To examine the discharge volume of domestic solid waste in rural China and to explore the potential impact of various factors that contribute to it. Prof. WANG Jinxia from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) Chinese Academy of Sciences, and her colleagues used the data in this study come from a large-scale field survey conducted in 6 Chinese provinces.

Based on the collected survey data, econometric model on the determinants of domestic solid waste discharge was constructed and used for analysis.

Results from their study show that the per capita daily discharge of rural domestic solid waste was close to 1kg in 2010, slightly less than the urban level of 1.2kg.

Results from descriptive statistical analysis and econometric estimation indicate that by implementing selected policy measures, the discharge of solid waste can be significantly reduced.

In addition, the discharge of domestic solid waste is also closely related with local socio-economic development. In particular, the results show an obvious inverted U-shaped curve between discharge volume and income. The increase of off-farm labor opportunities would also reduce solid waste discharge in rural China.

Related research results have been published in the journal of China Agricultural Economic Review (Kaixing Huang, Jinxia Wang*, Junfei Bai and Huanguang Qiu, Domestic Solid Waste Discharge and Its Determinants in Rural China, China Agricultural Economic Review,Vol. 5 No. 4, 2013 pp. 512-525).