Can Beijing’s informal waste recycling sector survive amidst worsening circumstances?

摘要

Highlights?Analysis of collection and income level changes for Beijing’s informal collectors.?Highlighting the effectiveness of institutional structures for informal collection.?Account of the informal sector’s economic contribution to Beijing’s WM.?Exposition of how informal rule-structures effectively counter official regulations.AbstractThis paper presents an assessment of the informal waste recycling sector in selected sub-districts of urban Beijing excluding inner suburbs and discusses the question of the segment’s survival amidst an increasingly challenging socio-economic environment. Based on several field trips and two research projects in 2013 and 2016 on informal recycling in Beijing, the paper analyses the sector specific changes over recent years. The results display the various changes in size and organisation, waste recyclable collection rates and income levels as well as the instit