Analysis of the Competition Network of Industrial Waste Emissions in Beijing, China

Beijing is facing an increasing threat from environmental problems. Since the environment is a public resource, waste emissions from industries are non-competitive and non-exclusive, which indicates that there are competition relationships among industries in Beijing. In order to investigate these relationships in quantity, this paper employs a 2-mode network method to construct a competition network of Beijing's industries using data for 2011 and then analyses the competition network using network indices. Five kinds of wastes are considered: wastewater, waste gas, common solid waste, waste dust and hazardous emissions. Our main findings include: the manufacture of raw chemical materials and chemical products and the manufacture of non-metallic mineral products are under intense emission competition in Beijing. Industries are divided into three groups by waste emission. Two industries mainly discharge hazardous waste; six industries mainly discharge wastewater; and the remaining 12 industries discharge waste dust, common solid waste and waste gas. These relationships should be considered in industrial planning, and industries that discharge similar waste types should not be located close together.