Business opportunities

The recent development of trash-sorting initiatives has brought business opportunities for Zhou, who has started another project in Zhejiang.

However, she acknowledged that it is harder to push forward trash sorting in other places, because they don't have the same level of governance as Shanghai.

In addition to public advocacy and education, domestic waste management requires separate transportation systems and the construction of dedicated treatment facilities.

A report by Orient Securities, an investment bank and brokerage, estimated that Shanghai's waste-management project has cost 7.6 billion yuan so far. It predicted that the Shanghai model would be extended to every city in the country, producing a market worth about 200 billion yuan.

Wen Zongguo, director of Tsinghua University's Centre for Industry and Circular Economy, said the aim of the national campaign is to reduce the generation of trash to prevent megacities becoming "besieged by waste".

"The nation's move toward recycling and the circular economy through waste management started because China faces a developmental bottleneck-limited natural resources, limited land resources and serious pollution."

In January last year, the State Council issued a plan to build several "waste free" cities, and in May, 11 cities and five areas, including Chongqing, Sanya, Hainan province, and Shenzhen in Guangdong, were selected to pilot waste-free programs led by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and 17 other ministry-level agencies.

"There are many opportunities and investments in the areas of recycling, waste treatment, renewable resources and the circular economy in the pilot cities," Wen said.

Alizee Buysschaert, a Belgian expat who co-founded the Zero Waste Shanghai project which provides training and workshops on sustainability, said she has been contacted by a growing number of companies in recent months.

"Many are thinking ahead; they asked me that in addition to recycling and waste sorting, what more can they do," she said.

She added that she was recently invited to provide a workshop for employees of a company in Guangzhou, Guangdong's capital.

"Everyone is looking at China right now in terms of recycling and sustainability."

Buysschaert has been interviewed by many foreign media outlets since July. "They want to know what's going on here in China… and you cannot deny that China is the No 1 sustainability leader in the world, and it will remain like this for a very long time," she said.

"We're working toward a greener future every day."