SWM rules and policy
Where India’s solid waste goes: the 2021-22 numbers
India generates 1,70,339 tonnes of solid waste a day. Just over half is processed. More than a fifth is not accounted for at all.
By Starbase Innovations editorial team
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) publishes an annual report on how states manage solid waste. Its 2021-22 report puts the national numbers in one table. They are worth reading closely, because they show where the record runs out.
The headline numbers
According to the CPCB Annual Report on Solid Waste Management 2021-22:
- India generated 1,70,339 tonnes of solid waste per day (TPD).
- 1,56,449 TPD was collected — 92% of what was generated.
- 91,511 TPD was processed or treated — 54%.
- 41,455 TPD went to sanitary landfill — 24%.
- 37,373 TPD, or 22%, is unaccounted for: neither processed nor sent to a sanitary landfill.
What "unaccounted" means
The report is careful about this. Open dumping is not a recognised disposal method under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, so waste that is dumped doesn't appear under processing or landfill. The 22% is the gap between what was generated and what any recognised system recorded handling.
Some of that waste is dumped. Some of it is picked up by the informal sector — scrap dealers and kabadiwalas who buy valuable dry waste and sell it on to aggregators and recyclers. That trade is real and it recovers a lot of material, but it happens on paper slips, cash and phone calls, so it rarely shows up in any official number.
Kerala's share
Kerala reported 3,472 TPD of solid waste generated in 2021-22. Much of the state's dry waste is collected door to door by Haritha Karma Sena units attached to each panchayat, then sold on through aggregators and material recovery facilities.
Why we care
Part of that gap is a record-keeping problem. Material that changes hands without a record can't be counted, priced or traced. If each hand-off — generator to dealer, dealer to aggregator, aggregator to recycler — were recorded with who, what, how much and at what price, more of the unaccounted share would at least show up in the numbers.
That is what we are working towards with Swastha. Today it records trips, vehicles and loads for waste-management companies and fleets in Kerala and in Pune. Connecting households and scrap dealers to the same record is the next step on our roadmap.
If you run a panchayat, an aggregator yard or a recycling plant and want to see what that record could look like for you, talk to us.