Public participation and city sustainability: Evidence from Urban Garbage Classification in China

Increasing municipal garbage poses a great threat to city sustainability especially in developing countries. It has become one of the main sources of environmental pollution in Chinese cities. Accordingly, Urban Garbage Classification is of great significance to city sustainability. Essentially, it’s a social behavior and entails public participation. Based on a random survey conducted in Chinese major cities, this paper investigates public participation in Urban Garbage Classification. Our findings show that (1) more willingness to garbage classifications do not mean a higher chance of behavior of garbage classification, which indicates a deviation exists between public’s willingness to garbage classification and the behavior of garbage classification. (2) Such a deviation depends mainly on contextual factors and the public’s attitudes and knowledge about urban garbage classification. (3) Those who pay more attention to urban environmental pollution, who know more about urban garbage classification, and who live in a community with more supporting facilities are more likely to participate in garbage classification. Our study provides a new perspective for understanding the importance of public participation in city sustainability. It can provide useful references for the government to reduce urban waste and the sustainable development of cities.