All recycling in India is undertaken by (and via) the informal sector. This sector includes waste-pickers, small middlemen, transporters, larger middlemen and finally, reprocessors. These self-employed people play a very important role in urban waste management as they provide a service which the urban municipalities cannot provide given their current institutional framework.

Urban India is likely to face a massive waste disposal problem in the coming years. Traditionally, the problem of waste has been seen simply as one of cleaning and disposing. But a closer look at the current and future scenarios reveals that waste needs to be treated holistically, recognising its natural resources roots as well as its health impacts.

The key lesson

The state of our nation

the problem, and then plan

Travel today is relatively faster, and people across the world are travelling more than ever before. But at a giant cost: urban roads are choked with vehicles. The air throttles millions. While the affluent scramble for more road space, the not-so-lucky a

Indoor air pollution is potentially a very serious environmental and public health problem in India. In poor communities, with the continuing trend in biofuel combustion coupled with deteriorating housing conditions, the problem will remain for some time to come.