Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.
DOI 10.1007/s11783-015-0816-8
REVIEW ARTICLE
A comprehensive overview of rural solid waste management
in China
Chao ZENG, Dongjie NIU (✉), Youcai ZHAO
The State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering,
Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
© Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract This paper aims to conduct a comprehensive
review of rural solid waste (RSW) in terms of character-
istics, management and legislation. Survey results show
that RSW generation rates range from 0.25 to 2.1 kg
$(capita$d)–1 in different rural villages across regions of
China. Total RSW generation has been increasing, which is
far higher than official data in 2014. RSW are dominated
by food residue and coal ash/cinder/dust (at approximately
70%). Most of RSW are still discarded randomly without
any treatment in China. Scattered RSW generation sources,
imperfect legislation system, poor infrastructure on treat-
ment and disposal are identified as the biggest challenge
for RSW management currently in China. To improve
RSW management, increasing financial resources, estab-
lishing sorting collection and transportation network,
promoting sorting collection and recycling, improving
treatment technology are proposed as the possible solution.
Keywords rural solid waste, characteristics, manage-
ment, legislation, China
1 Introduction
As the largest developing country with the most population
in the world, China has achieved immense achievements in
terms of economic growth and urbanization process from
the later 1970s to date, but meanwhile has paid a heavy
price in environment and ecology [1]. It is well known that
China has devoted extensive efforts to protecting the
environment in recent years [2]. Yet, the former researches
and policies on environmental protection preferentially
focused on industry and urban pollution control, instead of
rural areas. Currently, with the rapid development of rural
Received May 20, 2015; accepted August 15, 2015
E-mail: niudongjie@tongji.edu.cn
economy and social transformation, rural China is also
faced with multiple environmental problems, and one of
the increasingly serious consequences is rural solid waste
(RSW) [3,4]. China has been, and continues to be a large
agrarian country, but RSW is not paid considerable
attentions for a long time, just like other developing
countries in the world [5]. At present, rural residents are
extremely dissatisfied with RSW treatment and disposal
among different pollution sources.
Rural areas account for 90% of mainland China. It was
reported that there are more than 40000 small towns
(consisting of numerous villages) and 675 million of rural
population (about 50% of the Chinese population) in 2010
[6]. A majority of RSW (especially the organic wastes)
were utilized as organic fertilizer in agriculture or feed for
livestock, only a very few of which was discharged to the
environment in early times [7], without drawing people’s
attention. Large rural population growth accompanied by
increasing income is the key factors behind the magnitude
of total RSW generation in China. The officially estimated
data based on a nationwide survey in 2007 showed that per
capita daily generation of RSW was 0.86 kg, and there was
nearly 300 million tons generated every year, about 1/3 of
which was dumped randomly and seriously polluted the
environment [8]. Official declared that the safe disposal
rate of RSW reached only 5.2% by 2006 [9]. It not only
pollutes water, soil and air of rural areas, but also does
great harm to people’s health and rural areas’ long – term
development. For instance, it was reported that the severe
degradation and eutrophication of aquatic system and
ecological environment in Three Gorges region and
Dianchi Lake, were partially caused by the inappropriate
disposal of RSW [10,11].
Multiple literatures have been delivered to review the
status and challenges of municipal solid waste (MSW) in
China [12–14], while few are available for RSW. Never-
theless, due to the low densities of rural households,
regional differences and unbalanced economic develop-
2 Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.
ment, RSW has the features of complicated characteristics
(e.g., the increasing generation and the complex composi-
tion) as well as diversified sources, contributing to the
challenges of RSW management [15]. Along with inherent
characteristics, deficient enforcement of relevant legisla-
tions and regulations, only fundamental technologies for
RSW treatment and disposal, serious problems remain for
RSW in China [4].
As the main method for RSW management in developed
countries is based on urban MSW management [16], it is
unwisely to follow the experiences of developed countries
directly for China. Fortunately, the Chinese government
has recognized the severe situation of rural pollution in
recent years. For the purpose of environment protection in
rural areas, a series of laws and regulations related to RSW
have been issued stage by stage. Local pilot programs in
different rural areas also have been initiated by many
provinces, in order to determine the feasible and suitable
treatment process according to local conditions. Since
2006, many provinces began to comprehensively launch
Village Cleaning Project, Zhejiang province and Henan
province have almost achieved the target that every county
level has RSW treatment equipment and facility by 2008
[17].
To review the development and identify the challenge
and opportunities of RSW management in China, a
comprehensive analysis of RSW characteristics, manage-
ment and legislation in China are carried out. Based on
these results, some recommendations and expectations for
future development in China’s RSW management are
proposed.
1.1 Study area
Rural areas consist of rural town and village, the two
smallest administrative levels in China under nation,
province, prefecture/municipality and county [18]. The
current social and economic backgrounds of the typical
rural areas in different cities or provinces varied greatly.
The per capita net annual income varied from 4506 CNY to
16475 CNY in 2012 [19].
RSW is defined as including most wastes that are
discharged from daily activities or services by rural
residents in China, and wastes are prescribed by laws
and administrative statutes. These wastes are mainly made
up of organic wastes including food and kitchen waste,
recyclable wastes including papers, plastics, glasses,
metals, textiles and leather, etc., non – recyclable wastes
including slag and their byproducts, and other hazardous
wastes [20]. Special rural waste streams such as solid
wastes produced in rural industries, agricultural and
forestry waste are beyond its scope.
1.2 Data collection
It is, naturally, difficult to obtain the reliable data of RSW
in terms of generation, delivering and disposal quantity at
the national level, because most villages are decentralized
and remote. Moreover, data of any kind involving RSW is
generally not widely valued, available or shared in China.
To obtain the potential materials regarding RSW, most data
used in this paper are collected directly or indirectly from
literature, Statistical Yearbooks, government websites or
documents and official media.
2 Results and discussions
2.1 Characteristics of RSW in China
2.1.1 RSW generation
According to the National Rural Environmental Pollution
Prevention Planning Outline (2007–2020) [21], the annual
total amount of RSW generation is approximately 280
million tons. However, the newest authoritative data
declared by MOHRD in People’s Daily, the government's
official newspaper in China, is approximately 110 million
tons [22], which shows a distinct divergence of annual
RSW generation. Additionally, previous studies also
conducted the field survey themselves to explore this
issue, whereas most data are based on small – scale surveys
or just simple case studies of demonstration projects. Some
estimated results based on the rather incomplete statistics
in different studies vary widely, e.g., with estimated
generation of 140 million tons in 2000 [23], 180 million
tons in 2005 [24], 236 million tons in 2010 [4]. It is mostly
because that some differences may exist with the survey
errors and statistic method. Despite some uncertainties in
these results, it still reveals an increasing trend in total
amount of RSW generation. Otherwise, RSW
generation rate in nationwide rural areas also varies in
different literatures, e.g., with estimated rates of about
1.34 kg$(capita$d)–1 in 2003 [25], 0.9 kg$(capita$d)–1 in
2006 [26], 0.95 kg$(capita$d)–1 in 2010 [4]. Particularly,
these data are generally higher than that of other
developing countries’ rural areas. For instance, with
surveyed rates of about 0.5 kg$(capita$d)–1 in Brazilian
Amazon, Brazil [27], 0.681 kg$(capita$d)–1 and 1.102 kg
$(capita$d)–1 in two rural areas of Mexico [28].
Table 1 presented RSW generation rates across regions
of China, showing that most data are less than
1 kg$(capita$d)–1. Similar to the estimated of RSW
generation, the RSW generation rate also shows an
increasing trend. It also varies significantly among
different rural villages across regions of China (ranging
from 0.15 to 2.22 kg$(capita$d)–1), and sometimes even in
same region (e.g., Beijing, Jiangsu and Zhejiang province,
respectively.). In general, it implies that the rate in
Northern China is higher than that of Southern China,
and the rate in Eastern China is higher than that of Western
China, and this result is consistent with previous study
 Chao ZENG et al. Review on rural solid waste management in China 3

[29]. Several factors may account for this phenomenon:
rural population and its distribution, income level, dietary
habits, consumption level, etc., which are similar to the
main factors that influence the MSW generation rate in
China [13].
2.1.2 RSW composition
Table 2 presented a comparison of physical composition of
RSW in various cities or provinces in China. On the one
hand, the proportion of RSW compositions differs
dramatically owing to differences on climate, dietary
habits, culture, season and living standards. Besides, as
was reported, RSW compositions (No. 6 – No. 10) were
similar to MSW composition in some relatively developed
rural areas of Eastern China, inferring that urban lifestyle
could influence surrounding rural villages [30,31]. On the
other hand, food residue and miscellaneous inorganic
wastes regarding coal ash, slag and dust as well as plant
ash, are the two major components of RSW. It is noticed
that waste composition in Northern China is dominated by
a high inorganic content, achieving the highest proportion
at approximately 70%. These wastes probably originate
from household fuel because of heating in cold season or
preparation of cooking food. However, there would be a
reduction of ash/soil residue content in future as coal will
be replaced by natural gas or rural biogas [14,32]. Besides,
RSW composition in most villages of Eastern China and
Southern China is dominated by a high proportion of
organic content in terms of food residue. It can be
considered that food residue will still continue to be the
main component in rural China in future. In addition to
organic waste and inorganic waste, there is a certain
amount of recyclable waste, indicating a trend of
urbanization and economic development.
2.1.3 Comparison of characteristics between RSW and
MSW in China
Figure 1 presented a brief comparison of generation rate
between RSW and MSW in China. Surveyed RSW data are
selected in Table 1, with the corresponding MSW data of
their administrative city or province in 2008 obtained in
literature [33]. It is clear that most MSW generation rates
are quite higher than its corresponding rural areas except
for Beijing, Shenyang and Hebei province. There is a

Table 1 Literature data of surveyed RSW generation rate in China

generation rate/
No.a) location year survey method Ref.
kg$(capita$d)–1
1 Beijing 1 2006 household survey 1.5–2.1 [54]
2 Beijing 2 2010 questionnaire 1.46 [4]
3 Shenyang, Liaoning Province 2005 household survey 0.66–2.33, average: 1.2 [55]
4 Jilin Province 2010 questionnaire 1.25 [4]
5 Hebei Province 2010 questionnaire 1.13 [4]
6 Yixing 1, Jiangsu Province 2004 household survey 0.15–0.27 [56]
7 Yixing 2, Jiangsu Province 2005 demonstration project 0.255 [57]
8 Yixing 3, Jiangsu Province 2002–2005 household survey 0.15–0.30 [58]
9 Nantong, Jiangsu Province 2007 household survey 0.69 [59]
10 Fujian Province 2006 questionnaire 0.73 [60]
11 Zhejiang Province 1 2006 questionnaire 1 [61]
12 Zhejiang Province 2 2008 household survey 0.48 [62]
13 Zhejiang Province 3 2010 questionnaire 0.83 [4]
14 Hangzhou & Lin’an, 2010 household survey 0.6–0.7 [63]
Zhejiang Province
15 Chongqing 2008 household survey 0.21–0.43 [64]
16 Hainan Province 2008 demonstration project 0.23 [65]
17 Anhui Province 2010 questionnaire 0.75 [4]
19 Sichuan Province 2010 questionnaire 0.73 [4]
20 Yunnan Province 2010 questionnaire 0.58 [4]
21 Guangzhou, Guangdong Province 2012 questionnaire 0.82 [15]
22 Dongguan, Guangdong Province 2012 questionnaire 0.75 [15]
23 Zhongshan, Guangdong Province 2012 questionnaire 0.58 [15]

Notes: a) No. 1 to No. 5 belongs to Northern China, No. 6 to No. 16 belongs to Eastern China, No. 17 to No. 23 belongs to Southern China
4 Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

Table 2 Comparison of typical distribution of RDSW composition in different regions across China (weight %)
coal ash, hazardous
No. a) location year food residue plant ash paper plastic glass metal textile wood Ref.
cinder, dust waste
1 Beijing 1 2006 26.28 — 58.97 3.94 5.48 0.9 0.16 1.16 3.05 — [54]
2 Beijing 2 2013 36.84 — 35.43 4.2 12.81 2.69 1.33 5.76 0.95 — [66]
3 Shenyang 1, 2005 4.43 25.46 68.57 0.08 0.14 0.97 0.03 0.13 0.19 — [55]
Liaoning
province
4 Shenyang 2, 2005 81.25 — — 4.92 8.71 0.27 2.62 1.13 1.1 — [57]
Liaoning
Province
5 Yixing 1, 2004 41.1 1.4 37.3 6.2 9.2 1.6 0.3 1.9 — 0.5 [55]
Jiangsu
Province
6 Yixing 2, 2004 62.7 — 8.9 4.1 21.2 0.8 0.1 2.2 — — [31]
Jiangsu
Province
7 Danyang, 2006 30.9 — 47.68 2.21 1.52 2.44 0.42 2.59 9.39 — [67]
Jiangsu
Province
8 Nantong, 2007 49.4 — 29.1 3.3 8.6 2.4 2.2 3.8 — 1.3 [59]
Jiangsu
Province
9 Zhejiang 2006 69 — — 9 15 4 1 — — — [61]
Province
10 Qionghai, 2008 34 6.4 9.8 7.7 1 3.9 0.7 1 — 0.1 [65]
Hainan
Province
11 Yunnan 2012 55.07 — 15.91 8.37 8.28b) 1.55 0.1 0.37 9.26 — [68]
Province
12 Macheng, 2013 12.38 — 53.09 6.73 15.16 3.54 1.56 4.52 2.84 0.38 [66]
Hubei Province

Notes: a) No. 1 to No. 4 belongs to Northern China, No. 5 to No. 9 belongs to Eastern China, No. 10 to No. 12 belongs to Southern China; b) 8.28 represent rubber here

Fig. 1 Comparison of generation rate between RSW and MSW

 Chao ZENG et al. Review on rural solid waste management in China
possibility that official MSW data are slightly lower than
the reality, while RSW data are probably higher as
previously discussed. Although the generation rate of
RSW is much lower than that of MSW, rural China faces
greater difficulties in RSW management and service
support in rural areas than that of MSW in urban areas.
Based on Table 2, it is observed that the compositions of
RSW and MSW are extremely homogenous. Generally,
waste composition in rural China is dominated by ash and
organic waste as analyzed previously. In contrast, the
overwhelming majority of MSW composition is organic
waste (more than 50%). Besides, the proportions of
recyclable compositions in RSW are highly less than that
of MSW. Indeed, with the urbanization and rapid economic
development of rural China, the proportion of recyclable
waste definitely will increase in future.
Applying the way of MSW management mechanically
would be unconscionable for rural China. Since the
generation rates and compositions of RSW are diversified
across regions, it would be necessary for local govern-
ments in different regions to adjust the RSW management
approaches according to local conditions. Hence, con-
sidering the similarities of RSW generation rate and
composition in rural areas of the same region, such as
Southern China, Northern China or Eastern China,
solutions can be focused on separately.
2.2 RSW Management in China
2.2.1 RSW collection, classification and recycling
For rural China, one of the most popular ways for RSW
collection is carried out by the specific collection contain-
ers offered by local authorities. A centralized facility at
roadside, usually called refuse chute, which is made of
cement or just natural pit, has been widely introduced.
While in developed rural areas, outdoors trash cans have
Fig. 2 Framework for the mode of household classification, village collection, township transfer and county treatment for RSW
management
5
been implemented widely, which can reduce the risk of
waste exposure, mosquito and fly growth as well as odor
occurrence. In addition, in many rural areas such as small
and remote villages, hilly or mountainous areas, RSW is
still in a state of neglect, let alone the collection and
classification.
Systematic RSW classification and recycling are not
implemented in rural areas, whereas only several pilot
programs have been reported in news. As reported that
MSW is collected in a mixed state in China [14], it holds
likewise true for RSW – all sorts of RSW mixed together
and shipped to the refuse chute. Nevertheless, there is a
voluntary classification of recyclables existing by rural
residents or scavengers. Overall, this kind of behavior is
limited.
Similar to MSW recycling [14,34], informal sectors like
some rural residents or scavengers are also active in the
collection, processing and trading of the recyclable waste
to buyers, who call door – to – door or sometimes deliver
recyclables to the service sites themselves in order to
exchange money. The buyers then store and in turn sell the
recyclables to an upper level of recycling service sites in
county or somewhere else. Finally, recyclable waste will be
provided for demands of industry as raw or processed
materials. Nevertheless, the amounts of recyclable waste
informally picked out of RSW stream are unknown.
2.2.2 RSW treatment and disposal
China has initially established the fundamental mode of
household classification, village collection, township
transfer and county treatment in some provincial pilot
programs (not very far from the urban region) for RSW
management, which achieved noticeable progress (Fig. 2).
In 2010, the first list with 28 counties (districts or cities)
was released to the public by Ministry of Housing and
Urban – Rural Development (MOHURD) due to the full
6 Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.
coverage of RSW treatment in county (district and city)
level [35]. The distribution of these 28 countries was
shown in Fig. 3. These areas were mainly in relatively
developed regions including Beijing, Jiangsu, Fujian,
Anhui and Guangdong provinces. Different from these
28 sites, however, the implementation of this mode in most
remote rural areas was restricted by many factors, for
example, the high transport cost and the lack of manpower
and budget to supervise in the bottom of local authorities
and local Environmental Protection Bureau.
After transported to county or above the county level for
downstream treatment and disposal, the applied technol-
ogies mainly are as same as that of MSW, including
sanitary landfill, incineration and composting [36]. Table 3
listed the application status of MSW treatment technolo-
gies in 2012 in China [19], showing that sanitary landfill is
the dominant disposal method. Additionally, some on – site
treatment technologies have been reported, e.g., pilot scale
case study of bioreactor landfill combining soil infiltration
system [7], on – site process for the bio – treatment using
mesophilic two – phase anaerobic digestion combined with
Fig. 3 Locations of 28 counties (districts or cities) for the full coverage of RSW treatment in county (district and city) level
composting as well as decentralized composting, etc [37].
In addition to the formal mode for RSW management,
however, most RSW are discarded randomly, incinerated
temporarily or dumped on the river banks and the
roadsides in China, often without any initial treatment
but generally with agricultural and forestry waste,
industrial solid waste, even with household hazardous
waste [15,38], which does not only take up land, but also
cause contamination and secondary pollution [11]. For
instance, as a disposal method, hazardous waste paints,
cleaners, varnishes, batteries and pesticides are often
mixed with household wastes [38], although the amount
of which is not much, they can cause considerably negative
impact on human health.
2.2.3 A local case of RSW management case: the town of
Guoyuan in Changsha county, Hunan province
Changsha County in Hunan province is well – known in
China for the reputation of the Top One County of Central
 Chao ZENG et al. Review on rural solid waste management in China
Table 3 Application situations of MSW treatment techniques in 2012
technology landfill
facility quantities 540
proportion 77%
harmless disposal capacity a) 310927
b)
harmless disposal amount 10512.5
4
Notes: a) tons/day; b) 10 tons
China. It was chosen to be one of the 18 representative
areas during reform and openness by the government. The
first environmental protection cooperative was established
in the town of Guoyuan of Changsha County in 2008, the
highlight of which was that the cooperative purchased
RSW from rural household, and promoted the rural
residents’ participation for wastes recycling and collection
[39]. It established the collection spots in every village, and
the prices for recyclable wastes of plastics, batteries
and glasses were 0.3 CNY$kg–1, 0.6 CNY$kg–1 and
0.1 CNY$kg–1, respectively. Moreover, the local govern-
ment provided a subsidy of 3–5 CNY per month to the rural
household participated. In 2012, the total financial
investment in Changsha county achieved 25 million
CNY, which improved the serious situation of RSW [40].
From 2011, in order to conserve financial budgets, the
cooperative upgraded the mode of household collection to
household classification and required rural residents to
dispose the food waste by composting themselves.
Otherwise, after classified and collected, RSW would be
classified again before town transfer. Finally, a less than
10% RSW was sent to the county for downstream disposal.
Particularly, it was estimated that the total waste disposal
expense decreased from 30 million CNY to 3 million CNY
[40].
2.3 Related laws and regulations of RSW in China
The Chinese government has formulated and promulgated
a series of laws and regulations on environmental
protection up to now [1,2,41,42]. According to State
Council of the People’s Republic of China [43], environ-
mental protection and resource conservation laws have
been enacted by 2008, including Environmental Protection
Law, Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law, etc.
However, few of which were involved in RSW specifi-
cally, and these laws merely gave an overall strategy of
environmental protection but were too principle and not
feasible in practice [44,45]. With RSW attracting people’s
attention dramatically, China also issued specific and
relevant laws and regulations stage by stage to provide
guiding principles and technique codes on RSW manage-
ment. Some important ones are summarized as follows in
Table 4.
As the laws and regulations listed above, it is obvious
that China has made a progress in standardizing RSW
management. In 2005, as the highest level of authority in
7
incineration other technologies
138 23
19.7% 3.3%
122649 12692
3584.1 393
China, the National People’s Congress incorporated RSW
into the scope of public administrative for the first time by
enacting the newly revised law of Environmental Pollution
Prevention and Control Law of Solid Wastes [4,46]. It
stipulates that the local government should formulate the
specific measures for preventing and controlling environ-
mental pollution of RSW according to local conditions.
Circular Economy Promotion Law establishes a legal
framework as well as emphasizes the detail guiding
principles on Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3R principle)
of RSW, and encourages the establishment of classifica-
tion, collection and recycling system of RSW [47]. It also
requires the governments at or above the county level to
make an overall plan on the facilities construction for RSW
classification, collection and recycling system. Besides, the
recent two Five Year Plans of China (11th and 12th) put
specific emphasis on ecological issues, including waste
recycling as well [34].
The regulations of Technique Code for Village Rehabi-
litation [48], Guideline on Project Construction and
Investment for Rural Garbage Classification & Click – -
Transport and Treatment [20] and Technical Specifications
of Domestic Pollution Control for Town and Village [49]
encourage and standardize the establishment of collection,
transport and treatment of RSW. In addition, detail guiding
principles and techniques are proposed for practical
reference during the whole RSW disposal engineering.
There are many improvements and promotions from
general provisions or suggestions to technical specifica-
tions in these regulations, demonstrating the evolving trend
of environmental regulation and policy on RSW.
Since a special fund has been launched to promote rural
environment protection in 2008, the fund delivered 8
billion CNY to protect rural environment, driving a local
investment of 9.7 billion CNY and benefiting 16300
villages and 42.34 million people by 2011, according to
MOHURD. Another 5.5 billion CNY was launched in
2012 [50], suggesting that the environmental protection
investment has been continuously increasing. In 2009, the
Interim Measures for the Management of Special Funds
for Environmental Protection in Rural Areas was jointly
issued by Ministry of Environmental Protection (MOEP)
and Ministry of Finance (MOF) of the People’s Republic
of China [51], which emphasizes to provide special funds
to support the key solutions to improve environmental
quality of village, and RSW treatment is one of the priority
support areas. Herein, investment for RSW treatment and
8 Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

Table 4 Summery of China’s specific national laws and regulations on RSW

laws and regulations
Environmental Pollution
Prevention and Control Law
of Solid Wastes (April 1, 2005)
Circular Economy Promotion
Law (January 1, 2009)
Technique Code for Village
Rehabilitation (August 1, 2008)
Implementation Plan about
Promoting Solutions to
Prominent Rural Environmental
Problems (February 27, 2009)
Interim Measures for the
Management of Special Funds
for Environmental Protection
in Rural Areas (April 21, 2009)
Technical Specifications of
Domestic Pollution Control
for Town and Village (January
1, 2011)
Guideline on Project
Construction and Investment
for Rural Garbage Classification
& Click-Transport and
Treatment (November 11, 2011)
Instruction on How to
Improve Rural Living
Environment (May 29, 2014)
issued by major related contents main concerns Ref.
National People’s Congress  the specific measures for preventing local government and [46]
(NPC) and controlling environmental pollution provincial department of
of RSW shall be formulated by local environmental protection
government.
NPC  encourage the establishment of RSW local government and [47]
classification, collection and recycling authorities, department of
system (reduce, reuse and recycle), and environmental protection,
promote RSW recycling. recycling operators and
 make overall plan on the construction of enterprises.
facilities for waste between urban and
rural areas.
 reasonably arrange the waste
recycling network and market, support
the recycling operators and business.
Ministry of Housing and  provide guidelines aimed at reuse local government and [48]
Urban-Rural Development and appropriate final disposal of RSW. authorities
(MOHURD) encourage the establishment of
collection, transport of RSW.
Ministry of Environment  policy specifically support the key local government and [69]
Protection (MOEP), Ministry solutions to improve environmental authorities
of Finance (MOF), National quality of village, and RSW treatment
Development and Reform is one of the priority support areas.
Commission
MOEP, MOF  Provide special funds to support the local government and [51]
key solutions to improve environmental authorities
quality of village, and RSW treatment
is one of the priority support areas.
MOEP  Standardize the technical specifications local government and [49]
of transport, recycling, treatment and authorities, recycling
disposal. operators and enterprises.
MOEP  Detail guiding principles on classification, local government and [20]
collection, transport of RSW and project authorities
planning, approval, site selection,
designing, construction, acceptance,
operation, management during the
RSW disposal engineering.
State Council  Accelerate the comprehensive local government and [70]
rehabilitation of rural environment, authorities
emphasize the treatment of RSW
and sewage.
 Implement the systematic planning,
construction and management of RSW
and sewage in rural areas within
county level.

disposal was continuously increasing by financial depart-
ments at all levels according to statistics, at approximately
20% annual rate from 2009 to 2013 [22]. Sure that
financial support is important to RSW management, but it
must be figured out that the effectiveness of economic
incentives lies mainly on the verification of RSW
producers’ responsibilities and approaches to carry out
those responsibilities in legal system. Thereby it is far from
enough in real terms.
2.4 Problems and challenges in RSW management
2.4.1 Decentralized multiple generation sources
RSW management is confronted with a dilemma of large
amount of total generation at nationwide but decentralized
across regions, which significantly increased the costs in
waste collection, transport, treatment and disposal. For
instance, the cost of collection and transport can account
 Chao ZENG et al. Review on rural solid waste management in China
for up to 80% of the total cost of RSW management [16].
Therefore, informal collection and recycling still play a
significant role in rural areas today. RSW treatment is
going through a critical phase because suitable technology
is unavailable, e.g., some have fatal drawbacks of
geographical restrictions, high cost for operation or strong
pertinence for one kind of waste, while some can achieve
benefit only under a certain processing scale. Based on
this, it is possible that RSW pollution is more serious than
that of MSW [4].
2.4.2 A poor infrastructure construction for RSW
Infrastructures for RSW include collection, transport,
treatment and disposal facilities like trash cans, vehicles,
transfer stations, etc. Refuse chute at roadsides for RSW
collection is not enough at all. Poor infrastructures
significantly contributed the fact of irresponsible dumping
of RSW. As a result, the phenomenon of Garbages
Besieging Villages is often reported. As a developed
province in South – eastern China, Zhejiang province
achieved only 61.23% of the town coverage ratio of
RSW transfer stations, and approximately 63% of
centralized collection for RSW ratio by 2007 [52]. And
worst of all, it is still far from enough to make up the
inadequacies at nationwide.
2.4.3 Imperfect legislation system
The primarily formulated legal system on RSW still has
many shortcomings, because most of the legislations and
administrative regulations designed intended to treat the
MSW, which essentially did not consider the RSW
characteristics in China. Besides, national specific guide-
lines to execute published laws are absent in Chinese laws,
hence the unclear responsibility mechanism makes it more
ineffective in RSW management. Moreover, there are
many equivocal words in the related laws and regulations
of RSW like should, recommend, encourage and can,
which makes against implementing these laws (Table 4).
Like so much in China, the legislative process of
environmental protection is always led by the government,
while the part of public participation is often overlooked.
2.5 Recommendations and expectations for RSW manage-
ment in future
In summing up the status of existed RSW management in
China, there are some important points that should be
stressed. First, successful experiences in pilot programs
should be summarized and promoted, and a wider range of
rural areas should participate in these programs. Second,
economic incentive is an effective strategy to improve the
rural residents’ participation and performance in terms of
RSW classification, collection and recycling. Third, it is
9
essential to implement the rural household classification in
as source classification can significantly reduce the amount
of waste disposal and expense. Fourth, a more effective
and exercisable environmental legislative system including
the supervision and administration of RSW pollution
should be strengthened as soon as possible. It must be kept
in mind that the participation and cooperation of rural
residents are the key to success in RSW management.
While reviewing the efforts devoted to improving RSW
management, it is crucial to be aware of the challenges in
current status. Challenge has been, and continues to be
remained and differed by regions over a long time in view
of China’s national conditions. In the following years,
proper management of RSW should be encouraged
through the activities below:
2.5.1 Increasing financial resources
Since local conditions and imbalanced technologies differ
considerably in rural China, it is crucial that continual
attentions and efforts should be paid, especially in
relatively underdeveloped rural areas, such as the central
and western regions of China. Herein, national and
provincial budgets should be continuously allocated to
the local authorities. Namely, the financial capacities of
Villagers’ Committees need to be enhanced by providing
more fiscal transfers from the upper – level government
[24]. Currently, the system of infrastructure facilities
involving RSW collection, transportation and treatment
is weak thus pollution caused by unsafe disposal of RSW
must be cleaned up immediately.
2.5.2 Establishing sorting collection and transportation
network
The RSW collection and transport network in town and
village should be established to optimize the route and
decrease the transport costs. To achieve this, related
infrastructures or facilities should be constructed and
completed. Moreover, these facilities need to be well
managed and maintained. However, all of which will
increase the pressure of financial budget dramatically. As
public utilities, it is an obligation for the government to
improve the establishment of RSW facilities construction
in rural areas.
2.5.3 Promoting sorting collection and recycling
RSW can be regarded as a resource instead of a waste,
thereby RSW management should be more resource
oriented. It was reported that the potential benefits of
source classification of perishable organic waste, such as
food residue, on subsequent treatment and disposal showed
that the contamination load can effectively reduce
approximately 80% [53]. On account of an informal
10 Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.
collection system is still playing a main role in RSW
management, source classification should be a priority so
that valuable wastes like plastics, papers, metals and
textiles can be collected and traded rather than flowing into
landfills or incinerators, which also can decrease the stress
of downstream treatment and disposal. However, source
classification for RSW is doubted by the publics, because
classification at household level is still in its infancy in
urban areas [34]. Therefore, multiple encouraging policies
need to be implemented, since rural residents have enough
spare time and household space as well as a demand for
fertilizer. Meanwhile, the standardization of waste market
should be established in rural areas to attract stakeholders
to have the initiative to recycle the valuable wastes. An
ideal treatment system of RSW based on source classifica-
tion and waste recycling (Fig. 4) is put forward.
If such an ideal treatment system is put into services as
expected, it cannot only produce different byproducts in
terms of biogas and compost, but also recycle different
materials from mixed wastes. Moreover, the pressure of
downstream treatment and disposal in village, towns and
counties can be relieved. Namely, this system also presents
the meaning of resource conserving and eco – friendship.
2.5.4 Improving treatment technology
Since the present situation that RSW treatment technology
Fig. 4 Schematic of ideal treatment system of RSW based on source classification and waste recycling
is a complex uncertainty problem, one – size – fits – all
solution definitely is ineffective. Although sanitary landfill
gains popularity in treatment of MSW in urban China, it
will not be fully suitable for RSW in rural areas, where the
resources to construct and maintain a sanitary landfill. As a
result, for those remote rural areas, fundamental research
of resource utilization options including composting and
anaerobic digestion for biogas, and mixed treatment with
other degradable organic wastes like agricultural and
forestry waste, should be taken into full consideration of its
suitability for local differences as well as technology
performance.
3 Summary
In recent years, RSW are gradually drawing attention and
local government has devoted considerable efforts to
promoting RSW management. Financial support and
investment on infrastructure has been improved. However,
RSW management is still weak in some rural areas. Legal
system limitations, shortage on practical technical assis-
tance, limited rural residents’ participations as well as local
governments’ poor implementations and actions are
regarded as the main reason. RSW characteristics differ
considerably across different regions of China, since
survey results of RSW generation rates range from 0.25
 Chao ZENG et al. Review on rural solid waste management in China
to 2.1 kg$(capita$d)–1. The fundamentally formal mode of
sorting at household level, collecting by village, transfer-
ring by township and treatment responsible by county
government for RSW management has been partially
established in rural areas. As discussed, related laws and
regulations on RSW are imperfect. The government need
issue more specific laws and regulations and allocate a
special funding to improve RSW management. Since most
of RSW are still illegally dumped without any treatment,
source classification and waste recycling are regarded as
possible effective methods to minimize the waste from the
source. After sorting collection, different wastes need to be
treated and disposed differently based on local situation.
On – site treatment of RSW could help to reduce the cost of
waste transportation.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the National Key
Technologies R&D Program of China (No. 2014BAL02B05) for financially
supporting this research.
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