India’s Urban Waste Crisis: Demands a Circular Economy Overhaul

Syllabus: GS2/Government Policy & Intervention; GS3/Environmental Pollution & Degradation

Context

• Urban India is grappling with a mounting garbage crisis with rapid urbanization, burgeoning populations, and inadequate infrastructure, underscoring the urgent need for a paradigm shift to address this growing challenge.

Urban India’s Growing Waste Crisis

• India’s urban expansion presents a critical choice between clean, sustainable cities and waste-ridden, polluted urban sprawls.
• The waste problem remains severe in urban spheres despite several efforts and progress under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), which eradicated open defecation and aims for Garbage-Free Cities (GFCs).
• By 2030, 165 million tonnes of waste are expected annually, emitting over 41 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year.
• By 2050, as the urban population swells to 814 million, waste generation could soar to 436 million tonnes annually.
  • It will lead to severe air and water pollution, heightened health risks, strain on municipal infrastructure, and increased climate vulnerability without early and effective intervention.

Tackling Organic and Dry Waste

• Organic Waste and Energy Recovery: Over 50% of municipal waste in India is organic, offering vast potential for composting and biogas production.
  • Initiatives such as Compressed Biogas (CBG) Plants are converting municipal wet waste into green fuel and power.
  • These solutions are essential for both emission reduction and renewable energy generation.
• Plastic Menace: Plastic waste, a major component of dry waste, poses severe environmental and health hazards.
  • Effective management relies on household-level segregation, followed by Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plants.
  • However, entrepreneurship, investment, and market linkages in recycling and waste-to-energy sectors remain underdeveloped.
• Construction and Demolition Waste: India generates about 12 million tonnes of construction and demolition (C&D) waste annually.
  • Unauthorised dumping is widespread, often due to weak enforcement.
  • The C&D Waste Management Rules, 2016, and the upcoming Environment (C&D) Waste Management Rules, 2025 (effective April 2026), mandate waste segregation, recycling, and impose levies on large generators. 
  • Strengthening compliance and expanding recycling infrastructure can transform C&D waste into valuable raw materials for construction.
• Wastewater and the Circular Economy: Wastewater recycling and reuse are crucial for urban water security.
  • Programs like AMRUT and SBM emphasize faecal sludge and greywater management, urging States to recycle used water for agriculture, horticulture, and industry. 
  • Reuse and recycling are the only sustainable paths forward with freshwater reserves depleting.
• SBM & Circularity: About 1,100 cities have been declared free of dumpsites, though not entirely garbage-free under SBM Urban 2.0.
  • All 5,000+ cities in India need to transition from a linear (use and discard) to a circular (reuse and recover) model of waste management to achieve full circularity.

Barriers to Sustainable Circularity

• Achieving circularity in waste management is hindered by multiple systemic obstacles:
  • Weak segregation practices at the household level.
  • Inadequate collection and logistics infrastructure.
  • Limited market demand for recycled products due to quality concerns.
  • Partial implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) across industries.
  • Lack of coordination among municipal departments.
  • Funding shortfalls for local governments.
• These challenges highlight the need for stronger policy frameworks, inter-departmental synergy, and incentives for private sector participation.
• A recent National Urban Conclave in New Delhi emphasized addressing these bottlenecks, alongside regional efforts like the Cities Coalition for Circularity (C-3), endorsed by Asia-Pacific nations in Jaipur.

Other Challenges

• Informal Sector Dominance: 80–90% of recycling handled by informal workers with unsafe conditions.
• Financial Viability: Poor cost recovery and weak ULB capacity.
• Public Awareness: Only ~30% citizens segregate waste at source.
• Policy Fragmentation: Overlap between CPCB, State Boards, and urban local bodies reduces accountability.

Key Strategies for Transformation and Practices in India

• From Linear to Circular Waste Management: India’s traditional linear waste system, where waste is collected, dumped, and forgotten, is unsustainable.
  • Policymakers advocate a transition to a circular economy to combat the above, where waste is treated as a resource to be recovered, reused, and recycled.
  • Nearly 1,100 cities have been certified as dumpsite-free under SBM Urban 2.0. However, true circularity will only be achieved when all 5,000+ cities and towns adopt a system of segregation, processing, and recycling at scale.
• Decentralized Waste Management: Cities like Pune and Indore use segregation at source and biogas generation from wet waste.
  • Example: Indore’s Waste-to-Energy Plant produces 15 MW of electricity.
• E-Waste and Plastic Recycling Hubs: Under E-Waste (Management) Rules 2022, producers are responsible for recycling 60–80% of generated waste.
  • India’s Recycling Park at Narela-Bawana (Delhi) is a model CE cluster.
• Construction & Demolition (C&D) Waste: 2100+ tonnes/day of C&D waste recycled in Delhi, converted to paving blocks, aggregates, and bricks.
• Waste to Energy (WtE): 100+ operational projects under the Waste to Wealth Mission, blending biomethanation and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) technologies.
• Urban Composting: Cities encouraged to promote compost markets for agriculture through the ‘Market Development Assistance’ scheme.

Citizens and the Circularity Movement

• Citizens are at the core of the waste management revolution. Without public participation through source segregation, responsible consumption, and support for recycling initiatives, no city can truly become garbage-free.
• However, the three Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) face differing levels of acceptance:
  • Reduce remains the hardest, given the culture of convenience and fast consumption.
  • Reuse is waning amid disposable lifestyles.
  • Recycle, powered by innovation and entrepreneurship, emerges as the most viable path forward.

COP30 and the Global Waste Agenda

• The issue of waste management took centre stage in the global climate agenda at COP30 to the UNFCCC, held in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025.
• The conference reaffirmed circularity (the practice of treating waste as a resource) as essential for achieving inclusive growth, cleaner air, and healthier populations.
  • Brazil launched a global initiative titled ‘No Organic Waste, NOW’, committing significant funds to reduce methane emissions from organic waste.
• It aligns with India’s Mission LiFE, introduced at COP26 in Glasgow (2021), which urged the world to adopt ‘deliberate utilisation, instead of mindless and destructive consumption’.

Conclusion

• The message from COP30 and India’s own urban agenda is ‘circularity is no longer a choice but a necessity’.
• India can transform its waste challenge into an opportunity for climate action, urban rejuvenation, and sustainable growth with coordinated governance, strong citizen participation, and innovation in recycling and waste-to-energy technologies.

Source: TH