Adjusting the pattern of source separation and recycling can substantially mitigate environmental impacts and promote carbon neutrality in China

Source separation and recycling (SSR) is a recognized strategy and can be used solve the problem of rapidly accumulating municipal solid waste, which hinders regional sustainability. However, SSR patterns have rarely been assessed. Here, we focus on SSR implementation and its environmental impact, especially those of carbon emissions, as well as the mitigated potentials of different recycling patterns. We found that China's resource waste (RW) rapidly grew and became increasingly diversified, and greater RW generation occurred in the eastern coastal region, especially in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The evident spatiotemporal disparities in RW generation were driven mainly by population, economics, and urbanization; the RW generation dramatically increased by more than 9.9 times compared with those in 1980, reached 220.3 Mts in 2022 and could potentially increase to 524.0 Mts in 2060. We described the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing factors with regional differences, moreover, the patterns of the physical categories and recovery values has could potentially to mitigate the environmental impacts of global warming, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, and photochemical oxidization for regional emission mitigation. Simultaneously, SSR could substantially contribute to achieving carbon neutrality in China.