Agra is located on the banks of the Yamuna River, around 200 km southeast of Delhi, in western Uttar Pradesh of northern India. The city is known worldwide for the iconic Taj Mahalandalsofamous for ‘Agra ka petha,’ leather products, pietra dura (marble inlay), and rugs.AMC has 100 wards divided into four zones for ease of solid waste management operations. The city is challenged to manage 712 tonnes of municipal solid waste every day.In its pursuit toimprove thesituation, the city embarked into a decentralized approach in 2020. Agra Municipal Corporation decided to start their journey towards the zero-waste goal with the first and most important aspect of solid waste management, i.e., source segregation. Itshortlisted an agency for the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ), consisting of six municipal wards for ‘Conducting solid waste management IEC activities within 2 km periphery of Taj Mahal to make it a garbage-free area’.While the source segregation campaign in Agra was gaining momentum, AMC also complemented an efficient primary collection system and for door-to-door collection of segregated waste and transportation from the entire catchment area under the pilot initiative. This report talks about the success of the pilot initiative andhow the learning is going to be replicated across the city.
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