C OMPARISON OF RECYCLING SYSTEMS AT MICHIGAN STATE UNI V ERSITY AND HUNAN UNIVERSITY By Le Kang A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Packaging - Master of Science 2015 ABSTRACT COMPARISION OF RECYCLING SYSTEM S AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY AND HUNAN UNIVERSITY By Le Kang Due to the great increase of municipal solid waste in the past decade, China is trying to develop an effective and feasible waste recycling system and k eeps on seeking better recycling solutions . The United States, which is one of the developed countries with a relative ly complete and advanced recycling system, is considered to be set ting a good example for China to improv e its own recycling system. This article compares and discusses the differences and similarities in both countries by selecting two universities , Hunan University and Michigan State University , as a starting point to explore the positive suggestions for China s recycling system. It wa s fo und that the recycling system in Hunan University is highly dependent on the instructions of its local government due to China s current recycling legislation and management system. Also, the current recycling situation in Hunan University will not change fast due to the lack of technological and financial capability of constructing a complete MRF recycling system that can continue to function as designed. The residents in Hunan University lack the recycling awareness to firmly support the improvement of th e current recycling system as well. It is suggested that Hunan University take advantage of the rapid development of the Internet to increase its residents recycling awareness , and open its recycling market for getting advanced technologies from cooperation with professional recycling companies. Also, it will be a more economic al and feasible option for Hunan University to join a regional comprehensive MRF system in Changsha rather than establish its own MRF facility on campus in the near future . iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr . Susan Selke, Dr. Diana Twede of the School of Packaging at Michigan State University , along with Dr . Satish Joshi of the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Eco nom ics at Michigan State University for being members of my academic guidance committee. I would like to thank Dr. Selke for her support in doing the study. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................... v ii LIST OF FIGURES ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... viii 1. Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................... 1 2. Legislation and Organizations of Solid Waste Management ................................ ................ 6 2.1. China ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 6 2.1.1. Laws and regulations ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 7 2.1.1.1. Law of the Peopl Environmental Pollution by Solid Wastes ................................ ................................ .................. 7 2.1.2. Organizations ................................ ................................ ................................ ...................... 8 2.1.2.1. Environmental Management of Solid Waste in China ................................ ................. 8 2.1.2.2. Ministry of Housing and Urban - China (MOHURD) ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................ 9 2.1.2.3. Local rules ................................ ................................ ................................ ....................... 11 2.2. U.S. ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 14 2.2.1. Organizations ................................ ................................ ................................ .................... 15 2.2.1.1. EPA: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ 15 2.2.1.2. EAC ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ . 17 2.2.2. Some recycling related legislation in the United States ................................ ................. 17 2.3. Discussion ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................. 18 3. Technology ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................... 23 3.1. Recycling procedures in two universities ................................ ................................ ........... 23 3.2. Collection ................................ ................................ ................................ .............................. 25 3.3. Transportation ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 34 3.4. Processing ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................. 38 3.5. Discussion ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................. 38 4. Economy ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 42 4.1. Cost ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 42 4.1.1. Government ................................ ................................ ................................ ....................... 42 4.1.1.1. Waste Collector Wage ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 43 4.1.1.2. Residents costs ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 44 4.2. Markets and Revenue ................................ ................................ ................................ .......... 47 vi 4.3. Discussion ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................. 49 5. Culture ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 53 5.1. Identity ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 53 5.2. Awareness ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................. 55 5.3. Information resources ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 56 6. Discussion ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ . 58 REFERENCES ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................ 66 vii LIST O F TABLES Xiangyuan community (Zhou, 2014) ................................ ................................ ............................ 29 Table 2 Bins, Bags and Sticker Purchases in East Lansing (City of East Lansing , 2015 ) ........... 46 Table 3 Improving attempts for recycling system in Changsha ................................ ................... 63 viii LIST O F FIGURES Figure 1 Trimmed Organization dendrogram of the Environmental Development Center of the Ministry (Organization Structure , 2011) ................................ ................................ ...................... 10 Figure 2 Lianhecanchu (Xinhua News, 2015) ................................ ................................ .............. 13 Figure 3 Food waste carts in Saint - Tropez Hotel in Changsha ................................ .................... 13 Figure 4 Food w aste records ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 14 Figure 5 Methodology of EPA in calculating net discards ................................ ........................... 16 Fi gure 6 Model for recycling system of the U.S. and China ................................ ........................ 21 Figure 7 Recycling process model of Michigan State University ................................ ................ 23 Figure 8 Recycling process model of Hunan University ................................ .............................. 24 Figure 9 Garbage carts of Hunan Unive rsity ................................ ................................ ................ 26 Figure 10 Garbage carts of Juzi Continent ................................ ................................ ................... 26 Figure 11 Garbage carts of Yuelu Mountain ................................ ................................ ................ 27 Figure 12 Reverse vending machine (Wikipedia, 2015) ................................ .............................. 30 Figure 13 Recycling bins in Drop - off Center in Michi gan State University. The containers on photo are used to collect cardboard and books ................................ ................................ ............. 31 Figure 14 Recyclable item details on the garbage bi n in Michigan State University ................... 32 Figure 15 Blue recycling bin and new recycling cart in East Lansing (City of East Lansing) ..... 33 Fi gure 16 Two - color bin garbage contianer in front of Changsha University .............................. 34 Figure 17 Typical trash cart in Hunan University ................................ ................................ ........ 35 Fig ure 18 A waste transfer station near Hunan University (Baidu Map, 2015) ........................... 36 Figure 19 Dumping trash in waste transfer station in Hunan University ................................ ..... 37 Figure 20 Trash pool in waste transfer station in Hunan University ................................ ............ 37 Figure 21 Garbage collecting container in Michigan State University ................................ ......... 40 ix Figure 22 Garbage collecting container in Hunan University ................................ ...................... 40 Figure 23 Salary comparison of garbage collectors and janitors in China (China Youth Daily, 2014) & the United States (US News Money & World Report, 2015) ................................ ........ 44 Figure 24 Exported value of waste from the United States to China from 2000 to 2011 (NetEase, 2012) ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............. 49 Figure 25 Cash flow model of the recycling system of Michigan State University ..................... 50 Figure 26 Cash flow model of the recycling process in Hunan University ................................ . 50 Figure 27 Part of recycling hand book for residents in Yokohama (City of Yokohama, 2015) ... 57 Figure 28 Recycling related webpage of the website "City of East Lansing" (City of East Lansing, 2015) ................................ ................................ ................................ .............................. 57 Figure 29 The "Change recyclables for Green Plants" program in Hunan Universit y (The Green Exchange Family of Hunan University, 2014) ................................ ................................ ............. 60 Figure 30 Map of the surrounding area of Hunan University (Google, 2015) ............................. 61 1 1. Introduction With the development of the economy, the recycling system in China has also change d a lot. The early recycling activity in the P eople central government . The recycling activity also earn ed public s great passion partially due to encouragement of the country s leader and poverty . The facilities that were r un by the government before the 1 9 9 0s were known as State - owned waste recycling facilities . These facilities undertook almost all aspects of municipal waste recycling before the 1990s. One interesting example is turtle shell s , which can be considered as food waste but are also considere d a traditional Chinese medicine. Residents could collect their turtle shells and sell them to local recycling facilities for food stamps, sugar or other groceries. Due to change s in the economic environment, the state - owned recycling facilities gradually disappeared. For example, in 1965 there were more than 2,000 state - owned recycling facilities within the second ring road area in Beijing. But in 1997, there were only 16 such facilities in the same area (Hao Jin, 2010) . Meanwh ile, formal or informal recycling facilities run by private part ies emerged and grew in both number and scale. Beijing , as one of the pioneers of recycling in China, also explor ed the possibilities of running municipal waste recycling based on community un its instead of local government organizations. A community unit , which is the most basic subsidiary of local governments, provides more flexibility and diversity i n d eveloping recycling systems. One example is the sorting project for recycling that was lau nched in the Dacheng Lane community in Beijing in 1996. It was reported in 2010 that 90% of the residents in this community were doing recycling sortation every day (China Waste, 2015) . To further promote the recycling concepts, in 2000 eight cities ( Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Xiamen and Guilin) were chosen as the test cities for promoting waste sorting for recycling. D ue 2 to the poor performance of those chosen cities in the past decade, more and more debates, complaints and discussions about how to efficiently improv e the situation occurred . Following is a summary of opinions and conclusions that appeared (Liu, 2014) : 1. Lack of investment. This is one of the most common critic ism s. It is widely believed that the government did not invest enough i n the recycling sortation programs in those cities in infrastructure, equipment , policy and education. 2. Lack of a complete recycling system . This can be considered as one of the results of insufficient investment. O ne of the phenomen a that reflect this is that most of the time, the sorted waste that is collected in communities wil l be mixed again during transportation and then be sent to the landfill. This phenomenon has been considered to be very harmful to the people s positive view of doing recycling sorting and renders the previous sorting efforts in vain. 3. Lack of public aw areness. Most people express a support ive attitude to wards recycling in the community but have no idea how to do recycling (Ma, 2015) (Fu, 2015) , which seriously damage the performance of recycling systems, especially the sortation part. I n most cities, the designed sorting and recycling plan did not work as well as the government and the public expected. Chi na still ha s a long way to go i n improving its recycling system to reach higher recycling targets which other developed countries have already achieved. This improv ement process takes time and continuous change s to adapt the direction to the current situat ion. The United States, although it has many differences from China based on economy, geograph y and demographic s , still ha s possible ex amples and solutions for China s municipal recycling systems . T o set up a complete system of recycling, the United States also experience d decades of develop ment and chang es . In the late nineteenth century, after George E. Waring, Jr. first 3 constructed a comprehensive system of public - sector management in the United States, more and more cities in U.S adopted advanced system atic waste collection system s . Landfill owners began declaring their properties off limits to casual scavenging . This change has been believed to be one of the reasons that cause d individual scavengers to gradually lose their position in the recycling syst em in the U.S. (Rathje & Murphy, 1992) . P eople in the U.S. have kept exploring to create municipal waste management system s th at fit local region s the best. The situation in the U.S. changed from time to time during this process as well. Factors like population, social patterns and technology advancement had a big influence on the solid waste management system According to EPA s 1986 report Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste in the United States he increase of population would cause an increase in municipal waste ; it is stated in the report that a little over 1% increase in population would make any efforts designed to reduce or stabilize the waste generation in vain (Fr anklin Associates, Ltd., 1986) . Also, the increase of affluence at a personal level in the U.S. after World War II and change s in social tradition s (more women entered the work force than before) increase d the consumption of packages of frozen dis hes (Franklin Associates, Ltd., 1986) , which resulted in an increase in waste. The recycling system in the United States gr ew up along with the development of a revolution in packaging materials. Recycling has long been a hot topic in packaging history. One example is the commercialization of plastic material s . Back in the 1960s, when plastic packaging materials began to t a k e a large amount of the packaging market , scholars, environmental protection organizations, residents and polic y makers started to focus their attention on recycling issues related to this new packaging material and the impact that this new material would bring to the traditional recycling system (ma inly dealing with paper, glass and metal). Companies who were eag er to use this new material in their packages due to its outstanding properties including 4 light weight, low cost , accessibility , etc . were forced by the public to work on addressing the recycling problems as well. Government also took a role in increas ing the recycling rate of plastics. T most famous examples. Until today, the United States is still working on increas ing its recycling and composting rates for municipal solid waste. The new Management was previously referred to as Solid trend in the United State The efforts in the past two decades of improving the recycling system in the United States seem to be actually and positively affect ed recycling . A lot of traditional recycling categories h ave reach ed high recycling rate s . For example, the recycling rate of lead - acid batteries has reached 99.0% , the recycling rate of steel cans reached 70.6% and the recycling rate of newspapers/mechanical papers reached 67% (EPA, 2 015) . T his thesis is a starting point to compare the two recycling systems both in China and the United States to develop suggestions for making better solutions in doing package recycling. Two universities, Hunan University and Michigan State Universit y , we re selected as examples for detailed study on how the recycling system works currently in both countries. Hunan University is a famous university in China (Hunan University, 2015) . There are 38,800 students and staff in this university. Most of them live in the campus area. The area of Hunan University is 1.5 5 km 2 with 1 . 02 km 2 indoor space (Hunan University , 2014) . Michigan State University (or MSU) cur rently has approximately 5 5 , 185 students and staff on campus with a total area of 21 km 2 , of which 8. 5 km 2 is in existing or planned development (Michigan State University, 2015) . The university also has 2 .1 3 km 2 (Michinga State University, 2015) indoor 5 space. Michigan State University is one of the universities in the U.S. that has its own recycling center (other such universities include Utah State Univ ersity, Ohio State University and the University of South Carolina). The major difference between Hunan University and Michigan State University from a recycling perspective is that it is located next to the most famous tourist attr action in Changsha city - the Yue Lu Mountain. Thus in addition to the debris created by the people on campus every day, recyclables in trash created by tourists will also be an important factor in the recycling system. There are currently 28 garbage collectors and janitors worki ng for Hunan University doing trash collection and cleaning. The recycling center i n Michigan State University has 3 full time staff and 8 - 10 students on the sorting line. Mr. David Smith, who is the waste coordinator for this facility and has work ed ther e for 2 years , was interviewed for information about the facility . The facility includes the Surplus Store and the recycling center. Characteristics of t he two cities, Changsha ( where Hunan University is located) and East Lansing ( where Michigan State Un iversity is located) we re also examined since the policy and properties of the local government on recycling have considerable effects on how the recycling system works in both universities. C ompar ison of the recycling systems was based on legislation and organizations , technology, economy and culture in order to make suggestions for further development of recycling . These two reasonably similar universities were chosen as a manageable starting point for making comparison of recycling systems in China and the United States . 6 2. L egislation and O rganization s of S olid W aste Management The histor ical background for solid waste management legislation and organizations in China is distinct from those in the United States. The recycling legislation or o rganization system in the United States is a kind of from Down to Up mode, which means the recycling concept or activities of the community (like Michigan State University), local government, and state government often run forward and provide great sugge stions for recycling improvement on the national scale. This characteristic contributes to the highly complicate d and diverse recycling legislation and organization system. Unlike that, the mode in China is more T op to D own type, which means most of the legislation and organization system in China is constructed on a general standard set by the central government. The differences in recycling system s are always caused by geographic, demographic or econom ic reasons that lag some places behind , rather than creating a system suitable for the local environment. The following sections in this chapter list some typical legislation and organizations relating to recycling to make a comparison and discuss how the differences between these two countries affect the r ecycling system s in Hunan University and Michigan State University. 2.1. China The current solid waste management system in China was developed in the 1980s. Before that, the central government was in charge of almost every aspect of solid waste management i n China. But with rapid econom ic development and a big increase in the administrative cost o f maintaining solid waste management on a national scale, the central government finally decided to give local government s the power and responsibility to deal with their own solid waste 7 management. But certainly the central government still maintains the capability to regulate the solid waste management system on the national level . For example, t he Ministry of ina is one of the organizations that are in charge of the monitor ing and manage ment of municipal solid waste at the national level. L ocal governments, which are responsible for selecting appropriate locations for recycling collection facilities , are now pl aying the major role in China s recycling system. The local Sanitation Bureau takes on more detailed and practical work such as clean ing , collection, storage, transportation and handl ing of the solid waste. They also undertake responsibilities which includ e provid ing data evaluation to assess the result s and impact s of dealing with municipal solid waste . 2.1.1. Laws and regulations 2.1.1.1. Environmental Pollution by Solid Wastes The f irst version of t his law was established on 10/30/1995. The most recent revision was in 2014. This law is the main legislation for pollution control and solid waste management in China (Chen et al., 2009) . It establ ished the fundamental requirements for MSW. There are several points directly related to municipal waste management and recycling. 1. This law established requirements for local government s to collect, transport, and handle the municipal waste and to increas e the percentage of innocent treatment of municipal waste . Innocent tr eatment of municipal waste means collecting all the garbage created by the city residents and transport ing the garbage in confined vehicle s . The garbage should be treat ed under safe co ndition s and the facilities 8 that deal with the garbage should discharge only pollut ants that obey the environmental protection requirements . 2. The process for improving garbage sorting and transportation will be gradual. Innocent treatment and appropriate u sage will be encouraged. 3. The local government should manage and set up recycling facilities . 2.1.2. Organizations 2.1.2.1. Environmental Management of Solid Waste in China Some of t he law s and regulations about solid waste were established by the department named E nvi ronmental M anagement of S olid W aste in China which was set up in February 2006 . This organization is under the control of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the China (Environ mental Management of Solid Waste in China, 2015) . The major responsibilities of the organization include: 1. Compose the laws and regulations and management rules for solid waste 2. Inspect and manage import ed waste 3. Provide technical support for hazard ous waste management 4. Monitor and manage the operation and process of the national hazard ous waste center 5. Construct and manage the national solid waste information management system 6. Construct national solid waste management records and data base 7. Assist with hazard ous waste pollution accident s 8. Instruct solid waste center s on the provinc ial scale 9. Conduct activities of education, technical communication and consultation. 9 10. Other work assigned by the Ministry of Environm Republic of China. This organization is a relative new organization in the official environmental protection system in China. Thus i nformation that is related to this organization has not yet been updated in the system. For example, a lthough t he E nvironmental M anagement of S olid W aste in China states that it is a subsidiary of the Si n o - Japan Friendship Center for Environmental Protection (Environmental Management of Solid Waste in China, 2011) . However, the organization dendrogram of Si n o - Japan Friendship Center for Environmental Protection does not show t he E nvironmental M anagement of S olid W aste ( s ee Figure 1 ). 2.1.2.2. Ministry of Housing and Urban - Rural China (MOHURD) MO HURD is in charge of the cleaning, collection, storage , transportation and final disposal of municipal solid waste in China (Chen et al , 2009) . The range of responsibilities of MOHURD (Ministry of Housing and Urban - Rural Development of People's Republic of China, 2015) is quite wide, and involves almost all the aspects r egarding to construction work in urban and rural areas in China. Among the 13 major missions, there is one point that connect s to the municipal waste management the most closely, which describe s the miss ion as promoting the energy saving of construction and cities and setting and monitoring the application of policies and regulations. In addition to that, MOHURD also undertake s large projects that aim at reducing waste and saving energy. 10 Figure 1 Trimmed Organization dendrogram of the Environmental Development C enter of the Ministry (Organization Structure , 2011) Environmental Protection Centre Centre for Environmental Education and Communication of MEP National Research Center for Environmental Analysis and Measurement Institute for Environmental Reference Materials Ministry of Environmental Protection Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People s Public of Chin a Enviro nmental Development Center of MEP ( Sino - Japan Friendship Centre for Environmental Protection) Administrative Divisions . . 11 2.1.2.3. Local rules Changsha is not the most advanced cit y in China in recycling. But in recent decades, due to the rapid urbanization and industrialization process , improving the MSW management system has been one of the prior ity considerations of the local government. According to the 2014 Changsha S olid W ast e M anagement R eport , the municipal solid waste increase d by 11.6% from just under 1.7 million metric tons in 2013 to nearly 1.9 million metric tons in 2014 (Changsha Environment Protection Agency, 2015) . The high speed of incre asing municipal solid waste force d the local government to take action to deal with it. Setting up new solid waste management rules is one of the primary actions that the local government took in the past five years to improve its solid waste management sy stem. The two rules that stand out are the Changsha Government Rule and the Changsha Food Waste Management Rule . The Changsha Government Rule was released in 2000 to replace the previous municipal solid waste management rule of 2/19/1998. Two chapte rs of the total nine chapters are relevant to solid waste management, which also includes content relate d to construction waste, medical waste, punish ment and so on. The rules regarding municipal solid waste management can be described as several violation situations followed by a corresponding fine range. Moreover, the violation situations are written in a very vague and general manner , like one of the rules that says d o not dump waste as instructed, will be charge d a fee of 50 yuan ($8) to 500 yuan ($80 ) , where no detailed information is provided on what is the instruction and who will charge the fee, etc. It is obvious that most of the rules i n this document will not be smoothly applied to residents daily li ves . The Changsha F ood W aste M anagement R u les were established on 12/08/2010, and went into effect on 06/01/2011 (City of Changsha, 2011) . Although most of the food waste is 12 used for composting or energy recovery, it is still worthwhile to discu ss this food waste management rule since it set up an example for a possible mode to improve recycling in Changsha. In Changsha, s elling food waste is an important source of income for most of the restaurants . Thus before this f ood waste management rule, m ost o f the restaurants sold their food waste to a middle man or directly to people from an illegal refinery . The appearance of this rule was primarily aiming at end ing this food waste trade which threat ened public food safety and health by refin ing the use d oil and selling it as edible oil . Lianhecanchu ( Figure 2 ) is a contract company which is responsible for collecting food waste from over 3,000 large or medium restaurants in Changsha and refining food waste to bi odiesel and methane (Xinhua News, 2015) . A representative of a restaurant , Saint Tropez Hotel , ( see Figure 3 ) in Changsha that has signed an agreement with the contract company (Lianheca nchu) for collecting their food waste was interviewed to see how the system currently works . Based on the interview, the sample restaurant is actually obeying the rule to some extent. Figure 4 is the food waste rec ord in Saint Tropez Hotel. T here are 7 requirements for filling out this record : 1 . The records must be taken every day ; 2. T he time of collection should be detailed from month, days, hours to minutes; 3. Records should not be changed; 4. The inspector sho uld inspect the restaurant at least twice a week; 5. T he records will randomly be checked and recorded; 6.The records should be authentically taken and obey the Food waste management regulations of Changsha ; 7. Restaurant is responsible for properly ke eping the records. Punishment will result to a restaurant which has lost this record . Currently it is hard to get actual information about whether the restaurant submits all their food waste to the contract company. But, new waste management rules actually influence and shape the way people are treating and dealing with food waste. W ithin two years , the company that is 13 responsible for collecting food waste has already signed contract s with over 93.3% of the major restaurants in Changsha (Hunan Daily, 2014) . Figure 2 Lianhecanchu (Xinhua News, 2015) Figure 3 Food was te c arts in Saint - Tropez Hotel in Changsha 14 Figure 4 Food waste records 2.2. U . S . Before the b irth of plastic, the U.S. already ha d a well - secured recycling system for traditional packaging materials like glass, paper and metal, etc. (Feldman & Wolf, 1984) . There is no national legislation forc ing people to do recycling in the United States . However, some states ha ve their own legislation to help promote recycling. For example, California, Michigan and Oreg on (among others) ha ve s for beverage bottles. The following section will discuss some organizations and legislation that are relat ed to recycling in the United States. 15 2.2.1. Organizations 2.2.1.1. EPA: The United State s Environmental Protection Agency or EPA was established on 2/12/1970. This organization is not special ly designed for the waste management function in the United States. One of the accomplishments of this government al organization is releasing general rep ort s about the municipal waste management situation in the United States. Those reports provide an overview of the municipal waste management process from the government side. For example, the most recent version was publi shed in 201 5 , named Su stainable Materials Management : 2013 Fact Sheet . It changed the previous name M unicipal S olid W aste G eneration, R ecycling and D isposal in the United States: Facts and Figures , which includes municipal solid waste categories, data and facts. This organiz ation use s a materials flow method to estimate the net discards of the United States on a national level , which takes the rate of the tons of recycled materials divided the tons of total domestic materials production (and import ed materials) as the natio nal recycling rate. Figure 5 provide s a general idea about how the methodology works . M unicipal S olid W aste in released o n July 11, 1986. The m aterial s flow approach ( see Figure 5 ) was ad o pted as the methodology us ed in this report. The data in the report included quantity and composition of MSW in two categories - materials and product s (Franklin Associates, Ltd., 1986) . This report laid the framework for the subsequent MSW reports re leased by EPA. 16 Domestic Production Discards before Recovery Discards after Materials Recovery Net Discards Materials Recovery Energy Recovery Imports Exports Diversion Figure 5 Methodology of E PA in calculating net discards 17 2.2.1.2. EAC The EAC ( Environmental Action Coalition) was a non - governmental pioneer in research on plastic recycling issues. The plastic research project that started in 1984 led by EAC provide d a new view of applying data in assessing the recyclability of the waste stream (Feldman & Wolf, 1984) . This organization does not exist today. 2.2.2. Some recycling related l egislation in the United States Although the United States do es not have federal laws directly regulating recycling , t here are still lots of laws and regulations relat ed to recycling activities in the United States . F or example, Bottle Bills have been passed by 11 states - New York, Michigan, Massachusetts, Vermont, Oregon, Maine, Iowa , Connecticut , California , Hawaii and Guam . The city of Columbia, Missouri repealed this law in April of 2002 and the state of Delaware repealed this law in 2010 (Bottle Bill Resource Guide, 2015) . Even though the primary intent ion for the B ottle Bill is to reduce litter rather than c ollecting bottles for recycling , t he bill s helped a lot with plastic recycling in the United States. Also, there have been some attempts to set up recycling laws directly related to the packaging industry in the United States. Packaging t axes is another concept that was raised around 1980 - 1 990s. For example, the H.R.5197 Recycling P romotion Tax Incentive Act of 1990 was introduced but did not make it out of committee (Eckart, 1990) . Another concept that had the same fate was the Recyclable Materials Science and Technology Development Act (H.R. 500) , which was first introduced in 1988 by Representative George J. Hochbrueckner . Th is Act was the first comprehensive recycling legi slation in the U.S. Congress (The Library of Congress Thomas, 2015) . In addition to that , a county in New York and some communities in California 18 (and some elsewh ere) established another type of legislation the material ban. For example, i n 1988, Suffolk Co unty, New York , passed a law ban n ing the use of polystyrene foam cups, plates, packing peanuts, coolers and clamshells , etc. because they were considered not r ecyclable. However, this rule was overturned on 9/22/2015 since the local judge consider ed those products can be recycled (Dokoupil, 2015) . 2.3. Discussion It is clear that organizations and legislations for recycling have experie nce d plenty of changes in the past decades in both countries. T h e way for developing a better recycling system is not always smooth and easy. And the birth of new materials and packaging also brings challenges and changes to recycling legislation system s . For example, in the 1980s, the United material plastic - came into the spotlight. One of the examples that provided for confusion in - degradability . advantage of the unclear definition of the concept and released new plastic materials claiming ould help the recycling process and reduce harm to the environment. In Plastic - P ackaging D ilemma , the author emphasized the need for national level recycling activity several times (Feldman & Wolf, 1984) . Not all of the environmental protection agencies immediatel y took action. The EPA fade d from the public debate at that time. Only FDA established some health regulations directly related to recycling . , debate at the local and state levels about issues pertaining to packaging, waste reduction, recycling, and safe disposal creat ed an ever - escalating political controversy (Feldman & Wolf, 1984) . 19 In its early stage of setting up recycling legislation , t he United States tr ied to put some legislation in the upstream of the recycling chain , which means to regulate the producers behavior s to help recycle better. But from a packaging prospective , all of the efforts in that direction fail ed . Currently there are no laws that manage producer packaging recycling. However, the public s recycling awareness and actions to protect the environment help ed more i n forcing producers to improve their products and packages for better recycling result s . For example , b ack in the 1980s and 1990s, the major agencies in the United States deal ing with recycling worked hard to raise the public awareness of recycl ing new packaging materials such as plastics. That public awareness turn ed back to pressure on packaging material suppliers and product producers or even retailers to figure out ways to products. In the 1980s, t he awaren ess of the public had great impact on improving recycling system s even before law s were issued in the United States . But, without legislati ve efforts, the recycling just do es not seem t o move forward at the expected speed with the desired result s . One this law, the recycling rate for all cans increased from 5 percent to 59 percent. Also glass and plastic experienced a great in crease in the ir recycling rate s (Feldman & Wolf, 1984) . The recycling system in both the United States and China involve s governmental legislation and organizations and efforts from the public. However, the public in the United States affects the recycling system on a greater level. The p ublic can let producers know they need to improve either t he design or production process of their products and packaging to increase their sales . The p ublic s pro active role in recycling also contribute s to more effective and systematic legislation that can help improve recycling quality. 20 Unlike the situation where communities have a big influence on recycling in the United States, current organizations and legislation are still the main forces that move China s recycling system forward , s ince the public awareness of recycling is not high enough, which does not only indicate the proportion of people who know they need to recycle material but also how, where, why and when to do recycling, This is kind of like the legislation situation that the United States had in its early stage s . However, China has a much more complicated system . Hundreds of domestic recycling companies and in ternational com panies also want to join the recycling market in China. Interestingly, when check ing online recycling information for recycling in cities , m ost of the information that p o ps out for the US is government regulations, guides or posts. For most parts of China, t seem to have a much more influence on shaping the concepts of recycling system than the public at the current stage . Perhaps in the future when the public realizes the importance of comprehensive recycling systems , those comp anies will work with the government to change the current recycling system. This phenome non reflects the fact that , unlike in the United States, China is focusing more on its recycling downstream , which is consumers and companies that try to solv e recycling problems . There are some basic situations that make the mode in China work so differen tly. First, informal waste collectors hide the fact that there are lag s in construction of recycling system s from the public in China. Currently, government still needs the informal waste collectors for creating job s . It is estimated that roughly 3.3 to 5. 6 million people in China are doing informal garbage collection to mak e money. Most of them are poorly educated and low income. For example, in the combination of the urban and rural area s of Beijing, around 170,000 people depend on garbage collection to m ake a living (Xinhua News, 2014) . 21 upper stream of the recycling process causes the develop ment of recycling processing to be slow. R ecycling is giving way for econo mic development. E society . Law of the People s Republic of China on the P revention and C ontrol pollution of Environmental Pollution by ers have the responsibility to take back their packages or products to prevent pollution , t hose producers are only limited to certain categories and most of the producers are not required to do detailed actions to recycle their products. For example, there is general information in the Law of the People s Republic of C h ina on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by solid waste and the local rule in Changsha that sa ys that producers have the responsibility to properly recycle and deposit t heir waste. However, t he details of punishments for violations and instructions for produce r s to follow are still not available. Figure 6 is a brief model indication for how legislation is positioned in both count ries. US Mode: China Mode: Figure 6 Model for recycling system of the U.S. and China Public Awareness Legislati on Producer s action Public action Legislati on Producer s action Public action Public Awareness Recycling companies 22 The model shows that the public s force plays a primary role in improving the recycling system in the United States an d the legislation system as well. But the legislation system is also needed to secure the consequent required performance of the recycling system. For China, the recycling improv ement system is still loose. Legislation has kind of an equal role with recycl ing companies to manage and upgrade the recycling system in China. 23 3. Technology There are four major steps in a complete recycling system, which are collecting, sorting, transporting and disposal. On the campuses of the two universities, collecting, so rting and transporting process es can be observed. So those three steps are selected for further discuss ion in this chapter. 3.1. Recycling procedures in two universities There are not many difference s between the recycling system structure in Hunan University a nd Michigan State University. In Figure 7 and Figure 8 , the major steps of recycling are listed. Both universities have three stage s of recycling : 1. C ollection, 2. Process ing, 3. Transporting . Figure 7 Recycling process model of Michigan Sta te University 24 The recycling center in Michigan State University plays a critical role in handling the recycling procedure. The old facility was established in 1988 after students petition ed the Board of Trustees for a focus o n recycling (Michigan State University, 2015) . The new facility, which includes a recycling center, a 24/7 drop off center, and a Surplus Store, was open ed in 2009 . T he facility c ould handle 10 million tons of solid waste in 2013. The recycling center has its own transportation team and can provide a comprehensive waste management solution for the entire campus. In Figure 7 , the steps in the green square s mean that the process happens on campus and Michigan State University is in charge of it. It is obvious that this recycling center provide s technologies that can cover collecting, sorting and transporting. Figure 8 show s t he recycling system structure in Hunan University ; the yellow steps mean that Hunan University is in charge of the process. The blue steps mean other individuals or organizations (especially local governments) are in charge of the process. The garbage c ollector part is kind of a mix of both of them so is marked with an orange color. It can be seen from the recycling structure that Hunan University actually has limited capability in managing its recycling system. Collectin g Waste transfer station Transportation system Garbage collector Material recycling plant Figure 8 Recycling process model of Hunan University Broker Disposal 25 This limitation can be interpreted as due to high dependence on government, limited capital for on campus recycling and unwillingness to update the recycling system on campus. Nevertheless, lack of appropriate recycling technology is one of the reason s for the situation. The following section will compare the recycling technology that each university uses , to spot light the difference s . 3.2. Collection Collection is the starting point of a complete recycling process. Compare d to transportation and processing, this stage involves less technology. There are three waste collection systems working together in and around Hunan University : Hunan University system ( the garbage cart used in this system can be found in Figure 9 ), Juzi Continent ( the garb age cart used in this system can be found in Figure 10 ) and Yue Lu Mountain ( the garbage cart used in this system can be found in Figure 11 ) . 26 Figure 9 Garbage carts of Hunan University Figure 10 Garbage carts of Juzi Continent 27 Figure 11 Garbage carts of Yuelu Mountain These three systems share the same waste transfer station in the area. The garbage collectors in all three systems d ump the waste that they collect every day at the waste transfer stations. During this process, the garbage sorting totally depends on the garbage collectors. There is no formal procedure or available machinery to help to separate the re cyclables from the non - recyclable s among the collected waste at this stage. Another feature of the recycling system in Hunan University is that the districts of the three systems are separated clearly. Actually, conflict of interest may exist to some exten t. The staff in the system usually do not have professional knowledge of recycling. The y collect the bottles, papers or metals based on their personal experience to judge if this kind of material is recyclable . The collection mode in Hunan University descr ibed above is currently used by most of the communities in Changsha. 1. Individual recyclable collectors or individual recyclable collecting companies. Residents will accumulate the recyclables that they collect every day until it is enough to sell them to t he recyclable collectors. Although there are some formal 28 companies collecting recyclables for profit, most of the individual collectors and private companies are informal which means that they do not formal ly register with the government and are not con trolled by laws and regulations. 2. Collected by garbage bins. Two - color divided garbage bins are the most commonly used garbage bins designed to collect recyclables in public area s . The other bin is for garbage that contains no recyclable items. On the st reet in Hunan University, a lot of two - color garbage bins can be found ( see Figure 22 ). 3. O pen dumping. It is also common for residents to dump their waste in places that are not a regular landfill. Most of the re cyclables dumped this way are construction debris. 4. Recycled by reverse vending machine. This is a new trend in China. However, this mode is still in the testing stage. Different waste vending machines ( or robots ) are entering people s view . For example , in the Dao Xiangyuan community of Hangzhou, a machine called waste recycling platform , which can recycle certain items in residents daily life , has been introduced to the community . However, currently the recyclable items that are collect ed by this machine do not include paper and paper board ( see Table 1 ). 29 Table 1 Xiangyuan community (Zhou, 2014) Item Value Cola bottle 10 credits ($0.0016) Color ed glassware 15 credits($0.0024) Cell phone charger 350 credits ($0.056) Mouse and Keyboard 350 credits ($0.056) Cell phone 1650 credits ($0.27) Other plastic prod ucts 300 credits ($0.048) Non - rechargeable a lkaline battery 10 credits ($0.0016) Mobile phone battery 50 credits ($0.0081) CPU, Hard drive, CD driver, Main board 1350 credits($0.2 2 ) 5. Other method s Guangzhou adopted a pneumatic waste collection syste m from Sweden in 2004. T hree communities we re chosen as tests for this new system. One of the communities, Jinshazhou Community , reported that the system stopped work ing just a few days after set up (An, 2009) . Th e system did n ot work properly in any of the three communities . Residents who live in the community said that they never ha d the chance to actually use the system by themselves. Currently the garbage collector s collect waste from the residents, and drop preselected was te s into the waste pipe system (Lai et al. , 2009) . 30 The mode for recyclables collect ion in Michigan State University is different from that in Hunan Universit y. But the Michigan State University mode also has a lot of simil arities to the recycling mode in the local area - East Lansing. There are two major modes for individuals to recycle their waste in East Lansing: 1. Drop Off 1) Container Deposit Law mode. This mode developed from the previous glass bottle recycling mode. When consumers buy certain drinks from certain producers from retailers, they will pay a refundable deposit for the bottles of the products when they check out. O nce consumer s return the bottles to the retailer s, they will get the deposit back (Bottle Bill Resource Guide, 2015) . This method is designed mainly for collecting plastic bottles and metal beverage containers . There is a unique type of machine that is commonly us ed at this stage, which is known as a reverse vending machine ( see Figure 12 ). Figure 12 Reverse vending machine (Wikipedia, 2015) 31 2) Drop - off centers. There is a drop - off center on the Michigan State University campus available for both on campus and off campus residents. The recycling center of Michigan S tate University has several big containers for residents to dump the plastic, paper and paperboard, glass, metal and even books that they collected in their daily life ( see Figure 13 ). 3) Collected by garbage bin s . Most garbage bins in the city are one - bin system s , which means recyclables are not separated from non - recyclable garbage . Those garbage bins are located mostly in outside public area s , like bus stations, on the roadside and at the do or of shopping malls, etc. However, at Michigan State University, bins for collecting different recyclable s have been set up . There are several types of recyclable material s that those bins collect: m ixed paper ( newspaper and inserts, boxboard, beverage bo xes, catalogs, Figure 13 R ecycling bins in Drop - off Center in Michigan State University. The containers on photo are used to collect cardboard and books 32 directories, magazines, junk mail, envelop e s, post - it notes, ream wrappers, cards) , glass , metal and plastic ( water bottles, jugs, grocery bags, frozen food trays, steel/tin cans, aluminum foil, bottle caps, jar lids ) and office paper ( compu ter paper, letterhead, notebook paper, tablet white paper, copy paper, index card, ink and staples ). That information is printed on notices above the container s ( see Figure 14 ) . 2. Curbside pickup mode. In area s li ke East Lansing, this approach is the most commonly used method to collect recyclables that are generated in daily life by household s . People who us e this method will buy a certain type of container from the local government or a private company for separa tely collecting recyclables . For example, a blue recycling bin ( see Figure 15 ) can often been found outside of residents house s for collecting recyclables . Figure 14 Recyclable item details on the garbage bin in Michigan State University 33 Figure 15 Blue recycling bin and new recycling cart in East Lansing (City of East Lansing , 2015 ) The recyclables collection system is complicate d both in China and the United States due to their diversity and broad territory. For example, due to the poor performance of the tw o - bin garbage collection system (since few people actually follow the instructions and put waste in the right bin) and high investment, Guangzhou stopp ed using the two - color garbage bin system in 2007 (Yang cheng Evening News, 2015) . However, some other cities like Changsha still use the two - color bins to collect and sort garbage. In 2014 new two - color bins were set up on the new streets near Changsha University ( see Figure 16 ). 34 Figure 16 Two - color bin garbage contianer in front of Changsha University 3.3. Transportation In Hunan University, the first step of transportation for recycling is a cart. Usually the cart is accompanied with a crate or a plastic bag, which is used by garbage collectors to collect possible recyclables from waste before dumping it. This is the common way that most of garbage collectors use to gain extra income . Figure 17 shows the typical garbage carts used in Hunan University . 35 Figure 17 Typical trash cart in Hunan University The next step is sending collected garbage to a waste trans fer station . The garbage collected in all three garbage - collecting systems (Hunan University, Juzi Continent and YueLu Mountain ) will be gathered in the waste transfer stations. So, basically, th ose waste transfer station s will be the final point of garbag e flow in this university area. After this, the garbage will be taken over by the garbage truck operated by the local s anitation b ureau . 36 Figure 18 A waste transfer station near Hunan University (Baidu Map, 2015) There are two things to be noticed in this situation. First, the waste transfer station does not have any equipment or regulations to strictly separate recyclable and non - recyclable materials. But before dumping the trash , most of the recyclable materials have been taken out of the flow by the garbage collectors . The black plastic bag on the cart that is shown in Figure 19 is used for this purpose . Second, a few recyclable s that have relative ly high value (bottles , metal, books and so on) can be found in the sunken garbage tank , which is a hole in the ground that temporarily store s waste that was collected by garbage collectors ( see Figure 20 ). According to the definition of Transfer Stations from EPA, the waste transfer station only work s as an assembly point for trash collection. There are no requirements for waste transfer station s to sort or collect recyclables (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2015) . Based on this information, both in C h ina and the United States, the functionalities of the waste transfer station do not include sorting for re cycling. In China, during or after dumping in the waste transfer station, the staff will sometimes sort the recyclables . 37 Figure 19 Dumping trash in waste transfer station in Hunan University Figure 20 Trash pool in waste transfer station in Hunan University 38 3.4. Process ing Two types of waste processing facilities - MRFs ( materials recovery facilities) and MWPFs (mixed waste processing facilities) - can be found in Changsha. East Lansing currently only has one MRF facility . The MWPF for Changsha is located in Hongshanqiao. The facility constructed the first sorting line in Hunan Province in 2010 . However, t he sorting line stopped working after 18 month s of operation, which cause d the municipal waste to be tr ansferred directly to the landfill without any recycling in the facility (Pu, 2013) . Concentrated complaints from the residents about the bad smell released from the facility were reported by the local media (Hunan Daily, 2014) . It was also reported that the company that was responsible for running this line complained that the unexpected ly low profits generated by this sorting line force d them to shut it down. The company had nearly a hundred and sixty thousand do llars loss per month for running this line (Pu, 2013) . Most of the MRFs in Changsha are run by private and informal par ties . Although the number of such facilities was reduced in urban area s in recent years du e to the price drop of recyclables and local governments efforts to shut down such facilities to prevent pollution and protect public safety (some facilities block ed the street and store d tons of flammable or toxic material s ), it is believed that those inf ormal private ly owned MRFs chose to relocate in fringe area s (Meihekou yangshengzixunwang, 2015) . 3.5. Discussion th Five - Year Plan Outline was r eleased by Technology, National Development and Reform Commission, and five other ministries and commissions jointly (China Briefing, 2012) in 2010 as a sho rt term national plan for next five 39 years (2011 - 2015). S ection two of the twenty third chapter of this document listed some general ideas about how to construct the recycling system in China. A ccording to the document, reduce is the most important consid eration among reduce , reuse and recycle . The plan also aimed at constructing a resource recycling system that will cover the whole society. The plan calls for the development of recyclables collection center s , transfer center s and sorting center s , an d market s . Those f our things will be the key points in the recycling system (National People's Congress, 2010) . China has been adopting new technolog ies for waste management in recent years. In 2001, facing huge municipal waste management demands, a lot of companies with more advance d technology and capital, used the BOT (B uil d - o perat e - t ransfer) mode to import new recycling technologies. Private companies often sign a contract with local governments for constructing new recycling facilities, maintaining the facilities and handling the operation for a certain period. After that, the local government will take over the facilities that were constructed by the private company (Wikipidia, 2015) . This mode makes advanced technologies and facilities, especially incineration, become an economic choice available for local government s . M ost of the time, the garbage bin is the most common way for collecting trash. Figure 21 and Figure 22 show the typical trash containers in both Michigan State Uni versity and Hunan University. 40 Figure 21 Garbage collecting container in Michigan State University Hunan University still uses the two - color garbage containers ( see Figure 22 ). The green bins are for collecting recyclable materials and the yellow bins are used to collect non - recyclable materials. At Michigan State University, the trash bin used to collect re cyclables is often Figure 22 Garbage collecting container in Hunan University 41 separated into 4 categories: 1. Plastic and metal; 2. Mixe d Paper and box board ; 3. Office paper; 4. Landfill trash. The garbage container system in Michigan State University is much more complicated and contains much more detailed information and instructions to guide people how to separate the trash in their ha nd that will go into the recycling system. Every container (except ones for landfill trash collection) that is designed to collect recyclables has a label for instructions with items that can be thrown into the container ( see Figure 14 ). Like many other countries in the world, China has tried many different technologies to raise the efficacy and effectiveness of collecting recyclables . In the plastic recycling system. This situation happened partly because a relative ly mature recycling system for - paper, glass and metal (aluminum) was already established (Curlee, 1986) . 42 4. Economy A l though both China and the United States emphas ize the importance of recycling, econom ic factors still play one of the decisive roles i n the development of recycling. It is almost certain that the countries with better econom ies will have more advanced recycling s ystems. Currently, developed countries in Europe, Japan, the United States and Canada, etc. are in the first class on recycling on a global scope. Those countries have more advanced recycling technologies, relative ly mature recycling systems and long recyc ling experiences to learn from for developing countries like C h ina. Also, cost effective ness can be considered as one of the most important factor s for promoting new and more advanced recycling systems. It is often the case that the high cost o f introducin g new recycling technologies and systems drive s local governments away from improving the current system in China. Also, on an individual level, gaining income from recycling (residents and garbage collectors from China) and reducing cost from recycling (r esidents and business from the United States) are always big incentive s for promoting waste recycling and rais ing the recycling rate. The following section will analyze how econom ic factors affect the recycling system functioning in both Hunan University a nd Michigan State University. 4.1. Cost 4.1.1. Government T he total cost of MSW services can be separated into two parts: disposal and recycling ( Bohm et al. , 2010) . M ost o f the communities in Changsha have their own garbage colle ctors to collect and send the garbage to a near by waste transfer center. S taff from the local govern ment will then transport the waste to the general waste transfer center and the waste will be processed for recycling or disposed later . 43 4.1.1.1. Waste Collector Wage In 2013, the average annual salary of a garbage collector was $ 32,730 in the United States (US News Money & World Report, 2015) and the annual average salary of a janitor was $25,140 in the United States (U.S.News & World Repor t Money, 2015) . Compare d to that, the annual salary for garbage collectors in C hangsha is from $2 , 288 to $ 3 , 428 (China Youth Daily, 2014) . The salary of a garbage collector in the United States is over 10 tim es that in China. Garbage collectors in the United States also receive formal training before they take the positions. The average salary i n the United States is $44888.16 (Social Socurity, 2015) . The average salary of g arbage collectors in the United States is almost 73% of the overall salary level. I n China, the average salary in 2013 was $8302 (ChinaIRN.com, 2014) . The average salary of garbage collectors in C h ina is 43.4 % of the average level. The comparison shows that the garbage collectors in China do not have as strong financial support from their salary as their colleagues in the United States. 18% or even more of their annual income comes from selling the recyclable materials that they collected from the municipal waste stream (CNTV News Network, 2013) . It i s really hard for these people to give up the benefits gaining from collecting recyclables by themselves . Figure 23 shows the salary comparison of garbage collectors in both countries based on the above informati on . 44 Figure 23 Salary comparison of garbage collector s and janitors in China (China Youth Daily, 2014) & the U nite d States (US News Money & World Report, 2015) 4.1.1.2. Residents costs Due to the high level of diversity in demographic s and geograph y , China has a lot of different waste fee charging systems in cities. One of the waste fee charging model s is there are certain staff in every communit y to collect a fixed waste fee from each household and residents can go to the local sanitary department to pay the fee . For example, in 2012, Guangzhou raised its previous waste fee from 5 yuan, which is $0.79 per household per month , to 15 yuan, which is $2.38 per household per month. But it is reported that only 20% of the waste fee can be collected by the government using th is method (Liang & Cheng, 2015) . Currently, l ots of cities in China have adopted a new garbage disposal fee charging system . Although those systems have d ifferent rules, all of them tie the submission of the waste fee with the s ubmission of payment for water . In general, the waste fee is either charged based on the amount of water that residents use or 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 Garbage collector in China Garbage collector in the United States Janitor in the United States Dollars Annual Salary Income created by collecting recyclables 45 collected by the water supplier a s a fixed amount (for example, Nanping charge s every individual household 15 yuan per month, whi ch is $2.38 per month as a waste fee regardless of how much water the household uses) (China Huanwei Technology, 2012) . Changsha also began to implement this system in 2010. Residents in the city were charged the waste fee by the amount of water they used. For every ton of water use, the residents will be charged 0.3 yuan, which is $0.048 (Liu, 2011) . Since the water fee collection syste m is relative stable and mature in China , the waste fee now becomes an oblig atory charge for the local residents. The rate of submission of the waste fee before using this new system in China wa s between 30% - 70 % , a nd the administrati ve cost for collecting the waste fee is 20% - 50% of the total fee collected (Guo & Chen, 2005) . After adopting this water consumption coefficient method, local governments saw a big increase in the waste fee collection and decrease in the administrative cost o f managing and collecting it. In Shenzhen, for example, the rate of waste fee submission has reached 97% with administration cost amounting to only 1% of the total fee collected (China Huanwei Technology, 2012) . The waste fee is used for collecting, tra nsport, recycling and disposal. The average consumption of water per household in Changsha is around 15 m 3 per month (News 938, 2014) . Based on that, the trash management fee on average is 0.3 yuan/m 3 *15 m 3 =4.5 yuan. Thus the annual trash management fee will be 4.5 yuan/month*12 month s =54 yuan, which is $8.7 0 . This policy went in to effect in C hangsha in 2012 . In the United States, t he residents in East Lansing also pay the local government for dealing with their garbage. Usual ly, for a typical household, a recycling bin will be purchased to contain recyclables and a 64 - gallon easy cart will be used to contain garbage that will end up in the landfill. The bins are used for curbside recycling while carts are used for garbage coll ection . 46 Following is the list of costs for Bins, B (City of East Lansing, 2015) of East Lansing recycli ng. Table 2 Bins, Bags and Sticker Purchases in East Lansing (City of East Lansing, 2015) What Cost Recyc ling Bin $ 7 Easy Carts $ 55(+0 annual fee) for 32 - gallon cart $ 70(+0 annual fee) for 64 - gallon cart $ 79(+75 annual fee) for 96 gallon cart Yellow Bags imprinted with City logo (refuse) $ 7.5 0 for a roll of 5 bags City - issued Paper Yard Waste Bag imprinted with City logo (collection cost included) $ 1.5 0 Yard Waste Sticker for Non - City Paper Bags and Rigid Plastic Containers $ 1.5 0 Bulk Item Special Pickup Sticker $ 15 Hazardous Waste Sticker $ 40 (for item s containing Freon) Generic Bags $ 10.50 per roll of 50 bags So f or a typical household in East Lansing , the average cost of garbage disposal can be calculated as the sum of $7 for 1 recycling bin and $70 for 1 64 gallon cart. These two fees are no t renew ed until the old trash containers are replaced with new on es. The average life time for both containers can be estimated as 10 years . Yard waste can be disposed for free on the first two Mondays in spring and fall (e.g. May 4 and May 18 , 2015) (City of East Lansing, 2015) . Most of the residents tend to dispose of - Fee Curbside Yard Waste So the estimate d average cost per household in East Lansing is 47 ($7+$70)/10=$7.7 0 . In addition to tha t, some payment for waste management is included in the taxes paid to the city government . In the fall of 2015, East Lansing will start a new rec ycling plan. The current recycling bins ( cost $7) will be replaced by new 96 - gallon carts for free. The new con tainers will be able to recycle corrugated board , which previously need ed to be drop ped off by residents for recycling. Moreover, the routine pick up will be scheduled twice a month instead of once per week (Parker, 2015) . From the comparison we can estimate that the f garbage collection for residents i n Changsha is a dollar higher than that of the residents in East Lansing . There is no big difference between the two cities. mple the taxes, is really hard to estimate. Moreover, only a certain percentage of the total amount of the trash fee will be paid for recycling , which also add s difficulty in accurately report ing how much a household paid for their recycling activity. 4.2. Mar ket s and Revenue A s mentioned before, Michigan State University has a special step which Hunan University does not have - the Surplus Store, which actually affects a lot how the recycling system will function. According to the interview with Mr. David Smit h from the Michigan State University Recycling Center, t he recycling center of Michigan State University created gross sale s of $ 3 million in 2013 with $ 2 million of the sales returned to the departments on campus. The Surplus S tore operated by Michigan St ate University ha d net an nual revenue of $ 1.2 million in 2013 with gross revenue of $ 3 million dollars . T he business that the Surplus Store is doing is reuse rather than recycle, which means it sells items that ha ve already been used or are unused 48 but no l onger needed by the previous owner . Michigan State University has combined this surplus store with their recycling business , which actually benefits each part. Also, one big attribute of the United States recycling system is its international waste trade of recyables, which is also o ne of the most important difference s in the recycling process between China and the United States . China as a developing countr y that depends more on the power of export s to drag its economy forward, consumes a huge a mount of waste from the United States and other countries to reproduce them into new products. China is the biggest market in this trade . From 2000 to 2011, the export of waste from the United States to China increased from $ 740 million to $ 11.5 billion. 11.1% of t he import s in 2001 from the United States to C h ina were waste. The trend is shown in Figure 24 (NetEase, 2012) . The is one of the trigger s in recent years that cause d a large amount of disccusion in the recycling industry in the United States . This acitivity started from 2/1/2013 and last ed 10 months to 11/31/2013. The Green Fence wa s designed to restrict the contraband of forbidden and dangerous garbage from foreign c ountires and enforce the management of imported solid waste (General Administration of Customs of the P.R.C, 2013) . Base d on the fact that this trade existed for the past several decades, and the economic situation remains the same currently , the trend see ms to not easily be reverse d or change d in direction. Although internation al waste trade does not directly affect recycling systems at either Michiga n State University or Hunan Uinversity, it affects the larger recycling environment that the two universities function within . 49 Figure 24 Exported value of waste from the United States to China from 2000 to 2011 (NetEase, 2012) 4.3. Discussion The recycling center of Michigan State University is a MRF, which also create s benefits for the university. The econom ic system of the recycling process in Michigan State University and Hunan University can be shown in Figur e 25 and Figure 26 . In the model of Michigan State University, the products that can be reused (for recycling from the universi be sold again ) are collected primarily ( university students , staff , and even some local residents ) . Departments provi de more ready for resale products and equipment than residents. Based on the information provided by the recycling center, 80% of every sale over $100 will be returned to the department which provides 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 Value (billion dollars) Year 50 the products or equipment. This part of selling reusab le products is a very important source of income in supporting the operation of the recycling center. In addition to that , the recycling center also collects recyclable materials that can be sold to broker s or some local recycling facilities. Figur e 25 Cash flow model of the recycling system of Michigan State University Figure 26 Cash flow model of the recycling process in Hunan University In Hunan University, due to its specific location, th e huge numbers of visiting tourists create an important source of recyclables. According to the interview with cleaners (Garbage 51 collector of Hunan University, 2015) in the univ ersity area, on holidays or weekends, their work load double s from 4 carts a day to 8 carts a day. Their routine schedule is 2 hours/shift, 4 times a day for cleaning up approximately a 100 m 2 area. Compare d to Michigan State University, the profits crea ted by recyclables in Hunan University are in a one way model. The recyclable materials are of low value (e.g. waste paper, bottles, some small furniture) and are turned into private income for the garbage collectors on campus. The profits never re - enter t he recycling system on the H unan University campus. The profits are shared by the garbage collectors on campus , the informal garbage collectors at this stage. For Michigan State University, part of the income from the recycling process goes back to the re cycling system on campus . Both the departments and recycling facilities benefit from the recycling process. This circle in profits create s a relatively stable relationship between the university, which is the service provide r , and the departments, which ar e the recyclables provider s . The profits flow model determines that the formal sorting facilities will be the major ones in the United States. But China, in contrast , will face great challenge s from the informal garbage collectors. The formal facilities a re not able to make profits from the recycling process. The informal garbage collectors or even the formal garbage collectors have already separate d the profits from recyclables before they enter the formal recycling facility. Creating a relative close d c ircle structure will help strengthe n the formal recy cling process, which means keep ing the profits created in waste processing flow ing to the people or organizations who actually undertak e the formal recycling process. In Hunan University s case, the organ izat ion that formally does recycling of the waste that is created in the university is designed to be the MWPF in Changsha. However, since most of the recyclable materials are 52 taken out of the waste flow by informal garbage collectors, the sorting line in the MWPF is not able to create enough social benefits and economic profits to function normally. 53 5. Culture The curbside recycling programs in the U.S. grew rapidly from 19 73 when it first started. In the past decade, the residents in the United States have gotten used to this recycling method. Especially for small cities with relative lower population density, this method is one of the major methods that people are using for recycling . T he Chinese government, no matter whether central or local, emphas ized 10 years ago that one of the major task s in improving the recycling situation is to increase the awareness of residents to separat e recyclables from non - recyclables when dumping their waste. However, it see ms it has not quite been a successful process. In addition to the factor s like legislation, technology and economy, recycling culture construction, which seems to be a lag ging part in the whole process, will provide part of the explanation of the current situation. 5.1. I dentity Like other developing countries , i nformal waste workers play a very important role in recycling in China. However, actual data about this group is hard to get since the unclarified identity between the formal and informal recycling system is not well interpreted (Salhofer, 2014) . Scavengers have play ed an important role in the recycling process both in China and the United States. However, the number of individual scavengers in the United States dropped drastically in the 1970s. The big concern that scavenge rs would get hurt in their landfills drove the landfill owners to keep individual scavengers out of their landfills (Rathje & Murphy, 1992) . In the United States, t here are two types of people that usuall y collect wastes: janitors and garbage collectors. One of the janitor s job s is to clean , dispose of trash, vacuum floors, and clean spills (Payscale, 2015) . Garbage collector is another occupation. Garbage collectors in the 54 United States collect waste from residential and commercial locations that will then be transported to a landfill or incinerator . The garbage collectors usually need more professional train ing than janitors. They need to know how to operate a garbage truck and sometimes need to manually dump trash cans into the truck (Payscale, 205) . The people i n China who directly deal with garbage and join the primary recycling process can be separated into three groups: scavengers , garbage collectors and janitors . Individual scavengers who significantly depend on collecting recyclables from landfill for their living almost disappeared in the 1980s in the United States . However, in China , the scavengers seem to be pushed out of the landfills mostly by the improvement of technologies and fierce competition between private companies that try to take ownership of l andfills. In China, however, it is often the case that those three identities may belong to one person. The interview (Garbage collector of Hunan University, 2015) on Hunan Uni versity campus can reveal part of the reason. Formal waste collectors working on the Hunan University campus will also help cleaning the campus, empty trash bins and send ing waste to the waste transfer station. Moreover, most of them also act as informal i ndividual scavengers who collecting recyclables to increas e their income. The janitors and garbage collectors hired by the un iversity and the local government the recycling system. However, at the same time, they also collect recyclable s and sell them by themselves to increas e their income . I n most situations , this behavior is considered as an recycling. It is estimated that 0.56% - 0.93% of the total population in China is involved in informal waste collection activities (Salhofer, 2014) . 55 5.2. Awareness One of the major factors that affect s the effi ciency of recycling in one country is the awareness of the importance of recycling by the public. But the recycling backgrounds for both countries are different. Plastic recycling is a good example to show this cultural difference. In 1975, 65% of intervie wees most of them professionals in the recycling area expressed that they were concerned that plastic materials would do the most harm to the environment of any other daily used materials (Curlee, 1986) . That was about the time when plastic material s were starting to replace traditional packaging and construction materials (wood, metal, glass and paper) in s . So the awareness and understanding of the recycling of this new material has developed from nothi ng to a relative ly mature stage. Compare d to that, the plastic industry in China started in 1921, which is alm ost 30 years later than that of the United States . The time for people to catch up with the rapidly developed plastic material trend is relatively limited , which may partially provide answers to the relatively simplified and incomplete control and awareness of the plastic recycling system. The situation in the plastic recycling industry is not the only case . Due to rapid econom ic growth, more and mo re new package materials appear in people s daily lives in China. Wh ile the parents and grandparents generations still remember they can trade turtle shells to state owned recycling facilities for money, the new generation has already been taught how to sort and recycle new packages and materials. It seems overwhelming for most of the older generations in China, who also d id not have enough education when they we re young. China is in a stage where most of the educated people are aware of the importance of recycling, but few have any idea of what to do to actively participate in the systematic recycling process. This phenomenon can be observed in the results of several surveys investigating the awareness of classified collection of garbage in China (Liu J. , 2014) . 56 5.3. Information resources Another question is how the current information resources help people in China to obtain further understanding of recycl ing. If the recycling education system in countries like Japan that have more detailed and strict requirements can be ranked as the top level, and the United States is in the middle, perhaps China can only be counted as an entry level country. One of the obvious clue s is the information that a resident can get as their recycling instructions. Figure 27 shows a part of the recycling hand book for residents in Yokohama , Japan, which shows when, where, and how to dispose bottles or cans with very detailed instructions and image s for explanation. F or residents in East Lansing, the website of the City of East Lansing (see Figure 28 ) has detailed instructions and sugge stions about how to do recycling in the area that are accessible to the public . For example, for the new curbside recycling program, the curbside recycling guide on the very first page lists 11 c ategories of recyclables . However, on the official website of Changsha (China Changsha, 2015) , there is no information about how to do recycling for citizens to read. 57 Figure 27 Part of recycling hand book for residents in Yokohama (City of Yokohama, 2015) Figure 28 Recycling related webpage of the website "City of East Lansing" (City of East Lansing, 2015) 58 6. Discussion On an overall vie w, the recycling system in China has a 20 - 30 year gap compare d to that of the United States. And because there are so many differences between these two countries, simply copying the U.S. recycling mode will not actually help improve the recycling situatio n in China. Thus, i t is believed that the MRF mode in Michigan State University cannot be directly applied to Hunan University. On one hand, Hunan University does not h ave enough recycling support , which means that most of the Hunan University residents d o not take recycling as serious ly as stude nts at Michigan State University . This is partial ly because of the lack of recycling education for the Hunan University residents, especially students. A lthough there are some small scale recycling promotion activi ties or programs in Hunan University, for example, a program named Exchange Recyclables for Green Plants ( see Figure 29 ) in which students can trade the recyclables they have collected for green plants , the inf luence that those activities created is limited. On the other hand, the financial support from both local government and from Hunan University is not enough for establishing a complete MRF recycling system. For internal financial support, first, info rmal or some formal workers in the recycling system are sharing the profit s created by collecting recyclables on campus . A lso , the residents o f Hunan University still have the tendency to sell items that are reusable or recyclable to private recyclable dealers. This part of the income is not enough to provide significant financial support to establish a complete MRF system on campus. E specially the recyclables sold by formal waste collectors, which is roughly $16,000 per year ($ 48 × 12 × 28=$16,000), only amounts to a very limited part of the total cost of construction of a new recycling system. However, giving up this part makes Hunan University lack the continuing financial support to maintain the system operation . The interview 59 with Mr. David Smith of the Michigan State University Recycling Center shows that it is still expected to use the accumulating profits created over a certain period of time to pay off the new recycling center facilities and buildings. So to make the MRF on campus a sustainable system that can live on its own, it still need s the university to appropriately take advantage and make profits from its own recyclable and reusable resources. For the government part, the general direction, like the 12 th Five - year Plan , which is a general plan esta blished by the Chinese government indicating the direction of development aims for next five years , shows that China is willing to construct more official MRFs for improving the recycling environment. But at the current stage in Changsha, the local governm ent is more interested in new incineration facilities rather than a comprehensive MRF facility (An, 2009) . This is likely p artially because t he shutdown of Changsha s first automatic sorting line due to insufficient profits set up a bad example for choosing this method. The contracted companies that constructed the sorting line were also not willing to sacrifice their profits to operate and improve the ir current equipment . Furthermore, this bad example proves that the genera l recycling situation in Changsha is not suitable for constructing a relatively big and comprehensive MRF facility. Also, unlike the status of Michigan State University in E ast Lansing, which has over 50% of the city s population, Hunan University account s for only 5% of the total population in Changsha and 10% of the total population in the Yuelu District , where Yuelu Mountain is located . And it is locate d next to two other big universit y campus es in Changsha - Central South University and Hunan Normal Un iversi ty . Figure 30 provides a rough indication of the area of each university ; the blue region is Hunan University, the red region is Central South University and the orange region is Hunan Normal University. It can be seen from the map that those three universit location s are quite close . T he other two universities have over 80,000 students and staff on campus , which occupies 60 nearly 20% of the population in Yuelu District. Consider ing the demographic and geogr aphic influence s , it will be better for the local government to choose a spot to build a comprehensive MRF system to serve the whole area, rather than merely support ing Hunan University for a regional on campus MRF facility. Figure 29 The "Change recyc l ables for Green Plants" program in Hunan University (The Green Exchange Family of Hunan University, 2014) 61 Figure 30 Map of the surrounding area of Hunan University (Google, 2015) From a technology view , without a MRF facility, Hunan University plays a relative ly passive role in the entire recycling chain (collecting, pre - sorting, transporting, sorting, disposal or proces sing). Unlike Michigan States University, which ha s a MRF facility on campus which can do colle c ting, presorting and transportation , Hunan University currently can only do very basic colle c ting and do es not have an effective way to collect its recy clables. But will Hunan University have the possibility to construct its own comprehensive MRF facility in the future ? 62 The answer will probably be no as well. On one hand, Hunan University do es not have enough financial support or a systematic financial strategy to sustain a MRF facility and does not have demand s for a better formal recycling system from its staff and students due to low recycling awareness at the current stage. Rather , local government will still keep its leader ship role in dealing with recycling. Hunan University perhaps does not have the willingness to construct a MRF system on campus based on the current situation . A lso, Hunan University does not have the same strong influen ce on the local government as Michigan State University ha s in East Lansing . T he local government perhaps will more intend to establish a regional big MRF or run several small MRF s on its own rather than letting Hunan University establish a MRF by itself. It is certain that both China and the United States are still working on improving the ir recycling system s . For China, since the needs for increasing recycling are grow ing so fast, improvements and new ideas can be found i n different directions simultaneously . For example, the government of Changsha is updating its recycling infrastructure by introducing a new sorting line and new garbage bins in communities and on streets. Also it is tr ying to set up model communities by educating the residents of the selected communities how to classify their waste. Regulations about collecting food waste are also established, etc. Table 3 is a list of some of the actions that Changsha took in recent years to improv e its recycling system. 63 Table 3 Improving attem pts for recycling system in Changsha Actions Result Introducing new sorting line Fail ed to function normally Setting up modeling communities and introducing new four - color garbage bins in the community while educating residents how to use the garbage bin s to classify daily waste Failed, four - color garbage bins have been replaced by previous two - color garbage bins again Food waste collection Signed contract with large and medium restaurants and is able to deal with 50% of the commercial food waste It can be told that the actions that local government s take have different effects on residents. For residents in Changsha, the changes that were made in the recycling system by local governments exert little effect in motivating them to understand and perfo rm well in the recycling process, which does not necessarily mean that the actions taken by the government are restricted to on ly the macro scale, like construct ing new MRFs for the city or introducing new sorting line s . Some micro scale actions, like se tting up garbage bins with recycling functions and promoting recycling education in certain communities also did not reach the desired result s . However, t he f ood waste recycling project seems to be the most successful one among all the actions that Changsh a took in the past years to improve the recycling process. Actually, this project is the only one among the above listed actions that has positive supports in all four categories: legislation, economy, technology and cultural. On the legislation part, lo cal government announced the food waste recycling regulations. And then, the local governments 64 obtained technology support from Re He to provide the needed equipment and technologies. From the economy point, Re He (although it said that the margin is thin, the company actually grew with this project based on scale and experiences), the local government and residents are all benefit ting from this project. On the cultural side, the increasing concerns of the local residents about fake oil that was informally refined from the food waste also helped the project to mov e forward smoothly. Although China can learn from the United State on all four aspects, it is still not appropriate to simply copy the recycling mode in the United States, neither on the national l evel n or the state level , and apply that to China. In summary, China s recycling system has four characteristic s in the above four areas. The recycling legislation system is immature and unstable, which means both the federal government and local governmen ts are working on enriching legislation , regulations, rules and standards to better manage the previous relative ly simple recycling system. But due to the change of the broader environment and involvement of recycling companies , the current recycling legis lation system in China will still experience some major changes in the next decades. On the technology part, China is more active on this part than other parts. Although Hunan Univer sity does not have the most advanced recycling technologies and systems , n ew waste transportation truck s (although they cannot separate recyclables from non - recyclables ) and construction of a new wa st e transfer station that replaced the previous normal truck and open dumping s tation , shows that China has and will continue to tak e actions to improve its recycling system from the basic level. The f inancial mode in the recycling area still keeps the previous mode of sharing little of the benefits to informal garbage collectors for certain level s of recycling performance, but will ch ange to a more organized and sustainable mode also because of the join ing of formal recycling companies. Constructing a higher level of recycling 65 culture is what the Chinese government advertises to the public , but definitely the performance of the activit ies in the past decade is not satisf actory . Although China has to face a swift ly changing world of new materials and packaging components for recycling, it is still good to learn from the United States on constructing a positive and much more detailed recy cling education system to increase the public s awareness and actions in participating in recycling . 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