Why technicalising India’s waste crisis is not the solution

“Trash is treasure when you recycle.” “Don’t waste waste—manage it well!” “Technology can transform waste from a problem into a valuable resource.” “Technological innovations in waste management are essential for climate mitigation and urban resilience.” These are some of the solutions touted by our policymakers, scientists and engineers to win the war on waste. “If we use this ‘X’ technology, all our dump yards will be converted into magic products that generate huge profits,” we are told. 

This idealisation of technology in managing the waste issue conceals the root causes of the problem, which are socially embedded, politically governed and economically driven.

Reductionism to success or failure

Our policymakers often elude the complexity of waste generation and instead project it as something inherent: Self-generated and self-explanatory. By reducing it to a technological problem, the only question that remains is how to make the technology succeed. 

A classic example of this is India’s vulgar obsession with waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration technology. We are told that this technology can churn out products such as electricity, bricks and construction material. These “products” are seen as technological marvels that require only waste as an input. Thus, the success or failure of WTE technology is framed solely in terms of the nature of the waste — its quality, quantity and price — while its impacts on the environment, health or climate are disregarded.

This discourse obscures the complex web of social, political and economic relations within which WTE operates. For instance, questions such as why WTE technology is being phased out in the US and EU due to its toxicity, how Western transnational corporations manufacturing WTE plants are losing business in these countries and how these corporations are lobbying international financial institutions such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to fund these toxic projects in the Global South in the name of “climate finance”, are wilfully overlooked.

A key point is that this reductionist view has been naturalised among many environmentalists and intellectuals too, leaving little room for critique from within these circles.

Foreign fetishism and techno-pitfalls

Our planners favour “high-tech”, “advanced”, “state-of-the-art” waste management systems modelled on Western cities, while ignoring low-cost, indigenous, decentralised, people-centred models in India. Since 1987, India has been experimenting with this alien WTE technology, yet our waste management woes continue to grow.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board report submitted to the NGT in April 2025, none of the 21 operational WTE plants in India monitor all the emission parameters stipulated in the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. Yet, plans are underway to build 556 new plants and officials frequently embark on “waste management technology study tours” to the West.

The exponential growth of technological solutions to waste indicates that such approaches have become deeply embedded in the public imagination. The persistence of our policymakers in importing technological models from the West is projected as “progressiveness”, while sane voices pointing out their glaring contradictions are branded as “anti-development”.

This intense focus on future solutions is rarely tempered by an analysis of past failures. Abellon Clean Energy Ltd (ACEL), which has one operational and three under-construction WTE plants in Gujarat, recently shut down operations due to significant maintenance and operational challenges with the imported technology. 

In a letter to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), the WTE plant operator stated, “The developers are constrained to import a major bulk of the plant and machinery from abroad and integrate them into the indigenous balance of plant equipment.” The company further submitted that “due to the nascent stage of technology development in India and associated risk of operating equipment or technology integrated from foreign imports, there is an element of high risk.”

Citing these challenges and their economic implications, the company requested additional subsidies, grants and regulatory relaxations. Notably, public financial institutions such as the Power Finance Corporation have invested hundreds of crores of public money into ACEL and other WTE ventures. However, with the rising number of failed projects, recovery of these funds now appears unlikely. 

Furthermore, the operation of these plants requires significant expenditure in the form of tipping fees. Far from being a silver bullet, WTEs are white elephants — costly burdens masquerading as gifts (read: curses) to the Global South, under the guise of “advanced technology” and climate finance.

“Waste management was very simple in the 1990s. We followed trench composting to manage waste. It was truly a resource, and farmers would queue up to collect the compost made from waste. We didn’t have single-use plastics and sachets back then and we generated very little waste,” quipped Siddheshwaran, a sanitary inspector of Salem municipality, a tier 2 city in Tamil Nadu, India. 

Every year, 430 million metric tonnes of plastic are produced, two-thirds of which are short-lived products that soon become waste. Plastic production is increasing exponentially, yet only 9 per cent of plastics are recycled. Plastics are being imposed upon us in ways we never asked for. Thus, the problem lies not in consumption alone, but in production. The real solution to plastic pollution is production reduction. 

No amount of technology can resolve today’s waste crises without addressing the unchecked production of plastics and unsustainable consumption patterns. Effective waste management must also integrate the existing waste ecosystem, including waste pickers, waste workers, aggregators, sorters and recyclers.

Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran is associated with the Centre for Financial Accountability and works on the post consumption impacts of plastics with a focus on Waste to Energy incineration.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.