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Sustainable Industrial Design and Waste Management
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created a comprehensive program for achieving a recycling economy through
a series of laws such as the Basic Law for Promoting the Creation of a Recycling
Oriented Society and the law for the Promotion of Effective Utilization of
Recycled Resources. The foundation for the basic recycling law was a report by
the Industrial Structure Council (July 1999). Other supporting legislations were
issued to support the recycling law such as the Law Concerning Promotion of
Separate Collection and Recycling of Containers and Packaging (2000), which
accounts for more than 25% of general waste.

China: The Government of China introduced a circular economy as the out-
come of over a decade’s efforts to practice sustainable development by the
international communities, and is the detailed approach towards sustain-
able development (Xiaofei, 2006). Sun Youhai, a law-drafting official with
the Environment and Resources Committee of the Standing Committee of
the National People’s Congress, stated that “China has chosen a circular
economy as the major means to combat environmental degradation and pur-
sue sustainable development, but the development of the economy still
lacks strong legal support and therefore it is necessary to draft such a law in
time to help build a sound material-recycling society” (China Internet Infor-
mation Center, 2005).
Since circular economy is a new concept in China, there are no clear
mandates of each ministry on circular economy to date, and this problem
may be solved by the end of 2006 after the issuance of the Guiding Principle
of Promoting the Development of Circular Economy which the National
Development and Reform Committee (NDRC) is now preparing for the State
Council, yet Xiaofei presumes their mandates according to the existing ones
(2006).
The circular economy (CE) initiative has been developed in China as a
strategy for reducing the demand of its economy upon natural resources as
well as the damage it causes to natural environments. The CE concept calls
for very high eco-efficiency of using natural resources as a way of improving
the quality of life within natural and economic constraints for sustainable
development. China’s planned economy is a top-down approach, which is
similar to the economy model in most developing countries.
The circular economy model encompasses both the cleaner production
techniques and industrial ecology strategy in a broad system that aims at
industrial establishments, eco-industrial parks, and services in order to opti-
mize the use of natural resources. The whole community has to play a role
in achieving the CE concept, from the government to the firms all the way
to the public. The fundamental actions that should be applied are stated
below (Circular Economy, Xiaofei 2006).

• The first action within the individual firm, the managers must seek
to apply the cleaner production hierarchy discussed in Chapter 2.