Indian urban solid waste management systems—Jaded systems in need of resource augmentation

Abstract

In India, the systems of urban solid waste management are becoming increasingly expensive and complex because of continuous and unplanned growth of urban centres. The difficulties in providing the desired level of public service through them is often attributed to poor financial status of the managing municipal corporations. The systems, in practice, have to meet several objectives. Therefore, they cannot be analysed effectively by optimising models using the single objective of cost minimisation. To study the problems of resource gaps within the frame work of these conflicting objectives, an interactive goal programming model for multi-objective planning of the system is proposed. The model is applied to plane the solid waste operations for a typical Indian city. Initially, the model considers existing resource levels and methods of estimation. The results indicate that these resource levels are far too inadequate for achievement of even the primary goal of the system. The model is reapplied with augmented resources so that optimal resource requirements for the system to attain the desired objective are determined, and the resource planning gaps are identified.