Forum of Cities that Segregate

Date: 12thDecember, 2017

Meeting: 10 AM-6:30 PM

Juniper Hall, Indian Habitat Centre (IHC), New Delhi

Background Note

Municipal solid waste (MSW) continues to be a severe problem in India due to poor management systems. From collection of wastes to disposal, cities are struggling to implement an affordable and sustainable model. On top of this, the amount of waste generated is increasing every day. Urban India alone generates a gigantic 1.5 lakh metric tonnes per day of MSW. This amount is increasing every year by 5 percent due to increasing population and consumption.

It is well understood that segregation at source is at the heart of the waste management solution. Segregation improves collection efficiency and leads to better efficiency in processing of waste. On 5th June, 2017, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) introduced a countrywide campaign to segregate waste at source. But ensuring segregation at source requires infrastructure for segregation and tough compliance systems. Municipalities will need to put into place systems that will transport segregated waste and then ensure processing of the segregated waste. Municipalities will have to come out with bylaws that support segregation.

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has been working with cities to promote and implement source-segregation model of waste management. To advance this work and to create a movement in the country on source-segregation, CSE is launching the ‘Forum of Cities that Segregate’ on 12th December, 2017. Under this forum, CSE shall be working closely with over 25 cities to ensure that these cities adopt 100% source segregation and become the pioneer of waste management in the country. These cities shall be the focal points for other cities to learn waste management.

Main objectives of the forum are:

• Developing a knowledge exchange platform for participating cities on solid waste management (SWM)

• Training and capacity building on source-segregation model of SWM

• Tracking the progress of cities

• Forum cities to become pioneer cities and handhold other cities on technical, economic and social aspects of SWM

• Forum shall collate the feedback and inputs from the forum cities and provide policy-relevant information to the state governments and Centre on SWM.

• Documentation of best practices on forum website