New Delhi: India is generating an enormous amount of solid waste every day. The sheer volume shows the scale of the challenge in collecting, processing and safely disposing of waste generated across urban India. The country’s cities produce between 1.62 lakh and 1.85 lakh tonnes of waste daily, according to government data.
The top court said every district collector must formally inform BWGs about their responsibilities, including segregating, storing and handing over the waste generated on their premises.
The category covers government departments, local bodies, public sector companies, commercial establishments and residential societies. BWGs are required to collect, process and transport the waste generated on their premises. The scale of India’s waste generation is difficult to visualise. The government’s approach involves clearing existing dump sites while setting up more waste-processing facilities to prevent new ones from developing. Waste collection has considerably improved over the past decade. Cities are also increasingly using two-bin, four-bin and six-bin systems to improve segregation at source.
The government estimates that they account for around 30% of India’s total waste. A PIB release issued on January 31 said Indian cities were generating around 1.62 lakh tonnes of solid waste every day. Around 2,479 dump sites across the country had at least 1,000 tonnes of legacy waste each, according to the January 31 PIB release. These sites collectively held around 25 crore metric tonnes of waste spread over nearly 15,000 acres. A PIB release following the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 review meeting in May said door-to-door waste collection had reached 97% of urban wards. The government also said 65% of the 26 crore metric tonnes of waste accumulated at 2,482 dump sites had been processed. It freed around 9,000 acres of land.
