Background

In the past, people threw food waste into the ground via compost pits, and municipal waste was collected by farmers and composted for use in agriculture. Composting declined since the introduction of plastic that further Decreased to cover and barren. India began dumping this unwanted waste outside city limits along roadsides that had been dumped on uninhabited land. Uncontrolled and continuous dumping of municipal solid waste lead to mountains of legacy waste.

These open dumps are getting bigger, taller, and point sources of pollution. Waste that rots in these vacuum piles produces leachate. Leachate is a dirty black liquid that kills vegetation around landfills and irreversibly contaminates groundwater through the formation of leachate. Trash heaps also produce methane, a greenhouse gas that causes 21 times more global warming than carbon dioxide.

DJG is focusing on two major challenges of solid waste management:

(1) managing the continuous flow of solid waste on a daily basis, and
(2) dealing with the legacy of neglect which has resulted in garbage heaps having been built up at dumpsites that were meant for waste processing and landfills