A Study On The Legal System Of Garbage Classification And Recycling In Xi’an

Government’s policies on compulsory garbage sorting have been introduced in 46key cities in China including Xi’an in March,2018.And the policy,“Xi’an Municipal Domestic Waste Classification Management Measures”,has been implemented on 1^stJanuary,2019.The status quo of the garbage sorting in Xi’an is facing many problems.First,the increasing garbage production,weak policies to encourage citizens to follow those garbage sorting regulations and the need of the construction of garbage sorting infrastructure are three principal issues that Xi’an is encountering.Second,from the perspective of implementation of those policies,two essential issues should be tackled by the government:citizens’awareness of accepting and following those policies is not strong enough and the main body of each actors is in the confusion.Firstly,after studying and organizing the research status on this issue,the author concludes that the legislation and the management of municipal domestic waste classification should strictly guided by the theories of sustainable development and circular economy.In order to pave the way for the further development of policy making,the measure of the fair responsibilities distribution in all levels should be taken.Secondly,after examined and analyzed the current situation and policies implementation of garbage collection in Xi’an,the author considers that although a sequence of those policies has been implemented,there are still three remaining problems which are only the traditional propaganda method is used,citizens’awareness of accepting and following those policies is not strong enough and the supervision and administration in all levels are inappropriate.Besides,other problems do exist.For example,the inadequacy of exclusive legislation on this issue,and the newly-established“Xi’an Municipal Domestic Waste Classification Management Measures”has a number of insufficiencies–the distribution of responsibilities is not specific which harms the function of the Measures and those consequent regulations like garbage charging policy are not adequate.Therefore,not only the implementation process but also policies need to be amended.Finally,with the research and analysis of“the Measures”and those policies in some developed countries like Japan,Germany and America and some domestic cities like Beijing,Shanghai and Guangzhou the paper will give suggestions on helping to improve Xi’an’s garbage sorting and collection by pointing out that the legislation on this issue must follow the guidance of the theories of sustainable development and circular economy in order to standardize the practice of those policies to persuade citizens to sort,collect,transport and dispose garbage,not only propaganda those policies.In the meanwhile,for“the measures”can function well,the policy-making and implementation system should be administrated and supervised in details and giving those officers in charge the correspondent authority.Under this situation,the charging system,budget guarantee system,rewards and penalty system,responsibilities system for corporates should be improved to formulate a complete regulation system to meet the garbage sorting and collecting targets.