The centenarian Palace Museum: How a ‘zero-waste’ initiative breathes green vitality into China’s landmark heritage?

BEIJING, Dec. 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from China.org.cn on the Palace Museum:

The centenarian Palace Museum: How a ‘zero-waste’ initiative breathes green vitality into China’s landmark heritage?

https://youtu.be/fZg27rA1E5E

On October 11, 2025, the 7th Taihe Forum, hosted by the Palace Museum and the Forbidden City Cultural Heritage Conservation Foundation, kicked off. Throughout the forum, the concept of green development took center stage. What tangible efforts have been made to bring a “green Palace Museum” to life? Let’s step into the Palace Museum and uncover the answers!

As a world-renowned cultural landmark, the Palace Museum welcomes an average of over 10 million visitors each year. This massive foot traffic, however, brings immense pressure from waste generation. In January 2020, the “Zero Waste at the Palace Museum” project was launched. Astute visitors will notice that the Palace Museum has refined its waste sorting system, expanding from the standard four major categories to seven detailed subcategories. Even a single plastic bottle or scrap of paper now has its own designated bin, significantly boosting sorting efficiency. But where do these recycled plastic bottles end up? They are given a new lease on life as the Palace Museum cultural and creative products.

Wu Di（Director, Department of Cultural Products/The Palace Museum）: Inside, there are also some common daily necessities of ours. Such as this tote bag. There is a clear label on it. It means that this tote bag is made from 9 recycled mineral water bottles as raw materials. In addition, this tote bag extracts elements from cultural relics and includes relevant introductions. Of course, it has some carbon reduction labels. For example, this tote bag has reduced carbon emissions by 630 grams. The message conveyed by such a cultural and creative product is not only the information about cultural relics and culture it carries. It also conveys a new trend of fashion.

These eco-friendly products are available in the Palace Museum’s souvenir stores, letting visitors take home a “green memory of the Palace Museum.”

The area around the Gate of Good Fortune is a hub for dining at the Palace Museum. Over the nearly six years since the zero-waste project launched, the zero-waste catering culture week has become a regular event, promoting initiatives like the “Clean Plate Campaign,” proper waste sorting, and bringing reusable water bottles. Through these efforts, visitors have shifted from mere onlookers of zero-waste practices to active participants, gaining first-hand experience of the value of a green lifestyle.

Another highlight drawing visitors to snap photos is the new ecological composting flower bed on the east side of the Archery Pavilion Plaza. This space houses over 50 species of native plants, along with landscape rocks, lotus tanks, and eco-friendly facilities like compost bins, earthworm towers, and insect hotels. Within this micro-ecosystem, waste is converted into organic fertilizer that nourishes the garden’s greenery, enabling this ancient cultural heritage site to achieve a self-sustaining green cycle.

After following this “zero-waste route” through the Palace Museum, standing back at the starting point and gazing at the complex, one can’t help but recall the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmonyand the Hall of Preserving Harmony. The character meaning “harmony,” which appears repeatedly on the plaques of these halls, seems to echo the Palace Museum’s age-old wisdom of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature– a principle that remains the spiritual cornerstone of today’s “Green Palace Museum” initiative.

The centenarian Palace Museum: How a ‘zero-waste’ initiative breathes green vitality into China’s landmark heritage?

http://www.china.org.cn/2025-11/24/content_118192539.shtml

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SOURCE China.org.cn