This manual has been developed by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), a department under the Ministry of Urban Development and aims at assisting the policy & decision makers, planners, managers and technical personnel involved in solid waste management activities, in safe and hygienic handling & disposal of municipal solid waste generated in the urban areas in India.

Evidence indicates that the uncontrolled growth in urban areas in India has left many cities deficient in infrastructural services such as water supply, sewerage and municipal solid waste management.

Solid waste management (SWM) is one of the essential and obligatory functions of the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) in India. However, evidence indicates that even though the largest part of municipal expenditure is allotted to SWM, garbage management continues to be poor and most of the urban areas in the country are plagued by acute problems related to solid waste disposal.

There has been a progressive decline in the standard of services with respect to collection and disposal of solid waste including hospital and industrial wastes, as well as measures for ensuring adequacy of environmental sanitation and public hygiene, despite 30-50% of staff and resources being utilised by ULBs for these operations. 

Barring a few progressive municipal corporations in the country, all other local bodies suffer due to non-availability of adequate expertise and experience, leading to improper handling of the solid waste and an increase in environmental pollution and risks to the health of populations.

 The purpose of this manual is to create:

• An understanding that municipal solid waste management is a part of the broader urbanisation problem
• An awareness of the need for competent management of municipal solid waste in urban areas
• An understanding of various systems available for collection, transportation, recycling, resource recovery and disposal
• An understanding of the approach required for preparing municipal solid waste management plans in the light of the potential problems and issues, which may become apparent during project development 
• To provide operational guidelines for the efficient municipal solid waste management systems

The manual is divided into the following chapters:

1. Principles of municipal solid waste management
2. Composition and quantity of solid waste
3. Construction and demolition waste
4. Slaughter house waste and dead animals
5. Industrial solid waste
6. Biomedical waste
7. Sorting and material recovery
8. Storage of waste at source
9. Primary collection of waste
10. Street cleansing
11. Waste storage depots
12. Transportation of waste
13. Composting
14. Energy recovery from municipal solid waste
15. Emerging processing technologies
16. Landfills
17. Community participation
18. Institutional aspects and capacity building
19. Prospects of private sector participation
20. Economic and financial considerations
21. Environmental and health impact assessment
22. Management information system
23. Legal aspects
24. Policy guidelines
25. Preparation of a municipal solid waste management plan

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