Municipal Solid Waste Management: A Paradigm to Smart Cities

Abstract

The smart city concept refers to a new paradigm for urban planning and management. Based on advance use of technology, it aims at accomplishing better cities. These cities are more likely to have an integrated viewpoint which includes social, economic, and environmental aspects. Managing solid waste is among the important challenges in urban areas throughout the world. In developing countries like India where a rapid increase in population has been observed in past decades, solid waste management has become a critical issue. Of the different smart service delivery areas, solid waste management is also one of the key service areas for making a city smart. Like many fast-growing metropolitan cities in India, Jaipur is a metropolitan city having quite an inefficient, outdated, and unscientific system for handling of municipal solid waste. The lack of organized system of door-to-door collection, inefficient transportation, unscientific and uncontrolled open dumping of waste, etc. needs to be improved. This paper attempts to assess the existing status of municipal solid waste management in Jaipur City by identifying the related issues. The study concludes with select proposals to use identified best practices in planning for municipal solid waste management toward making a city smart.