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Krishna Vohra, “Rethinking Waste-to-Energy: The Indispensable Role of Sustainable Waste Management,” ORF Issue Brief No. 797, April 2025, Observer Research Foundation.
Introduction
India’s mounting waste management problems are apparent, particularly in metropolitan cities where streets are littered and landfills tower over densely populated areas. Sustainable waste management can improve public health and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from landfills. Can waste also be used to generate renewable energy?
In New Delhi and the National Capital Region (Delhi-NCR), open landfills frequently burst into flames due to the gases they release. Even when they are not spontaneously combusting, these ‘trash mountains’ contribute to the city’s toxic air, simply as by-product.[1] One of the three biggest landfills in Delhi-NCR, located at Bhalswa, casts a dark shadow over large parts of North Delhi. Spread over 78.4 acres and taller than a 20-storey building, the dumpsite takes in over half of the capital’s total solid waste. Despite repeated attempts and promises, the state government has failed to clear the site.[2]
Landfills and open incineration affect India’s population, especially the poor and vulnerable. The most severely impacted are waste workers, who are exposed daily to particulate matter, infectious diseases, and hazardous substances. Residents living near waste sites are disproportionately exposed to severe health risks and poisonous leaks into water systems. This crisis has led to a wider recognition of the urgent need for better and more sustainable waste management systems.
Expenditure on waste collection, transportation, and disposal comprises a substantial part of the municipal budget. Yet, Delhi’s dependence on landfills is symptomatic of a larger problem in waste management—that of flawed collection and segregation systems, resulting in unsorted garbage being dumped in ever-growing landfills across the capital. Waste that does not reach the landfills often remains scattered across streets or is openly burned.
This brief describes the role of WtE technologies as a component of a multi-step sustainable waste management system. It outlines how WtE technologies work and explores whether they can simultaneously address two problems. In theory, WtE can reduce landfill waste volumes, lower clearance costs, decrease GHG emissions, and generate renewable energy. As India needs to diversify energy sources to meet growing demand and transition from fossil fuels, numerous WtE projects have already been initiated in the country. These projects, however, have fallen short of expectations, largely due to poor planning and implementation. WtE is a complex process and any failure can undermine its benefits in waste management, costs, emissions, and energy outputs. These plants can also end up causing additional harm due to pollutants that can be released if left unchecked.
This brief identifies suitable strategies for attracting targeted and meaningful investment. It outlines recommendations to reform existing fiscal instruments in relevant government programmes in India to encourage sustainable waste management practices at different levels. The brief makes a case for addressing important prerequisites of segregation, collection, and transportation infrastructure that are needed for WtE projects to succeed.
Waste-To-Energy Technology: An Overview
WtE involves extracting energy from waste through thermal and biological processes in dedicated facilities. Many countries have incorporated WtE in their waste management programmes. While it is often understood to only comprise waste incineration plants, as these are the most common, there are various types of pre-landfill WtE systems, discussed in turn in the following paragraphs.
MSWIs are one of the most common forms of WtE technology. In this thermal process, MSW or trash is burned in incinerators to produce steam in a boiler system. This steam drives a turbine to generate power.[3]
Waste is first transported by garbage trucks and deposited into the MSWI plant’s storage pit. A giant claw on a crane transfers the waste into the combustion chamber, where it is burned as fuel, releasing heat. This heat converts water into high-pressure steam in a boiler. The steam drives the blades of a turbine generator, producing electricity. An air pollution control system filters harmful pollutants before the combustion gases are released through a smokestack. Finally, ash is collected from both the boiler and the pollution control system before being safely disposed of in a sanitary landfill.
Figure 1: Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator Process
Source: Deltaway Energy[4]
A high-quality air pollution control system is an essential technical component of these facilities. It is necessary for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, heavy metals, dioxins, and furans, among other harmful gases.
Also known as biomethanation, Anaerobic Digestion (AD) is a biological process that converts organic wet waste into clean energy through bacterial fermentation in the absence of oxygen. The organic waste is stored to decompose without oxygen, releasing biogases that can be used to generate power.
Biomethanation is well-suited for decentralised, on-site implementation in households, kitchens, fruit and vegetable markets, agricultural sites, and other commercial institutions. In India, such WtE projects are suitable due to the high proportion of wet organic waste. Furthermore, the ability to structurally implement AD in a decentralised and localised manner is already in place. In 2018, the Government of India launched the ‘Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan’ (GOBARdhan)[5] scheme to convert organic waste into energy and other resources. Later that year, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas introduced the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT)[6] scheme for Compressed Biogas (CBG). WtE projects are launched under these schemes, as well as those under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0.
Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) systems use mechanical techniques to shred incoming MSW, separate non-combustible materials, and produce a combustible mixture suitable for use as a fuel in a dedicated furnace or as a supplemental fuel in a conventional boiler system. Whereas incinerators burn waste directly, RDF-based WtE plants convert waste into pellets that are burnt as fuel.
Mitigation Potential of Sustainable Waste Management
The composition of waste across different geographies is an important factor in determining the suitability of a given form of WtE technology. According to the Solid Waste Management Rules (2016), only segregated non-recyclable waste having a calorific value of 1,500 kcal/kg or more should be utilised to generate energy through mass-incineration plants. India’s waste composition is typically low in calorific value due to the high proportion of wet waste. Neglecting waste composition, proper collection, and segregation at source can lead to the failure or inefficiency of WtE plants.
A 2015 report by the German Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) on the mitigation potential of the waste sector[7] examined the waste management practices in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and two emerging economies—Egypt and India. It found that the greatest mitigating factor of sustainable waste management is the reduction of GHG emissions from landfills. However, it also demonstrated how the waste sector, through quantifiable net reductions in emissions, can mitigate climate change at every stage of a sustainable waste management system.
Sustainable waste practices start with reducing waste generation and volumes by repairing, reusing, and recycling. The next element is segregation at source, where waste is sorted into different types for proper disposal. This brief is concerned with every stage of pre-landfill waste management, covering essential practices that reduce, treat, and/or extract energy from waste before dumping it into landfills.
Segregation and sorting is not only about WtE, but it is essential for the efficient transportation and treatment of non-recyclable and suitable waste in localised WtE plants. Moreover, sustainable waste practices work in tandem to reduce WtE emissions while generating renewable energy (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Sustainable Waste Management Systems
Source: Author’s own
The Pollution and Health Risks of MSWIs
While MSWIs have proven efficient in some cases, they have faced opposition from affected populations due to emissions from incineration plants that breach limits. Failure to comply with pollution and safety regulations in waste incineration facilities defeats the purpose of WtE and causes more harm to public health and the environment. Neglecting proper segregation can result in the failure of any WtE plant, particularly when electronic waste like batteries, which release harmful heavy metals when burnt, are not properly managed. A sustainable waste management programme must incorporate a multifaceted strategy with contextually defined, localised strategies at every level, particularly in collection and segregation. As several MSWI plants are already operational in India, close attention should be paid to emission levels by institutions like the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
Many of the ashes created as a by-product of the process (which well-planned WtE plants are equipped to retain) can be used for other purposes like road building and construction in cinder blocks. Without proper prior filtering, however, the ash can pose a serious risk to public health and increase pollution levels. As per the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016, waste processing residue must be safely disposed of in a sanitary landfill unless proven non-hazardous by leaching tests.[8]
As the most common type of WtE projects, MSWIs are often conflated with WtE technology in general. These concerns should not be neglected, and steps should be taken to distinguish MSWIs from the broader category of WtE. There are several other types of WtE plants, many of which utilise biological and non-thermal processes.
In regions with high wet waste composition, MSWIs are unlikely to be a suitable solution without near-perfect segregation. Biomethanation or AD plants may be more appropriate, although proper segregation and storage of biodegradable waste before treatment are still necessary. Some MSWI projects have burned unsegregated waste, resulting in unchecked pollution levels.
Case Studies: Waste-to-Energy in Other Countries
Sweden’s waste management systems are efficient, with over 99 percent of all household waste either recycled or recovered for energy, and negligible municipal waste being dumped in landfills.[9] This has led to reductions in emissions and the creation of renewable energy sources. Notably, Sweden’s waste composition consists largely of dry waste, which boosts its calorific value without needing to fulfil recyclability conditions. However, it is important to acknowledge that there are conducive conditions in Sweden that do not exist in countries in the Global South. These include a well-established segregation system, recycling infrastructure, and advanced WtE technology. Notwithstanding, the Swedish example provides valuable lessons that can inform sustainable waste management efforts in other countries.
Waste in Sweden is pre-treated in integrated systems and then recycled for material recovery or converted into energy, primarily for heating, as well as electricity, biogas, and fertiliser. Treatment methods are employed according to the nature and composition of the waste to optimise renewable energy conversion. This system relies on properly segregated waste to remain efficient. Well-engineered incinerator plants are also used for non-recyclable MSW. Through state-of-the-art equipment, filtration mechanisms, and air pollution control systems, Sweden is able to provide both district heating and electricity from municipal waste in an environmentally safe manner.
WtE plants are common in the US and have existed in some form for over a century.[10] In the late 1880s, New York’s unsustainable waste management relied on shipping its waste to southern states like Virginia and Florida. These states eventually rejected the city’s massive waste, and New York was forced to find an alternative solution. In 1885, the US built its first mass-burn incinerator to handle the growing waste crisis. However, these early incinerator plants caused high levels of air pollution and were therefore opposed by affected residents. Over time, advancements in WtE technology, including smokestacks and air pollution control systems, have made them relatively safer.
While WtE technology in the Global North has been better developed and more successful for many reasons, there are lessons to be learned from missteps in the West. For example, an MSWI plant in the UK became massively unpopular due to its effects on the surrounding environment and on the residents living nearby. In 2024, most of the affected residents agreed to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements and accepted a joint settlement for £1 million—which amounted to a few thousand pounds per resident.[11] Unsurprisingly, this financial compensation did little to address the serious issues caused by the mismanagement of municipal authorities.
Learnings from the Global South
In a number of Brazilian cities and municipalities, such as Rio de Janeiro and Indaiatuba, waste collection is being decarbonised by using electric vehicles (EVs) for collection and transportation.[12] Smaller EVs, such as e-bikes, enable waste collection in areas that trucks cannot access. Aside from the introduction of EVs, vehicles fuelled by biogas or other renewable energy sources could also be used in the collection process.
Brazil has also undertaken initiatives to sustainably treat the organic waste it generates. The city of São Paulo, for instance, began developing composting facilities a decade ago to manage the high volumes of organic waste generation. Despite its massive size, this set the foundation for future projects. A pilot project was launched in the Lapa district in 2015, and in 2016, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition provided technical support to the city to scale up these projects. São Paulo has since established more composting facilities with a total capacity to treat organic waste.[13]
Egypt’s population was estimated at 106 million in June 2024, with over 40 percent classified as urban.[14] Throughout Egypt, an informal recycling system exists, where local scrap dealers collect recyclables from residents. In Greater Cairo, this informal waste collection mechanism has existed well before formal systems and plays a crucial role in MSW management.
The Zabbaleen, informal waste collectors, gather mixed municipal waste from households. They obtain licences from the Cairo or Giza Cleansing and Beautification Authorities (CCBA or GCBA), which allows them to collect waste and charge a fee from residents. The collected waste is transported to the “garbage cities”, where the Zabbaleen live; they are sorted manually, and some of it is processed into secondary raw materials. Reports on Egyptian waste management indicate a precarious but indispensable role of the informal sector.[15] While the formalised integration of these workers would be complex and unpredictable, it would ultimately benefit informal waste workers in terms of their individual rights and contribute to a more well-rounded and sustainable waste management system.
India—with similar challenges in waste collection and transportation and the dependency of informal workers on waste collection and scrap-picking for their livelihood—stands to learn a lot from these parallels. As briefly mentioned earlier, segregation and collection are not only necessary first steps for any functional waste management system but also crucial for a successful WtE project, whether it involves MSW incinerators or AD of organic wet waste for biogas conversion.
India does have some examples of successful implementation of sustainable waste practices, although at a smaller scale. Janaagraha’s waste management recommendations and the collaboration between informal waste collectors and municipal authorities in Bengaluru have helped improve segregation at source and decentralised collection.[16] Similarly, Panaji in Goa has made strides in sustainable waste segregation at source.
In Pune, the state’s partnership with SWaCH (Sustainable Waste Collection and Handling)—a waste collection cooperative—has successfully integrated informal workers into a decentralised waste collection programme. Initiatives like these have the potential to do the groundwork for a bottom-up approach to sustainable waste management. However, the problems with WtE projects in India in the past stemmed from a myriad of other factors beyond just collection and segregation at source.
Challenges to WtE Projects in India
WtE plants and MSWIs are not new to India, but past experiences have been far from ideal.[17] Aside from proper segregation, collection, and treatment as prerequisites, WtE facilities need to prioritise high-quality air pollution control systems to ensure that nearby residents are unaffected. When this is neglected, the project becomes self-defeating, causing serious harm to people—precisely what it was intended to prevent. As previously mentioned, negative past experiences with WtE projects which lacked sufficient research or funding have increased public opposition to the technology.
WtE plants were introduced in India as early as in the 1980s, with one of the first MSWIs built in Timarpur, Okhla, in New Delhi.[18] This project was unsuccessful and closed. Furthermore, large amounts of inert waste reached the incinerator, as contractors were paid based on tonnage rather than waste quality. In 2012, another WtE plant was built on the same site in Okhla, New Delhi, with a planned capacity of around 2,000 tonnes per day (TPD). While technically stable, it has been highly contentious among residents of certain districts,[19] with some residents filing a public interest litigation against the O.P. Jindal Group’s JITF. In November 2024, a report in The New York Times[20] noted that the plant’s emission levels were eight to 10 times over the limit, alongside serious regulatory violations by the Jindal Group and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
These include the burning of batteries and electronic waste, releasing toxic heavy metals into the air and soil. Over five years, the report collected conclusive evidence of the egregious emission violations, soil contamination, and landfill leachates polluting groundwater. As Indian media outlets are covering the story, the report could be the smoking gun for the affected population in Okhla, strengthening their case against JITF and MCD. It also raises serious questions about why the group was allowed to burn an additional 1,000 TPD, further polluting the environment, or allowed to operate 10 more WtE plants, given the precedent it set in Timarpur.
Despite decades of attempts, large-scale WtE plants have failed in solving India’s waste management challenges. Without well-researched, adequately funded projects and a bottom-up approach to sustainability, WtE in India continues to be marred by failures, emission violations, and stalled projects due to a lack of funding. Additionally, unsegregated waste has been a critical factor in the failure of many WtE plants.
These failures occurred due to a lack of planning, financial support, technical equipment, and trained personnel, usually regarding the concerned municipality or the private partner. Key reasons for past WtE plant failures in India include deficient heating value due to high moisture content and insufficient calorific value. The country’s high proportion of wet waste makes it unsuitable for MSWIs without near-perfect segregation. Yet, MSWIs have remained the most deployed WtE technology.
The lack of well-directed finance contributes to the inefficiency and repeated failures of MSWI WtE facilities in India. As previously emphasised, more investment in segregation and collection is required before WtE can be considered a viable solution. While infrastructure is relatively low-cost, simple measures like segregated bins in residential areas, institutions, and streets could massively ease waste collection. However, scaling such initiatives across India requires substantial expenditure and dedicated effort. At the municipal level, deploying smaller, eco-friendly vehicles to access narrow neighbourhoods could help address unmanaged garbage problems.
Investing in the earlier stages of waste management would improve the efficiency and longevity of WtE plants. However, even for existing WtE plants such as that in Timarpur, it is evident that insufficient investment has contributed to inefficiencies. While the project head claims the technology is cutting-edge, experts like Anant Trivedi, a technology consultant and a member of the CPCB technical review committee, have noted that cost-cutting likely compromised equipment quality at the Okhla plant. The NYT report referred to earlier has only reaffirmed concerns that experts have voiced for over a decade.
Other analyses have found that under-researched and underfunded WtE projects can be disastrous, as seen in New Delhi.[21] The Okhla WtE plant is one such instance, with inadequate air pollution control systems and unchecked emission violations worsening local conditions—paradoxically, the very issue that WtE plants are meant to improve. Additionally, informal workers were excluded, deprived of their livelihood from sorting through trash in the erstwhile landfill.
The Future of Sustainable Waste Management in India
There is an urgent need to address the harm caused by malfunctioning WtE plants in India, particularly mass-burn incinerators. A key objective must be to rectify the common tendency to conflate WtE plants with MSWIs. Alternative technologies, such as bio-CNG (compressed natural gas) plants convert organic wet waste into renewable energy sources without the health and environmental risks posed by incinerator plants.
A promising initiative in India is the organic WtE facility in Indore. In February 2022, a public-private partnership (PPP) between Ever Enviro Resource Management Pvt. Ltd. and Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) launched “Asia’s largest GOBARdhan Bio-CNG plant”.[22] The 15-acre site, located in Devguradia, on the city’s outskirts, was once infamous for its unmanaged dumpsites and open garbage incineration. Consequently, the area suffered from severe particulate matter pollution, with smoke and an acrid odour affecting nearby neighbourhoods and schools.
Since the creation of the organic WtE plant in early 2022, the effect on air quality has been noticeable. The plant processes 550 tonnes of organic waste per day, out of the 700 TPD generated by the city.[23] The biogas generated is compressed and used to fuel hundreds of Indore’s buses, replacing diesel in public transport. Such a plant contributes to GHG mitigation by redirecting organic waste away from landfills and generating clean energy and fuel.
As part of the PPP agreement, IMC is required to collect and provide the WtE plant with 90 percent segregated waste that can be converted into bio-CNG and fertiliser. In return, Ever Enviro pays the municipality an annual royalty of INR 2.5 crore. The contractual mandate for segregation has been crucial to the plant’s success. The bio-CNG fuels hundreds of Indore’s buses and is sold at a small subsidy, while the remaining supply is sold to Avanthika Gas Limited, the CNG and PNG supplier for Indore, at INR 56 per kilogram. The manure and biofertiliser also produced by the plant are sold at a net rate of INR 1,800 per tonne.
Indore’s ‘GOBARdhan’ Bio-CNG plant could be the model for scaling up organic waste-based WtE technology in larger Indian cities. Indore is also the only smart city that has been able to leverage its mitigation efforts in the waste sector to generate revenue through carbon credits. In 2022, the city earned INR 8.5 crore in carbon credits by diverting waste through the WtE plant and reducing emissions from its biogas-powered buses. This financial model should be followed to scale up India’s sustainable waste management to bigger cities. To put this in perspective, Delhi generates 14,000 tonnes of MSW per day, with over 7,000 TPD being wet organic waste[24]—more than ten times Indore’s 700 TPD of wet waste used in the Gobar Dhan plant.
Figure 3: Districts in States/UTs with functional Biogas Plants (In %)
Source: Government of India[25]
Figure 4: Total Functional CBG/Bio-CNG Plant Coverage in States/UTs
Source: Government of India[26]
State of Finance in India’s Waste Sector
Although mitigation remains the primary focus, climate finance for the waste sector remains severely insufficient. Waste management is often neglected or dismissed due to perceived financial risks. The benefits of sustainable waste management as a climate mitigation tool have not been adequately recognised. As evident in the map (Figure 4), biomethanation plants have limited coverage across India, with many states and UTs lacking such facilities. In regions where organic waste predominates, biomethanation could be successful if properly completed.
Using Indore’s biogas plant as a precedent, India can secure climate finance for similar projects, especially in big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai. A multifaceted waste management strategy, emphasising collection and segregation, is crucial to achieving these goals. WtE projects must be designed for local contexts and implemented with consistent funding to cut emissions from unsustainable waste disposal and generate green energy.
Manufacturing the necessary equipment to replace high-emission methods can also create investment opportunities. Revenue for PPPs and joint ventures (JVs) can be generated through carbon credits, the sale of biogas to private providers, and fertiliser production, as IMC has done with the Gobar Dhan plant.
These projects were initiated based on the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0 and the GOBARdhan scheme, launched in 2018. The Bio-CNG plant in Indore, which claims to be Asia’s largest, inaugurated in 2022, served as a pilot project in India. It uses high-quality German technology and mandated a 90-percent waste segregation policy as part of the fiscal agreement between IMC and Ever Enviro. This was possible as India has a regulatory framework through the GOBARdhan scheme to mitigate emissions by converting organic waste into renewable energy. Given India’s high proportions of wet and organic waste, GOBARdhan is part of the broader Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) programme aimed at improving solid waste management in India. To scale up proven WtE technology, India’s cities require directed climate finance to support mitigation efforts.
It is important to recognise the barriers to capital investment in WtE projects. The high capital requirements, coupled with past failures, have increased perceptions of risk. Public resentment against high-polluting plants, the conflation of WtE with MSWIs, insufficient research, and other factors all contribute to these perceived risks and costs. Addressing these risks is crucial for policymakers in the climate and renewable energy sectors. PPPs and blended finance models could also manage risk.
The Government of India’s MNRE launched the Waste to Energy programme in 2021, a positive initiative that aims to provide a platform for WtE projects in the country. To truly rejuvenate India’s waste sector and handle the growing waste and energy problems successfully, there is a need to reformulate the fiscal instruments in place, specifically the programme’s Central Financial Assistance (CFA).
The current fiscal instrument of the MNRE’s WtE programme, which allocates CFA, based solely on the Plant Load Factor (PLF) of each plant. PLF measures the power generated relative to the plant’s maximum capacity, but for WtE plants, efficiency should not be the only measure. These facilities are also invaluable because they directly reduce waste through treatment, lowering state expenditure on waste disposal, and cutting emissions. Fiscal instruments and incentives, like the CFA, must account for the volume of segregated waste treated by each plant, which would otherwise have ended up in landfills. The GHG emissions thereby mitigated by WtE facilities are invaluable, with few alternatives achieving similar results. The flaring of landfill gases serves a similar objective of damage control; even when energy extraction is not feasible, reducing emissions holds inherent value. However, the plant’s purpose is defeated if it violates emission and pollution standards, which should be deterred through the fiscal instruments in place.
Source: MNRE Waste-to-Energy Programme[27]
WtE plants in India can receive funding through the CFA. The vast majority of waste generated is MSW, however this is explicitly excluded from the scheme and not eligible for funding: “Power based on bio & agro-industrial waste (other than MSW through incineration process): Rs 0.4 Cr/MW (maximum CFA of ₹ 5.0 Cr/project).”[28]
A proper assessment of the economic and environmental feasibility of projects, as well as value assessment, are necessary precursors to risk management. Several measures may be used in the context of sustainable waste management. Segregated waste should be mandated within the contractual agreement with the concerned municipality and corporation in PPPs. Successful PPPs with municipal corporations should be rewarded with grants to private companies, enabling them to cooperate with authorities for future green energy projects in the sustainable waste sector.
Conversely, alternative financing systems, such as a ‘Polluter Pays’ model, should be explored to efficiently achieve emission reduction targets. Private WtE operators found violating environmental regulations and contractual obligations should face tightened timelines and budget constraints for ongoing projects before being considered for future projects. Additionally, reducing expenditure and emissions from the transportation of energy, such as by using pipelines for biogas transport, can allow for further subsidies on the purchase of renewable fuel.
Policy Recommendations
Holistic waste management must be an essential part of the nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) for the waste sector. Once climate finance in the waste sector is encouraged, it must be accompanied by the transfer of technical knowledge, in-built regulatory mechanisms, and collaboration between India and other nations that have successfully implemented region-specific WtE technology. Although the tendency towards biogas plants is implicit in some schemes, the government has authorised the construction of even more MSWIs despite poor experiences in the past that continue to this day.
WtE technology has the potential to contribute to India’s energy transition, but only if these prerequisites are properly implemented. The country still faces challenges in establishing quality infrastructure, ensuring waste segregation, and securing adequate finance for well-planned projects. Quality over quantity is key—India needs a bottom-up approach to waste management. For example, ensuring the presence of segregation-ready garbage bins in residential areas, institutions and on the streets for easier collection. All forms of WtE technology, from thermal to biological, require segregated waste to be efficient, economically and environmentally.
India’s biggest cities still need to drastically improve their on-ground implementation. This must include the integration of informal workers in decentralised waste management systems. In the Global South, informal waste workers function as recyclers, segregators, and transporters, relying on waste collection, disposal sites, and landfills for their livelihood. However, they face the most severe human costs by dwelling in highly polluted areas. Excluding them from the system would be a missed opportunity to harness their valuable experiences and knowledge of waste composition and handling. Cooperatives like SWaCH in Pune and Janaagraha in Bengaluru have created a blueprint when it comes to including the informal waste workers in a systematic waste collection, segregation, transportation, and treatment.
India’s cities can do the groundwork for a sustainable waste management system, it will be well-positioned for further projects in the later stages of waste management, like WtE, particularly MSWIs that have proven to be high-risk in the past. However, as reported and fact-checked, this can be disastrous when not implemented and regulated properly. If the Timarpur plant in Okhla is the smoking gun, it demonstrates that WtE cannot be a silver bullet for India’s waste management issues without the prerequisites.
This necessitates a shift in how India deals with its waste, possible only through holistic, well-organised systems, backed by research, oversight, and targeted investment in segregation and collection—the prerequisites to suitable and safe WtE projects.
Endnotes
[1] Pradeep Dadlani, “Delhi’s Mounting Waste Crisis,” The Hindu, May 15, 2024, https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/delhi-mounting-waste-crisis-solid-waste-management/article68179968.ece
[2] “Bhalswa Landfill Will be Cleared in One Year: Delhi CM Kejriwal,” Hindustan Times, March 16, 2023, https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/bhalswa-landfill-will-be-cleared-in-one-year-kejriwal-101678990612968.html
[3] US Environmental Protection Agency, “Energy Recovery from the Combustion of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW),” March 24, 2016, https://www.epa.gov/smm/energy-recovery-combustion-municipal-solid-waste-msw
[4] Deltaway Energy, “Waste-to-Energy: How it Works,” August 2018, https://deltawayenergy.com/2018/08/waste-to-energy-how-it-works/
[5] Government of India, “GOBARdhan,” https://gobardhan.co.in/
[6] Government of India, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, “SATAT: Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation,” https://satat.co.in/satat/assets/about.pdf
[7] Federal Environment Agency (Germany), “The Climate Change Mitigation Potential of the Waste Sector,” Umwelt Bundesamt, Environmental Research of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, 2015, https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/378/publikationen/texte_56_2015_the_climate_change_mitigation_potential_of_the_waste_sector.pdf
[8] Central Pollution Control Board, “Solid Waste Management Rules,” 2016, https://cpcb.nic.in/rules-2/
[9] Smart City Sweden, “Waste-to-Energy,” October 10, 2017, https://smartcitysweden.com/focus-areas/energy/waste-to-energy/
[10] Marco J. Castaldi, “Scientific Truth About Waste-to-Energy,” Chemical Engineering Department, The City College of New York, City University of New York, 2021, https://ccnyeec.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/WTE-REPORT7603.pdf
[11] Esme Stallard et al., “Flies, Rats and Hush Money - Living Next to a ‘Monster’ Incinerator,” BBC News, October 16, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwylepd79d5o.
[12] Corpus Brazil, “Population Approves Electric Garbage Truck,” 2019, https://corpus.com.br/en/population-approves-electric-garbage-truck/
[13] C40 Cities, “How the City Solutions Platform Is Helping Rio Clean up Its Waste,” March 5, 2019, https://www.c40.org/news/how-the-city-solutions-platform-is-helping-rio-clean-up-its-waste/
[14] CAPMAS, “Egypt Population Reaches 106,45 million in June 2024: CAPMAS - Society – Egypt,” Ahram Online, 2024, https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/525861.aspx
[15] CID Consulting Agency and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), “The Informal Sector in Waste Recycling in Egypt,” October 3, 2011, https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/the-informal-sector-in-waste-recycling-in-egypt2-9527837/9527837
[16] Srikanth Viswanathan, “Bengaluru Blueprint,” Janaagraha, 2017, https://www.janaagraha.org/files/Bengaluru-Blueprint.pdf
[17] Yale E360, “Out of India’s Trash Heaps, a Controversy on Incineration,” https://e360.yale.edu/features/out_of_indias_trash_heaps_a_controversy_on_incineration
[18] Umesh Chaudhary and Jyotishman Pathak, “Evolution of Waste-to-Energy Technology—An Indian Perspective Projects,” January 1, 2020, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338346642_Evolution_of_Waste-to-Energy_Technology-An_Indian_Perspective_Projects
[19] Sruthijith KK, “Jindal Group’s Upcoming Waste-to-Energy Plant Has Delhi Fuming,” The Economic Times, October 7, 2011, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/jindal-groups-upcoming-waste-to-energy-plant-has-delhi-fuming/articleshow/10251773.cms?from=mdr.
[20] Maria Abi-Habib and Bryan Denton, “Is a ‘Green’ Revolution Poisoning India’s Capital?,” The New York Times, November 13, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/world/asia/india-air-quality-trash.html.
[21] Simrin Sirur, “Converting Waste to Energy is Great, but Also Disastrous if Done as Here in Delhi,” The Print, September 1, 2019, https://theprint.in/india/converting-waste-to-energy-is-great-but-it-can-have-disastrous-consequences/284310/.
[22] “Swachh Bharat Mission - Inside Asia’s Largest Gobar-Dhan Bio-CNG Plant,” https://sbmurban.org/indore-bio-cng-plant.
[23] Ravleen Kaur, “Can Bio-CNG Click: Indore Plant Reducing Air Pollution, but Odour Remains a Challenge,” Down To Earth, November 29, 2022, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/energy/can-bio-cng-click-indore-plant-reducing-air-pollution-but-odour-remains-a-challenge-86256
[24] Bhadra Sinha, “Over 14,000 Tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste Generated in Delhi-NCR Each Day, Centre Tells SC,” The Print, May 14, 2024, https://theprint.in/judiciary/over-14000-tonnes-of-municipal-solid-waste-generated-in-delhi-ncr-each-day-centre-tells-sc/2084021/
[25] Government of India. “GOBARdhan”
[26] Government of India. “GOBARdhan”
[27] MNRE, “Waste to Energy Programme,” https://mnre.gov.in/waste-to-energy/
[28] MNRE, “Waste to Energy Programme”
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Krishna Vohra is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Economy and Growth in New Delhi. His areas of research include geopolitics, global climate policy, ...
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