How Can Unit Pricing Be Employed and Improve Municipal Waste Management in Shanghai?

Sammanfattning: China is on a transition to waste management charging reform and pursuing effective eco-nomic incentives on an individual level. Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT)/Unit pricing is recog-nized as an important and effective means to waste prevention and source segregation ren-dered by the government mostly in the developed countries. Following the in-depth case study analysis and the environmental, the study explored the different patterns of implement-ed PAYT schemes and evaluated their outcomes from the perspective of the operability, the political feasibility, the universality, the validity in waste reduction and separation using four cases studies in Europe. With lessons learnt from literature review and experiences from cases studies, the author generates a framework for implementing PAYT principles into waste man-agement services and creates a toolbox for designing tailor-made PAYT programs on a munic-ipal level. With the context analysis of Shanghai and the designing toolbox for PAYT, the author proposed the policy recommendations in a practical way for Shanghai to enhance the on-going waste sorting programs. It also provides recommendations regarding possible issues in implementing. Whilst, this study gives an insight to the policymakers upon the Quantity-Based Charging (QBC) scheme for other cities in China where such charging schemes are absent but advocated by the central government recently.