How has Shanghai built a sustainable municipal solid waste management system through 30 years of socio-ecological practice?

Municipal waste management, widely recognized as a complex problem involving environmental, social, economic, and governance issues, has long received extensive attention from governments, academia, and the public. Since the late twentieth century, Shanghai has undergone a three-decade transformation in municipal solid waste management, evolving from small-scale classification pilots to a citywide system integrating source separation, category-specific collection, diversified treatment, and multi-stakeholder governance. This paper explores Shanghai’s long-term socio-ecological practice, including “cognition and action”, “trial-and-error mending”, and “reflection and adaptability” to show how repeated piloting, policy refinement, infrastructure expansion, interagency coordination, community participation, and adaptive adjustment jointly shaped this transformation. This provides new insights into urban governance and identifies transferable implications for cities pursuing effective waste management and low-waste transitions.