ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Systems Engineering
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1601889
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Strategies For Solid Waste Management, Resource Recovery and Environmental Sustainability In A Circular EconomyView all articles
The Formation of Waste Management Order in Urban Communities under the Neo Endogenous Development Theory: Two Examples from Chinese Urban Communities
Provisionally accepted
- 1Minzu University of China, Beijing, China
- 2Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
China's urban community waste management (UCWM) is characterized by prominent environmental pollution problems, resource waste and insufficient public participation. There is an urgent need to promote organic recycling of urban domestic waste through grassroots community mobilization. This study aims to explore how urban communities integrate external resources and endogenous dynamics to form sustainable waste management orders under the Neo Endogenous Development (NED) theory. This study collected data using the interview method and analyzed the data through NVIVO 12.0 to explore the integration of external resources and internal dynamics in forming sustainable UCWM orders in two representative Chinese urban communities in Beijing and Shanghai. Key findings reveal that technology, as an exogenous force, can effectively stimulate the endogenous sustainable development of urban communities. It is mainly used to realize the aggregation of subjects through platform empowerment, activate grassroots community resources through data interoperability, and build interactive scenarios to strengthen social connections and resident environmental awareness. The study underscores the potential of NED models to enhance sustainable waste management practices, fostering community cohesion and self-sustainability. By highlighting the synergistic role of technological innovation, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and community empowerment, this study contributes unique insights into the replicability of NED-based waste management models in diverse socio-economic settings, ultimately advancing China's ecological civilization goals and global sustainability agendas.
Keywords: Chinese cities, Urban Communities Waste Management, Neo Endogenous Development Theory, Technology Empowerment, Objects integration, Resource activation, Value creation
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xue and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Meng Liu, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, Jiangsu Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.