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The western Indian state of Maharashtra produced over * metric tons of municipal solid waste per day in the financial year 2022. It was the highest amount generated by any state and represented roughly ** percent of municipal solid waste generation in the country that year. Other significant contributors to India’s municipal waste generation were Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Municipal waste management in India

With India’s municipal solid waste generation growing year after year, the South Asian country has had to adapt its waste management capacity and infrastructure accordingly. The share of waste processed in India reached a high of ** percent in 2023, up from less than ** percent in 2016. The country still has plans for more, and by the end of financial year 2023 there were **waste treatment plants under construction, the majority of which were material recovery facilities.

Electronic waste: a new waste stream

Municipal solid waste is not the only waste stream in India that has grown in recent years; India’s electronic waste generation has more than doubled since 2018, having surpassed *** million metric tons in financial year 2022. Only about one-third of this volume was collected and processed. In face of the growing concern, the Indian government set an e-waste collection target which has increased by ** percent every year, with plans to collect ** percent of the e-waste generated from financial year 2024 onwards.