Transforming Waste Management: Challenges and Success of an Indian City

Waste management has become a great challenge for cities and urban areas, especially in countries with a high population density. This book looks at the waste management apparatus of the city of Indore, India, to see how the city overhauled its waste management practices and strategies to become one of the cleanest cities in the country.

The volume highlights the challenges that the city faced and its use of innovative business models, technology, and infrastructure as well as instituting sweeping policy and process changes to bring change. It examines the city’s successful efforts to bring informal waste management systems to the mainstream and other interventions to close the gaps between government institutions, sanitation workers, and the general public. It further throws light on the use of technological interventions that the city government adopted for streamlining waste management and developing a sustainable business model for waste and emission reduction leading to achieve carbon credits and net zero goals.

This book will be of interest to students, teachers, and researchers of urban planning and management, urban sociology, urban geography, waste management, and environmental studies. It will also be useful to policymakers and professionals working in the field of city management planning and governance.

Mercy S Samuel is an Urban Management specialist with more than a decade of experience in teaching and researching on waste management, climate change, and circular economy. Dr. Samuel had been on the sub-committee for policy formulation on circular economy at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for dry and wet waste management. She has published extensively on waste management practices in India and led students and government officials to look at exemplary practices in waste management internationally.

Syed Asad Ali Warsi is an esteemed Environmentalist and Sustainability Advisor, has dedicated 26 years to the field of Environment Engineering, Science, and Waste Management. His impactful contributions span national and international projects, policy formulations, and advisory roles for the Government of India and numerous state governments. Dr. Warsi’s excellence in Sustainable Development, Solid Waste Management, and Circular Economy Models has transformed over 300 cities and towns in India. Notably, he served as the Project Management Consultant for Indore Municipal Corporation, which earned the title of India’s Cleanest City from 2017 to 2020.