Aafrin Kidwai 
The NITI Aayog’s India Voluntary National Review 2020, recently released as part of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development 2020, reports that there is a hundred percent source segregation in 75 percent of municipal wards in India.
While acknowledging that waste management is a challenge that urban areas are grappling with, the Report highlights that civic bodies are raising awareness about waste disposal and looking at unique methods to tackle this issue.
The report states that India’s waste management system has adopted a ‘sustainable development’ framework and is based chiefly on the principles of ‘precaution’ and ‘polluter pays’. Therefore, municipal institutions and commercial establishments are mandated to act in an environmentally accountable and responsible manner. India remains committed to promoting sustainable consumption and production with an increasing focus on long term resource efficiency, which is socially, economically and intergenerationally equitable, and optimizes well-being of all stakeholders
Here are some of the other relevant facts and figures stated in the Report:
- Over 377 million urban people live in 7,935 towns and cities and generate 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) per annum.
- As of August 2017, 91 per cent of MSW generated was collected, of which 23 per cent was treated.
- As of 2019-20, 96 per cent wards have 100 per cent door to door waste collection as compared to 41 per cent in 2015-16.
- Waste processing has significantly increased from 17.97 per cent in 2015-16 to 60 per cent in 2019-20.
- There has been major improvement in waste segregation as well – as of January 2020, 74.82 per cent of municipal wards in India have 100 per cent source segregation in Indian cities.
- Generation of plastic waste, estimated in 2015 for 60 major cities, was 6.92 per cent of MSW.
- It is estimated that India generates nearly 7.17 million tonnes of hazardous waste annually. It has been growing at two to five per cent per annum and constitutes about 10-15 per cent of industrial waste in the country. Of the total, 2.84 million tonnes (39.6 per cent) was disposed and 3.68 million tonnes (51.3 per cent) was recycled. This indicates both the extent of opportunity as well as challenge of managing hazardous waste.
