Recently Xiamen (China) has encountered various challenges of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) such as lack of a complete garbage sorting and recycling system, the absence of waste segregation between organic and dry waste at source, and a shortage of complete and clear information about the MSW generated. This article critically analyzes the existing bottlenecks in its waste management system and discusses the way forward for the city to enhance its MSWM by drawing lessons from Hong Kong’s effectiveness in dealing with the same problems over the past decades. Solutions to the MSWM problem are not only limited to technological options, but also integrate environmental, legal, and institutional perspectives. The solutions include (1) enhancing source separation and improving recycling system; (2) improving the legislation system of the MSWM; (3) improvement of terminal disposal facilities in the city; (4) incorporating digitization into MSWM; and (5) establishing standards and definitions for recycled products and/or recyclable materials. We also evaluate and compare different aspects of MSWM in Xiamen and Hong Kong SAR (special administrative region) under the framework of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ concerning environmental policies, generation, composition, characteristics, treatment, and disposal of their MSW. The nexus of society, economics of the MSW, and the environment in the sustainability sphere are established by promoting local recycling industries and the standardization of recycled products and/or recyclable materials. The roles of digitization technologies in the 4ᵗʰ Industrial Revolution for waste reduction in the framework of circular economy (CE) are also elaborated. This technological solution may improve the city’s MSWM in terms of public participation in MSW separation through reduction, recycle, reuse, recovery, and repair (5Rs) schemes. To meet top-down policy goals such as a 35% recycling rate for the generated waste by 2030, incorporating digitization into the MSWM provides the city with technology-driven waste solutions.

Recent decade has witnessed accelerating expansion of chemical industry and increasing conflicts between the local citizens, governmental authorities and project developers, especially in some coastal and port cities in China. Development and transformation of chemical industrial parks has been adopted as a national initiative recently. However, there is a paucity of research examining public perspectives on chemical industrial parks and their risks. Aiming to understand public perception, attitude, and response and the factors underlying the support/acceptance of chemical industry park, this paper investigated 418 residents neighboring to two chemical industrial parks, Dalian in Bohai Rim through face-to-face questionnaire survey. The results showed the knowledge of the respondents on the chemical industrial parks development was very limited. The respondents had complex perceptions on the environmental impacts, risks control, social-economic benefits, and problem awareness. The current levels of information disclosure and public participation were very low. The central governmental official (44.3%) was the most trustworthy group by the respondents. Only 5.5% and 23.2% of the respondents supported the construction of a new CIP nearby and far away their homes, whilst 13% thought new CIP project as acceptable. The spearman correlation analysis results showed a strong NIMBY effect (Not In My Backyard). Factor analysis results demonstrated five latent factors: knowledge, benefit, information, trust, and participation. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated how socio-demographic differences and five latent factors might impact on the support/acceptance of the chemical industrial parks. Education level, trust, information, and participation were significant predictors of public support/acceptance level. This study contributes to our limited knowledge and understanding of public sentiments to the chemical industry parks in China.

Coastal litter abundance and its effects have increased for years. Waste reduction is the most effective countermeasure to fight against this problem. Littering attitudes may have an effect on people's involvement in coastal cleanups. In this study, coastal litter perception, awareness about its impact and likely sources were investigated in local population from south Bay of Biscay, Spain. People of different age groups and commitment levels regarding litter were interviewed and their answers compared with data from the area. Results showed differences in perception between volunteers and non-volunteers, but not between children and adults. Interaction effect of age was found for awareness. Volunteers and children tended to erroneously attribute the main litter origin to beachgoers, more than non-volunteers or adults. Our results suggest that encouraging local population to clean beaches would contribute to improve their perception of the problem and their attitudes toward taking action.

Small-scale pollution events involve the release of potentially harmful substances into the marine environment. These events can affect all levels of the ecosystem, with damage to both fauna and flora. Numerous reporting structures are currently available to document spills, however there is a lack of information on small-scale events due to their magnitude and patchy distribution. To this end, volunteers may provide a useful tool in filling this data gap, especially for coastal environments with a high usage by members of the public. The potential for citizen scientists to record small-scale pollution events is explored using the UK as an example, with a focus on highlighting methods and issues associated with using this data source. An integrated monitoring system is proposed which combines citizen science and traditional reporting approaches.

Urban air quality management plan (UAQMP) is an effective and efficient tool employed in managing acceptable urban air quality. However, the UAQM practices are specific to a country’s needs and requirements. Majority of the developed countries have full–fledged UAQMP with a regulatory management framework. However, developing countries are still working in formulating the effective and efficient UAQMPs to manage their deteriorating urban air environment. The first step in the process of formulation of UAQMP is to identify the air quality control regions based on ambient air quality status and second, initiate a time bound program involving all stakeholders to develop UAQMPs. The successful implementation of UAQMPs depends on the strength of its key components, e.g. goal/objective, monitoring network, emission inventory, air quality modeling, control strategies and public participation. This paper presents a comprehensive review on UAQMPs, being implemented worldwide at different scales e.g., national (macro), city (medium), and local (micro).

Public involvement in beach litter clean-ups can help tackle marine litter while providing experiential learning, raising awareness and stimulating anti-litter behaviour. Beach visitors contribute to litter generation by inappropriate discarding behaviour, and engaging them in litter removal can be beneficial. This study assessed visitors' (N = 512) stated willingness to participate in litter clean-ups at Elegushi Royal Beach, Nigeria, which is under pressure from litter problems visitors contribute to, and potentially emblematic of organised litter clean-ups. Beach visitors recognised marine litter as a global and national problem but did not perceive the case study beach as being littered. Willingness to participate in beach litter clean-ups was marginal. However, it was positively correlated with previous participation in litter clean-ups, perceived collective responsibility and the importance of policy and investments in reducing litter. These results were used to propose a framework to engage and recruit visitors in beach litter removal campaigns.

There are obvious differences between different types of environmental regulation, which are manifested in different environmental protection tendencies and goals, and there are also significant differences in policy implementation. Therefore, it is an urgent empirical problem to quantitatively evaluate the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulation on the upgrading of industrial structures. Therefore, on the basis of measuring the level of industrial structure upgrading, this paper empirically tests the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulation on industrial structure upgrading. The results show that the upgrading level of China’s industrial structure increased year by year from 2000 to 2018. The three types of environmental regulatory measures have effectively promoted the upgrading of the industrial structure, and the market-incentive environmental regulation (MER) has a significantly higher role in the advancement of the industrial structure than the command-controlled environmental regulation (CER) and the voluntary public participation environmental regulation (VER). With the improvement of regional economic development level, the three types of environmental regulation have gradually become more prominent in promoting the upgrading of industrial structure. In the mechanism test, it is found that technological innovation has a partial mediating effect in the process of CER affecting the upgrading of industrial structure, MER and public VER have a complete mediating effect, while foreign direct investment (FDI) has only a partial mediating effect in the process of the three types of environmental regulation affecting industrial advancement, and there is no mediating effect in the process of influencing the rationalization of industrial structure.

The question of how organisations choose their environmental strategy remains an unsolved problem in institutional theory. We argue that institutional pressure and the characteristics of the firm affect choices around environmental strategies. An empirical analysis of 597 heavily polluting firms indicates that more firms choose environmental leadership strategies, which means that they actively work with upstream and downstream firms to reduce emissions, when government pressure is the greatest; however, more companies are likely to choose pollution prevention strategies, which implies recycling materials in the production process is implemented, when public pressure is the greatest. Finally, organisations with more redundant resources and strong asset specificity are more prone to choose environmental leadership strategies as policy pressure or public pressure increases. The findings offer a decision-making framework to promote environmental measures related to government policy formulation and public participation. The results can also provide empirical evidence to guide environmental strategic choices for heavily polluting enterprises.

The ecological transformation of the mineral resource-based cities (MRBCs) is the key to promoting the construction of ecological civilization and realizing the sustainable development of the social economy and society in China. Existing research ignores the influence of public participation on other subjects in the process of transformation, which is essential to solve the dilemma faced by the ecological transformation of MRBCs. In view of this, from the perspective of stakeholders, this study constructs a new evolutionary game model, which is jointly participated in by the government, enterprises, and social factors (SF) (including public, self-media, and non-governmental organizations). This paper discusses the interests of the main parties and their inter-relationships and reveals the causal mechanism and influencing factors of the dilemma of the ecological transformation of the MRBCs. Our results demonstrate that the evolution and convergence of strategies among the tripartite game agents exhibit strong interaction. First, the single industrial structure, low regulatory efficiency, and weak ecological awareness substantially increase the cost of transformation, thus exacerbating the dilemma of MRBC transformation. Second, the transformation intensity and comprehensive income are important factors affecting the transformation, and the effect intensity of influencing factors in different transition stages is different, which implies that the focus of policies in different stages is different. Third, in the process of promoting enterprise ecological transformation, government supervision and SF supervision have significant complementary effects. However, high-intensity supervision has a significant crowding-out effect on the willingness of SF to participate. Therefore, the government needs to balance the intensity of supervision and willingness of SF to participate. Compared with the existing research, this study comprehensively reflects the complex dynamic game process of the ecological transformation of MRBCs in China and can provide a reference for the policy of promoting the ecological transformation of MRBCs in China.

The central theme of the study is to assess the socioeconomic impact of household biogas plants on rural households. To this end, the study selected respondents from biogas plant holders and non-holders of biogas plants in rural areas of Muzaffar-Garh. During the field survey, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 40 biogas users in two villages in each Tehsil and 40 non-biogas users in the same village. A survey based on pre-designed questionnaire was conducted, and main data of 320 households in four Tehsil districts (interviewees) in the Muzaffar-Garh region were collected. In this study, biogas is the input variable, while elderly education and total household income are the input socioeconomic variables. Farm productivity, time saving, indoor air pollution, household hygiene, and expenditure are intermediate variables. The output variables include income, health, and education level of minor children aged 2–5 years. Structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques that describe the relationship between input variables and output variables can be used to obtain steadfast results. Based on the estimates, we have observed that BG investments have substantial impacts on farm productivity, time savings, indoor air pollution, household hygiene, and expenditure, which in turn has played a role in improving the status of people. It is concluded that many direct and indirect socioeconomic impacts of holding biogas plants on rural households can be measured. In order to widely promote biogas technology as an alternative energy source nationwide, there must be greater public participation.