Schnurr et al, 2018), which engenders a chasm of cracks and gaps. This article reviews the existing literature to discuss the gaps that exist in understanding what makes national plastics policy effective, and provides potential solutions to create a more complete picture of plastics governance that is effective in practice.…”