The integrated development of urban and rural areas is the best way to promote agricultural and rural construction and achieve rural revitalization in the new era and promote the equal exchange and two-way flow of urban and rural elements. The coupling coordinated development of urban-rural logistics has opened the channel for “selling agricultural products to the cities, while selling industrial products to the countryside,” thereby laying a solid foundation for the two-way flow of factors between urban and rural areas. Therefore, it is essential to measure the grey correlation between the coupling coordination degree of urban-rural logistics and the integrated development level of urban and rural areas, analyze the key factors affecting the urban-rural integrated development, and put forward measures to promote it. First, this paper constructs an index system of coupling coordination degree; then it measures the coupling coordinated development level of urban-rural logistics using the coupling coordination degree model. Second, it constructs an index system and measures the urban-rural integrated development level using the entropy method and comprehensive weighted method. Finally, it quantitatively measures the grey correlation degree between the coupling coordination degree of urban-rural logistics and the integrated development level of urban and rural areas using the grey correlation analysis method. The results reveal that the coupling coordinated development level of urban-rural logistics has improved and the urban-rural integrated development level has had a significant upward trend. The factors in the subsystems of urban-rural logistics, such as economic environment, logistics infrastructure, logistics informatization level, logistics demand level, and logistics human resources, have an excellent effect on promoting the urban-rural integrated development.

This manuscript proposes an integrated system for treating hospital solid waste (H.S.W.) consisting of an incineration and frictional sterilization system capable of operating during normal and emergency situations. We analyzed the benefits of integrating different hospital solid waste (H.S.W.) treatment systems with the existing stand-alone incineration system, with a particular emphasis on the thermal friction sterilization integration system. The objective was to define the economic advantages and benefits in terms of resources recovery of using the thermal frictional sterilization–incineration integrated system during the hospital’s normal and emergency/pandemic operating conditions. We modeled three modeling scenarios based on normal and emergency operating conditions. The results show that the H.S.W. was composed of 74% general H.S.W. Existing incineration systems would be the most expensive process because the sanitary transportation cost represented approximately 96% of the H.S.W. costs. The hospital would realize 40–61% savings relative to the existing method if the integrated incineration–frictional systems were implemented to treat 50–70% of H.S.W.; the savings were better than in other scenarios. Proposed scenario 3 had a much better resources recovery factor than scenarios 1 and 2. This modeling study showed that a thermal frictional sterilization–incineration system could work well even under emergency conditions if the H.S.W. in-house sorting/transportation/storage process is modified to cater to other H.S.W. treatment/sterilization systems.

With the growing global emphasis on sustainable manufacturing and environmental compliance, waste consumption regulation has become a key policy instrument for promoting cleaner production practices. This study investigates whether China’s Zero-Waste City Pilot (ZWCP) improves corporate green governance performance (GGP), which reflects firms’ environmental management systems, regulatory compliance, and pollution control practices within production processes. Using micro-level data from A-share listed companies in China spanning 2009 to 2023 and employing a Difference-in-Differences (DID) model, the analysis reveals that ZWCP significantly enhances GGP. The effects are particularly pronounced in private enterprises, heavily polluting industries, and sectors characterized by high competition and regulatory intensity. Mechanism analyses show that ZWCP improves GGP through three key channels: strengthening government support, increasing top executives’ emphasis on environmental protection, and boosting financial institutions’ willingness to provide credit. Additional analysis demonstrates that ZWCP not only promotes improvements in GGP but also significantly drives green innovation and long-term sustainable development. These findings provide micro-level evidence that waste regulation can improve environmental management capacity within corporate production systems and contribute to broader sustainable industrial practices.