भारत में ठोस अपशिष्ट प्रबंधन में क्या चुनौतियाँ हैं ? ठोस अपशिष्ट प्रबंधन पर सरकारी नीति फ्रेमवर्क की चर्चा कीजिए। ठोस अपशिष्ट प्रबंधन पहलों की मुख्ये विशेषताओं पर प्रकाश डालते हुए दिल्ली और इन्दौर शहरों के सफलता/विफलता मामलों की चर्चा कीजिए।
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What are the challenges to solid waste management in India ? Discuss the governmental policy framework on solid waste management. Discuss the success/failure cases of Delhi and Indore cities highlighting the salient feature of their solid waste management initiatives.
🧭 How to think about this question · directive: “what / discuss”
Decode the demand
- Three directives, three parts: 'what are the challenges', 'discuss the policy framework', 'discuss the success and failure cases of Delhi and Indore with their salient features'. Each gets its own heading; nothing can be skipped.
- The trap: praising Indore and calling Delhi a failure. The examiner wants the features that made one work and the other fail, so name specific systems, dates and numbers for both.
- Carry data: one national figure for the scale of the problem, the key features of the current rules, one number for Indore, one documented fact for Delhi.
Think in a structure
- Open with the scale of the problem in one line, then the contrast: two cities under the same national rules.
- Challenges in dimensions: generation, segregation, collection, legacy dumps, institutions, processing; each point with a real instance.
- The framework as a timeline, then the current rules' features; the cities as a comparison table, then one point each on what made the difference.
- End positively: lessons any municipal commissioner can act on, with a real model for each, then a global commitment as the anchor.
Facts checked at source (12)· open
- The SWM Rules, 2026 (in force from 1 April 2026) make four-stream segregation mandatory: wet, dry, sanitary and special care waste.PIB — New Solid Waste Management Rules notified (28 January 2026) ↗“Four-stream segregation of solid waste at source has been made mandatory under the SWM Rules, 2026. Waste is required to be segregated into wet waste, dry waste, sanitary waste and special care waste.”
- Indore's bio-CNG plant (2022) treats 550 tonnes a day of segregated wet waste.PIB — PM inaugurates Gobar-Dhan plant in Indore (19 February 2022) ↗“The plant, inaugurated today, has a capacity to treat 550 tonnes per day of segregated wet organic waste.”
- SWM Rules, 2026 were notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, take full effect from 1 April 2026, and integrate circular economy and extended producer responsibility principles with polluter-pays environmental compensation.PIB — New Solid Waste Management Rules notified; to come into force from 1 April 2026 (MoEFCC) ↗“The rules have been notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and will come into full effect from April 1, 2026. The revised rules integrate the principles of Circular Economy and Extended Producer Responsibility”
- SWM Rules, 2026 define bulk waste generators as entities with a floor area of 20,000 sq m or more, water use of 40,000 litres a day or more, or waste generation of 100 kg a day or more.PIB — New Solid Waste Management Rules notified (MoEFCC): definition of bulk waste generators ↗“Bulk Waste Generators include entities with a floor area of 20,000 square metres or more, or water consumption of 40,000 litres per day or more, or solid waste generation of 100 kg per day or more.”
- SWM Rules, 2026 mandate cement and waste-to-energy plants using solid fuel to substitute refuse-derived fuel, rising from 5 per cent to 15 per cent over six years.PIB — New Solid Waste Management Rules notified (MoEFCC): refuse-derived fuel mandate ↗“Industrial units, including cement plants and waste-to-energy plants that currently use solid fuel, have been mandated to replace it with RDF. The fuel substitution rate will increase from the current 5 per cent to 15 per cent over a six-year period.”
- Indore's Gobar-Dhan bio-CNG plant (February 2022) is expected to produce about 17,000 kg of CNG and 100 tonnes of organic compost a day on a zero-landfill model.PIB — PM inaugurates municipal solid waste based Gobar-Dhan plant in Indore (19 February 2022) ↗“It is expected to produce around 17,000 kg per day of CNG, and 100 tonnes per day of organic compost. The plant is based on zero landfill models”
- CPCB Annual Report on Solid Waste Management 2021-22: 1,70,339 TPD generated, 1,56,449 TPD collected (92%), 91,511 TPD processed or treated, 41,455 TPD landfilled.Annual Report on Solid Waste Management, 2021-22 — Central Pollution Control Board, Table 1 ↗“the total quantity of solid waste generated in the country is 1,70,339 TPD and the total waste collected is 1,56,449 TPD. This translates to overall efficiency 92% with regards to waste collection in the country.”
- Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 (launched 1 October 2021): garbage-free cities by 2026; 'Lakshya Zero Dumpsite' to remediate 16 crore tonnes of legacy waste on nearly 15,000 acres of city land.PIB — Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, SBM-U 2.0 legacy waste remediation (February 2022) ↗“one of the major objectives under the Mission is ‘Lakshya Zero’ Dumpsite to remediate 16 crore metric tonnes (MT) of legacy waste dumpsites occupying nearly 15,000 acres of city land.”
- The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022 unified the North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations (created by the 2011 trifurcation) into one Municipal Corporation of Delhi.PRS Legislative Research — The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 ↗“The Bill seeks to unify the three corporations. Unification of Municipal Corporations in Delhi : The Bill replaces the three municipal corporations under the Act with one Corporation”
- A major fire broke out at Delhi's Ghazipur landfill on 21 April 2024; the National Green Tribunal took it up on its own motion (OA 481/2024).National Green Tribunal, OA No. 481/2024 — amicus curiae's submissions on the Ghazipur landfill fire ↗“News item titled "Major fire erupts at Delhi's Ghazipur landfill site smoke engulfs region" appearing in the Hindustan Times dated 21.04.2024.”
- SWaCH, Pune: the first cooperative wholly owned by waste pickers; under a 2008 agreement with the Pune Municipal Corporation its members provide door-to-door collection to hundreds of thousands of homes.WIEGO — Fact sheet: SWaCH waste pickers' cooperative, Pune ↗“Through a contractual agreement with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) signed in 2008, more than 2,100 SWaCH members provide door-to-door waste collection to over 360,000 homes in the city.”
- SDG Target 11.6: by 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, with special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.United Nations — Sustainable Development Goal 11, Target 11.6 ↗“Target 11.6 By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2026, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Guidance: Minimalist IAS, checked 8 Nov 2026 (how we verify). ·
Model answer· 577words · Minimalist IAS
India generates about 1.7 lakh tonnes of solid waste a day; 92% is collected but only about 54% processed, and the rest goes to dumps (CPCB, 2021-22). Indore and Delhi work under the same national rules, and the gap between them is the story of solid waste management in India.
Challenges to solid waste management
- Generation and mix: rising volumes with more plastics, e-waste and sanitary waste; mixed waste can be neither composted nor recycled.
- Segregation at source: households and bulk generators rarely separate wet from dry, so plants receive unusable feed.
- Delhi's waste-to-energy plants burn mixed waste.
- Collection gaps: unplanned settlements go unserved; informal waste pickers, who recover most recyclables, stay outside the system.
- Legacy dumps: about 16 crore tonnes on 15,000 acres of city land (SBM-U 2.0).
- Ghazipur's mountain caught fire on 21 April 2024; the NGT took it up on its own motion.
- Institutions and finance: weak municipal revenues, lax enforcement, divided agencies.
- Delhi ran three municipal corporations from 2012 until they were unified in 2022.
- Processing shortfall: 91,511 of 1,70,339 tonnes a day are treated; the rest is landfilled or unaccounted for.
Governmental policy framework
- 2000: MSW Rules
- 2014: Swachh Bharat Mission
- 2016: SWM Rules
- 2021: SBM-Urban 2.0, Lakshya Zero Dumpsite
- 2026: SWM Rules, 2026
- SWM Rules, 2026: under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, in force from 1 April 2026: mandatory four-stream segregation, circular-economy and EPR principles, polluter-pays compensation, online tracking of every stage.
- Bulk generators: 20,000 sq m or more, 40,000 litres of water a day or more, or 100 kg of waste a day or more must manage their own waste.
- RDF mandate: cement and waste-to-energy plants raise refuse-derived fuel use from 5% to 15% over six years, so landfills receive only rejects.
- Supporting framework: SBM-Urban 2.0 (garbage-free cities, legacy remediation), Swachh Survekshan rankings, Plastic Waste Rules with EPR, GOBARdhan for bio-methanation.
Indore and Delhi: success and failure
| Feature | Indore | Delhi |
|---|---|---|
| Segregation | Door-to-door, segregated at source | Weak; mixed waste |
| Processing | Full: compost, 550 TPD bio-CNG (2022) | Mixed waste burnt in waste-to-energy plants |
| Legacy dumps | Cleared | Ghazipur, Bhalswa, Okhla still standing |
| Governance | One corporation, sustained leadership, user charges and fines | Three corporations until 2022; enforcement weak |
- Indore (success): segregation at every door, full processing, user charges and fines, and a citizen campaign that made cleanliness the city's identity.
- Bio-CNG plant (2022): 550 tonnes of wet waste a day into about 17,000 kg of CNG and 100 tonnes of compost on a zero-landfill model.
- Delhi (failure): legacy mountains that burn and leach, mixed waste fed to waste-to-energy plants, a decade of divided corporations; the 2022 unification is a late correction.
Lessons and what a municipal commissioner can do
- Segregation first, technology second: ward-level enforcement with user charges and fines, the Indore sequence.
- Waste pickers as partners: bring informal pickers into the system's front line.
- Pune's SWaCH cooperative: door-to-door collection under a municipal contract since 2008.
- Decentralised processing: ward composting and bio-methanation near the source, as GOBARdhan funds.
- Bio-mine the legacy: SBM-U 2.0 funds to clear dumpsites and reclaim land; refuse-derived fuel to cement kilns under the 2026 mandate.
- Make compliance visible: bulk generators and every stage of the chain tracked on the 2026 portal, so it can be audited rather than assumed.
SDG 11.6 asks cities to cut their per-capita environmental impact by 2030 with special attention to municipal waste; Indore shows the rules already allow it when ownership is local, and the SWM Rules, 2026 now hand every city the same tools.
Reviewed by Shivam Singh (mentor, 7 years) on 8 Nov 2026 · facts checked against official sources (how we verify) · updated 8 Nov 2026. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.
