About Liwen Chen
Country: China
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Program: Rural environmental issues, waste management, sustainable development
Liwen Chen was born and raised in the village of Hebei Province, China. She received a bachelor’s degree in language and literature before also pursuing a master's in the same field. Inspired by a lecture on environmental protection by an environmental NGO founder she attended during her master’s program, Liwen has worked with environmental NGOs since 2009 working in areas including chemical safety, climate change issues and waste issues. After over six years of groundwork in an environmental NGO, she went on to study in Canada and the U.S. for her second master’s degree in the environment. Her research focuses on discarded electronics and electrical waste of Beijing and waste pickers who are working on those discards.
Over the years, her work has included incineration pollution, working with impacted communities to fight against incineration pollution, researching Beijing’s waste separation communities, and working with the waste pickers’ community to advocate zero waste policies in Beijing. In 2017, she founded Zero Waste Village to assist village committees, towns and county governments in implementing waste separation programs. By working with towns and counties to build up waste separation systems, they can divert over 60% of waste from landfills or incinerators. She wants to find a solution for China’s rural waste management, which has been a big challenge due to the changes in farming and people’s lifestyle. Liwen and Zero Waste Village have worked with five towns and one county with over 30 villages.
Liwen has found that working with the villages to promote zero waste villages helps address an important challenge in China’s village communities. As a Humphrey Fellow at UC Davis, Liwen wants to enhance her experiences in zero waste. Her professional and research interests also include organic farming and sustainable rural development, and women's rights during urbanization.
Available to speak on the following topics
- Recycling and zero waste
Related SDGs
