The rise and fall of a “waste city” in the construction of an “urban circular economic system”: The changing landscape of waste in Beijing

Waste is wicked because of its inextricable mix of social, economic, and environmental attributes. This paper presents the unexpected explosion of a “waste city”, Dongxiaokou, on the northern fringe of Beijing in the 2000s and its recent crash due to urban expansion. These events occurred within the background of the municipality's efforts to remake the waste/recycling space into an “urban circular economic system”. We illustrate the distressing challenge of waste as it is gradually exposed to urban governance in China. Our findings show that waste can be wicked because of the limits of its problem definition, which focuses on the environment and resources, but excludes the migrant scavengers from the local citizenry regardless their efforts for inclusion by the city. This limitation of the definition of the problem leads to conflicting values on waste and recycling between various stakeholders who are involved when the system needs to be upgraded. Conclusions suggest collaborative initiatives at the community level to build an inclusive space for recycling activities in cities in China.