Evaluating Municipal Solid Waste Management in Indian Cities: A Comparative Assessment of Three Metros in South India

Abstract

Urbanization often comes with proven benefits of economic growth and development. But it also brings with it social and environmental challenges. Solid waste is one such burgeoning challenge. With 32% of India living in urban areas, and the average per capita waste generation, not less than 210 g (Asnani, 2006), the situation is becoming critical. The Indian government has adopted a paradigm shift with the focus of the various centrally sponsored schemes being on service outcomes rather than on infrastructure creation (HPEC 2013). This study aims to review service outcomes by assessing performance at the urban local government level for municipal solid waste management (MSWM) systems. A city might perform at higher efficiency in one activity, say collection from the primary source, while lagging behind in another, say treatment. The efficiency in the entire MSWM system of a city can be increased through identifying performance gaps in the system and introducing improvements, thus facilitating a higher level of performance. By drawing insights on the performance for a particular activity in the solid waste management cycle we could go towards building a body of best practices in solid waste management.