Abstract
This chapter examines education for waste management practices in China. The chapter first entails the introductory section, which outlines the kinds of waste followed by the discussion of waste management policies in some developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. Then the current situation of waste management in China is described. Three case studies of ecological schools with practices of waste reduction from various parts of China are analyzed. Overall speaking, waste management and education are strongly supported by international trends of sustainable development, education for sustainable development, sustainable consumption, and education for sustainable consumption. China’s waste education is currently subject to the level and needs of waste management, with a focus on waste reduction and classification. The pilot project Waste Reduction Schools as a part of Eco-school project in China shows successful practices on promoting reducing, recycling, and harmlessness of domestic wastes. But in terms of waste education, there is much room for improvement and more measures are suggested for implementation in the future. With the development of Chinese society, waste education can be further promoted to building citizenry behavioral norms and environmental ethics.
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Acknowledgements
The paper was first presented in Chinese at the Cross-Straits Environmental Education Summit in October 2017. Later the paper was amended and translated into English with the assistance of Ms. Melissa Au, Ms. Hilton Cheung, Mr. Derek Chun, Ms. Wan Ki Tse, and Mr. Andy Yeung. Thanks are given to Mr. Ze Chen, a graduate student at the Institute of International and Comparative Education, Beijing Normal University for his contribution as well as the Centre for Environmental Education and Communications, Ministry of Environmental Protection, The People’s Republic of China for providing case studies in this chapter. Thanks are extended to the Centre for Education in Environmental Sustainability (CEES) under the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, as well as the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Education University of Hong Kong for their support in the preparation of this manuscript.
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Huang, Y., Lee, J.C.K., Jin, Y.T. (2019). Waste Management Education: Chinese Perspective and Experiences. In: So, W., Chow, C., Lee, J. (eds) Environmental Sustainability and Education for Waste Management. Education for Sustainability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9173-6_8
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