In Gurugram, the waste is everywhere, but solutions remain scattered — garbage burns in backyards, landfills spill over, and plastic clogs the streets. The problem isn’t just a pile-up anymore; it’s a slow burn on the city’s edges. On Day Two of Urban Adda, sectoral experts didn’t mince words: the city’s waste crisis is no longer about awareness. It’s about action, enforcement, and political will.
The session, co-hosted by Gurgaon First and the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), brought together city planners, environmentalists, urban practitioners, and corporate leaders to reimagine how cities manage waste. The ongoing Urban Adda series is organised by the Raahgiri Foundation, with HT as media partner.
Delivering the keynote, Shyamala Mani, senior advisor for WASH and waste management at the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC), said India already has progressive frameworks — the Solid Waste Management Rules (2016) and Extended Producer Responsibility guidelines for plastic — but poor enforcement has stalled impact. “Cities like Gurugram must lead in implementing what already exists,” she said.
Mani stressed the urgent need for municipalities to activate regulatory provisions, empower their enforcement units, and create real-time tracking systems to monitor waste flows. “The tools are already out there — decentralised composting, waste-to-energy integration, digitised collection. What’s missing is trained manpower, committed budgets, and political backing,” she said.
Gurugram, despite being one of India’s leading economic hubs, has repeatedly drawn criticism for its inadequate solid waste infrastructure. With two choked landfill sites, unregulated dumping in vacant plots, rampant burning of mixed waste, and irregular door-to-door collection, the city’s waste problem has become symbolic of its broader urban mismanagement.
“This is no longer just a sanitation issue — it’s a crisis of health, planning, and environmental justice,” said Shubhra Puri, founding director of Gurgaon First and moderator of the panel. “Gurugram’s failure to adopt decentralised, community-driven solutions is glaring. We need a complete rethink — built not just on infrastructure, but on behaviour change and design.”
Bidisha Chattopadhyay, faculty at SPA and expert in urban infrastructure, pointed to systemic gaps in city planning. “Our master plans don’t account for waste. There’s no space allocated for compost pits, dry waste centres, or e-waste drop-off points,” she said. “Unless we redesign cities for waste resilience, we’ll continue to rely on outdated centralised systems that collapse under pressure.”
Adding a ground-level perspective, Bhairavi Joshi, director of BYCS India and founder of Trrayaam, shared success stories of zero-waste neighbourhoods, community composting units, and informal recycling groups. “The pieces are in place — but the government needs to scale and support them. If MCG partners with these efforts and integrates them into formal systems, replication becomes possible,” she said.
Sanjar Ali from WRI India flagged the air quality impact. “Our studies show landfill fires and open burning significantly worsen PM2.5 and black carbon levels. Waste management is a health emergency, not just a civic one.”
Offering the private sector view, Rajneesh Kumar, vice-president of Sustainability and ESG at MakeMyTrip, said national policies were well framed but patchy in implementation — especially in Tier 2 and 3 cities. “Private players must support local bodies — through sustainable packaging, reducing single-use plastics, and funding green waste zones,” he said. MakeMyTrip, he added, is exploring eco-hospitality solutions in cities like Gurugram.
The panel concluded with a call to shift from a waste disposal mindset to a circular economy approach — minimising waste generation, maximising resource recovery, and redesigning urban systems for long-term resilience. The path forward, they agreed, must rest on four pillars: policy coherence, community participation, decentralised infrastructure, and corporate collaboration.