TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhancing public acceptance towards waste-to-energy incineration projects: Lessons learned from a case study in China
AU - Liu, Yong
AU - Ge, Yujia
AU - Xia, Bo
AU - Cui, Caiyun
AU - Jiang, Xiaoyan
AU - Skitmore, Martin
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No 71672180 and 71471166 ), and the Soft Science Research Program of Zhejiang Province (Grant No 2016C35007 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/7
Y1 - 2019/7
N2 - Waste-to-energy incineration provides an effective solution for efficient and effective municipal solid waste (MSW)disposal, and plays an important role in the regional circular economy and sustainable urban development. However, waste-to-energy incinerations face considerably strong opposition from the local community globally because of the potential hazards to environment and health. This paper conducts a comprehensive case study of the Yuhang Jiufeng waste-to-energy plant in Zhejiang province, which is regarded as first waste-to-energy incineration project to truly overcome such an issue in China. The results reveal that the traditional technical-based, closed Decide-Announce-Defend decision-making approach is the root cause of public opposition, and a more open and democratic publicly involved approach played an important role in the successful re-decision-making of the Jiufeng plant. Meanwhile, a series of response strategies, such as compensation and risk communication, can effectively promote the local residents’ public acceptance through improvements in their benefit/risk perceptions and public trust. The findings of this study will add new knowledge to the current understanding of public opposition, and benefit both governments and waste-to-energy professionals by paving the way to enhancing public acceptance of waste-to-energy incineration facilities.
AB - Waste-to-energy incineration provides an effective solution for efficient and effective municipal solid waste (MSW)disposal, and plays an important role in the regional circular economy and sustainable urban development. However, waste-to-energy incinerations face considerably strong opposition from the local community globally because of the potential hazards to environment and health. This paper conducts a comprehensive case study of the Yuhang Jiufeng waste-to-energy plant in Zhejiang province, which is regarded as first waste-to-energy incineration project to truly overcome such an issue in China. The results reveal that the traditional technical-based, closed Decide-Announce-Defend decision-making approach is the root cause of public opposition, and a more open and democratic publicly involved approach played an important role in the successful re-decision-making of the Jiufeng plant. Meanwhile, a series of response strategies, such as compensation and risk communication, can effectively promote the local residents’ public acceptance through improvements in their benefit/risk perceptions and public trust. The findings of this study will add new knowledge to the current understanding of public opposition, and benefit both governments and waste-to-energy professionals by paving the way to enhancing public acceptance of waste-to-energy incineration facilities.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065188301&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scs.2019.101582
DO - 10.1016/j.scs.2019.101582
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85065188301
VL - 48
JO - Sustainable Cities and Society
JF - Sustainable Cities and Society
SN - 2210-6707
M1 - 101582
ER -