Datanomics: India top waste generator, makes progress in recycling

Surendra Singh Choudhary, a 21-year-old boy from Madhya Pradesh, recently went viral for cleaning garbage from a nearby river. His initiative highlights an interesting trend in India's ongoing struggle with solid-waste management. According to global metrics, India's per capita waste generation was the highest among the top 10 economies in the world in 2024. China was the second-highest generator, followed by Japan. Nationally, total garbage generated in India nearly doubled from 101,066 tonnes per day (tpd) in 2015-16 to 185,195 tpd in 2023-24. Over the same period, India's per capita daily waste generation rose from 76 grams to 128 grams. On a positive note, garbage processing capacity expanded significantly, with the waste treatment rate rising from 20 per cent to 60 per cent over the same period. At the regional level, states such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Karnataka recorded the highest per capita daily waste generation rates in that order.