Hui Li, Yuxuan Hou

Hui Li

05 December 2023

Domestic waste, Classification performance, NCA method, fsQCA method.

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to explore the improvement path of urban domestic waste classification performance under the resource-based theory, with a view to providing new ideas for the study of multi-factor interaction influencing urban environmental governance. Methodology: This study takes 14 major districts and counties in Xi'an City as the research object, and tries to explore the conditional grouping scheme for the improvement of the performance of domestic waste classification that is suitable for different cities or regions. This study adopts necessity analysis (NCA) to study the impact of individual conditions on the necessity and bottleneck level of domestic waste separation performance in Xi'an, and applies fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) from the grouping perspective to derive the grouping of conditions that produce high and non-high domestic waste separation performance in Xi'an, and analyses them in the context of actual cases. Results: It is found that: First, the three factors of organisational resources, technical resources and financial resources cannot individually constitute the necessary conditions for high and non-high domestic waste classification performance. Second, high domestic waste classification performance can be categorised into 3 paths: technology-economic driven, technology-organisation driven, and comprehensive driven. The non-high domestic waste classification performance can be summarised into 3 paths: lack of conditions, lack of technology, and financial-technological double constraints. Third, the grouping paths of high and non-high domestic waste classification performance are asymmetric. It is not possible to directly derive the non-high living rubbish classification performance path based on the high living rubbish classification performance path opposites, and infrastructure resources and platform resources have a more general impact on living rubbish classification performance. Conclusion: The government should play the synergistic role of organisational resources, technical resources and financial resources; maximise the role of technical resources in enhancing the performance of domestic waste classification; and strengthen the allocation of organisational and economic resources to play a supplementary role in enhancing the performance of domestic waste classification.

© 2023, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

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