Urban India is drowning under a sea of waste. Every year, it produces 62 million tonnes (MT) of municipal solid waste (MSW), 31 MT of which is dumped on to landfill sites. Most of these sites are overflowing their capacity and polluting the surrounding land, groundwater and air. Cities are now running out of land on which to dump their waste and have begun throwing it in the ‘backyards’ of smaller towns, suburbs and villages, leading to conflicts. Looking for or creating more landfills as a solution to the waste problem, thus, is no longer an option.

CSE advocates a waste management strategy that emphasizes on segregation at source and recycle and reuse, instead of centralized approaches like landfills.