Of the total collected waste, only 20% (27,000 MT per day) is processed and the rest is dumped at landfill sites.

India is getting buried under mounds of garbage as the country has been generating more than 1.50 lakh metric tonne (MT) of solid waste every day. Worse - approximately 90 per cent (1,35,000 MT per day) of the total amount is collected waste.

Nearly 15,000 MT of garbage remain exposed every day, resulting in almost 55 lakh MT of solid waste disposed in open areas each year, which leads to "severe" pollution level. Of the total collected waste, only 20 per cent (27,000 MT per day) is processed and the remaining 80 per cent (1,08,000 MT per day) is dumped in landfill sites.

At times the "highly polluting" unprocessed solid waste in the dump sites reaches 3 crore MT. The solid waste in landfill sites and the uncollected trash - of the total 5.4 crore MT of solid waste generated annually - 4.5 crore MT are unprocessed. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) provided the details of the ever-growing garbage citing a 2016-17 report by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

In the Parliament, Minister of State of the MoEFCC, Babul Supriyo, said that after conducting a study across 60 major cities of the country the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had estimated that these metropolitan areas generate around 4,059 tonne plastic waste per day.

Figures show that India generates nearly 26,000 MT of plastic waste on a daily basis and 94 lakh tonne trash every year.

In 2010-11, the Capital generated 6,800 tonne of municipal waste daily, out of which 690 tonne of trash was plastic - the highest in the country. In 2005, India's pollution watchdog had estimated that the country had churned out around 1.47 lakh tonne e-waste from across the country. According to a 2016 United Nations report, The Global E-Waste Monitor 2017, India had produced 20 lakh tonne of e-waste.

Of the estimated 20 lakh tonne of e-waste, the CPCB said, only 69,414 MT of garbage was collected, dismantled and recycled between 2017 and 2018. This amounted to barely 0.7% of the total e-waste being processed.

While the Digital India is taking giant strides with over 58 crore mobile users and 100 crore handsets, there is no nationwide inventory of the e-waste generation yet. Only six states - Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Punjab - have completed the e-waste generation inventory.

Also, in 2016-17, India generated 7.17 million tonne of "hazardous" waste, out of which 3.68 million tonne or 49.46% was recycled.

Responding to a query in the Parliament, the government admitted that the quantum of waste deposited in landfill sites have not yet been estimated.

Gujarat, with its huge chemical belt, contributes nearly 2.8 million MT of "hazardous" waste.

While the government is tight-lipped about what happens with the waste, or how and how much of it is processed, toxicologists say that the toxic character of barely 5% hazardous chemicals is known to humans and that is why a quick intervention is much needed.

Maharashtra generates the maximum amount of solid waste - 8,238,050 MT, but processes only 44% of the total amount. Meanwhile, West Bengal needs to clean up its landfill sites as it produces 2,810,500 MT of trash and processes only 5% of it. Chandigarh is "the model city" as it generates 1,72,280 MT of waste and also processes 85% of the total amount. In comparison, Delhi-NCR creates some 38,32,500 MT but processes just 55% of it.

The government says that for sound management of various types of waste, it had comprehensively revised and notified various waste management rules in 2016 on hazardous waste, ewaste, solid waste, plastic waste, construction and demolition waste, and bio-medical waste.

The rules emphasise on recycling and material recovery, and provide for technological options for the management of such wastes. The recycler or operator or generator may opt for any recycling or resource recovery technological options after due evaluation by prescribed authorities which includes the State Pollution Control Boards/Committees, the CPCB and the local bodies.

The minister told the Parliament that the CPCB has published guidelines for "environmentally sound recycling" of commonly recyclable hazardous wastes such as used or waste oil, zinc dross, copper dross, used lead acid battery, etc".

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday asked the AAP government and civic bodies to deposit Rs 250 crore in an escrow account to facilitate waste removal from landfill sites. NGT said over 28 million tonnes of waste lay at Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla landfill sites.