Jump to content

Talk:China's circular economy

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is an annotated bibliography of the different sources I am going to use when creating my Wikipedia article on China's circular economy.

Mathews, J. A., & Tan, H. (2011). Progress Toward a Circular Economy in China. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 15(3), 435-457. doi:10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00332.x. Retrieved from .http://journals2.scholarsportal.info.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/details/10881980/v15i0003/435_ptaceic.xml

The journal article Progress Toward a Circular Economy in China reviews the different Eco industrial initiatives China participates in and compares it with other Eastern Asian and Western strategies. The article also discusses the various drivers and inhibitors of these Eco industrial initiatives. The driver of China’s circular economy that is outlined in the article is the bottom up approach, where individual firms take initiative to promote environmental sustainability in their industries, rather than just strategies legislated by the state. The inhibitors of China’s circular economy defined in the article are technological, financial and institutional barriers. These barriers range from the need for large up front capital, to international regulations and technological development. This journal article will be useful to include in my Wikipedia article, as it provides detailed accounts of the challenges China’s circular economy faces and the factors that make their economy possible. It also provides a comparison of China’s success with other countries, which I would like to include in my article. This is a good source to use since it is peer reviewed and reputable, since it is published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.


Geng, Y., & Doberstein, B. (2008). Developing the circular economy in China: Challenges and opportunities for achieving 'leapfrog development' The International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology , 15, 231-239. doi:10.3843/SusDev.15.3:6. Retrieved from. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249060904_Developing_the_circular_economy_in_China_Challenges_and_opportunities_for_achieving_'leapfrog_development'

The article Developing the circular economy in China: Challenges and opportunities for achieving 'leapfrog development describes why China has embraced a circular economy, the current sustainable development practices China implements and the challenges that impair China’s circular economy. The authors contend that China adopted the circular economy to combat resource depletion and pollution, due to their high population and industrializing economy. Current implementation strategies are categorized into 3 circles, which are corporate level (micro), inter firm level (meso) and social initiatives (macro). The challenges toward China’s circular economy outlined in the article are policy barriers, technological concerns and public participation. The article also discusses future plans for China’s circular economy, such as drafted work plans created by different agencies and ministries within the Chinese government. This article is relevant to my research on China’s circular economy, as it has many valuable points that I would like to include in my Wikipedia article. The information that I would like to use from this article are the reasoning behind why China adopted this sustainability strategy, the current implementation strategies at different levels of industry, the challenges China’s circular economy faces and future plans the country has to improve economic sustainability. This article is reliable to use for my research as it is peer reviewed in The International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology.


Su, B., Heshmati, A., Geng, Y., & Yu, X. (2013). A review of the circular economy in China: moving from rhetoric to implementation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 42, 215-227. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.11.020. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/science/article/pii/S0959652612006117?np=y&npKey=94c4b9d1d75cf06aca21e146cfcc221a6e3dd9b32e8aacc6ed82d9066bd15e82

The journal article A review of the circular economy in China: moving from rhetoric to implementation by Heshmati and Geng illustrates the development and implementation of China’s circular economy. The authors provide a review of the current practices implemented in China, as well as an assessment of the performance of these practices. The statistical results were analyzed and compared between four pilot cities where circular economy strategies were tested, being Dalian, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. The findings showed that the cities improved in some aspects, though failed to meet objectives in others. The cities were generally able to improve water efficiency, but struggled with waste management. The authors provided the reasoning why some of the cities failed to meet their objectives, being weak economic incentives, poor leadership and management, lack of reliable information and shortage of advanced technology. The information in this article is relevant to include in my research, as I would like to incorporate the findings of the studies conducted on the pilot cities and the reasons why some cities did not meet their set objectives in my Wikipedia article. The article is reliable enough to include in my research, as it is peer reviewed and a part of the Journal of Cleaner Production.


Guo, B., Geng, Y., Sterr, T., Zhu, Q., & Liu, Y. (2017). Investigating public awareness on circular economy in western China: A case of Urumqi Midong. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142, 2177-2186. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/science/article/pii/S0959652616319011?np=y&npKey=94c4b9d1d75cf06a0e5b9da52e4fd4af235780cbb77d5eefdfe9c1d4a8b96da9

The article Investigating public awareness on circular economy in western China: A case of Urumqi Midong documents the public awareness of China’s circular economy in Urumqi, which is the capital of Xinjiang. The authors conducted surveys, where two questionnaires were handed out to 418 respondents. The questionnaires aimed to assess the public’s knowledge about sustainable development, waste management and resource efficiency. The authors asked questions regarding waste separation, water saving, energy conservation in the home, as well as questions evaluating their knowledge of what circular economies and sustainable development are. The results showed that the public’s knowledge of sustainable development increased from 10% to 57.5% between 2008 and 2013, while the public’s knowledge of circular economies only increased to 41% in 2013. By 2013 the majority of respondents understood the importance of waste separation, water saving and energy conservation in the household. The authors outline ways in which the government can continue to increase public awareness around circular economies, being introducing related knowledge and best practices to the public, creating websites or information platforms for public participation, implement related policies and provide preferential incentives to green product users. This article is relevant to my research, as I would like to include the results from the surveys and ways the government can improve public awareness in my article. The data collected in this article is reliable as the authors used random sampling to choose the respondents. The article is also peer reviewed and published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.


Geng, Y., Sarkis, J., Ulgiati, S., & Zhang, P. (2013). Measuring China's Circular Economy. Science, 339(6127), 1526-1527. doi:10.1126/science.1227059. Retrieved from http://science.sciencemag.org.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/content/339/6127/1526.full

The article Measuring China's Circular Economy discusses the different types of indicators and measurement techniques China uses to assess the efficiency of their circular economy strategies. The current performance indicators China has in place for regional areas and industrial parks are energy, material flow analysis (MFA), life cycle analysis (LCA), CO2 emissions and economic returns. The authors contend that despite the usefulness of these indicators it is not the most optimal, as it does not take into account all the factors of a circular economy. The current indicators focus on individual aspects of resource use too much, while failing to address the complexity between actions of the natural environment and socio economic system. A more efficient way of measuring China’s circular economy was outlined, being an emergy indicator system. An emergy indicator system provides environmental accounting indices and ratios, which are capable of measuring the performance of resource generation and product dimensions. This article is useful to my research on China’s circular economy, as I would like to include the different measuring techniques China has in place to assess the performance of their economy and some of the issues surrounding the techniques in my article. I would also like to include future capabilities of performance indicators, such as the emergy system in my article. This article is a reliable source as it is peer reviewed and published in the journal Science.

Some other sources I would like to use in my article:

China Water Risk . (2017). China’s 13th Five-Year Plan for Ecological & Environmental Protection (2016-2020). Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://chinawaterrisk.org/notices/chinas-13th-five-year-plan-2016-2020/

China Water Risk . (2017). China's Economy: Linear to Circular. Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://chinawaterrisk.org/resources/analysis-reviews/chinas-economy-linear-to-circular/

Skene, K., & Murray, A. (2015). Sustainable Economics: Context, Challenges and Opportunities for the 21st-century Practitioner. Greenleaf Publishing. Retrieved from http://gse.publisher.ingentaconnect.com.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/contentone/glbj/2y6q69/2015/00000001/00000001/art00007;jsessionid=6do1g3nr00gub.x-ic-live-03

Rikin kotak (talk) 02:38, 1 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]