Assessment of the Impact of Green Sports Policies on Waste Management Performance in Sports Events: A Case Study of China

With the increasing focus on sustainable development in the world, green sports policies have become a key factor in promoting environmental management and circular economies in high-impact events. This article critically assesses the role of this type of policies in the performance of waste management of the Chinese sports activities during 2015-2024 based on the extensive data sample of 1,600 observations of different event types (e. g., Olympics, National Games) and cities. This study utilizes a multi-method framework, such as descriptive statistics, Pearson, OLS regression, K-Means clustering and Difference-in-Differences (DiD) modeling, to identify direct policy impacts and contextual influences, such as infrastructure and temporality. The key distinguishing feature of the work in the novel delivery is the massive econometric integration with spatial-temporal analysis, which is the first quantitative characterization of the policy-outcome relationships in the Chinese sports green sector. In contrast to previous qualitative or single cases studies, it measures non-linear relationships by using clustering to measure performance typologies and variability metrics to measure convergence trends, providing replicable information on implementation variances. Findings indicate a strong baseline recycling level of about 84, which underlines the sustainability status quo, but OLS models have low explanatory potential (R2=0.008), indicating complex interplay between infrastructure and behaviour. The estimates of DiD confirm a small effect of 3-5% increase in recycling after the implementation of policies in 2018 with the elitist cities (Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu) outperforming the mid-tier areas through hightech logistics. In spite of transitional frictions, waste diversion has been institutionalized in policies but the gains depend on local innovations. Such findings will provide policy-makers with evidence-based solutions like digital supervision and scalable event-plans to achieve greater efficiency, which meets the national ecological civilization and Dual Carbon goals of efficient green sports governance.