NEW DELHI — The gray hill of Bhalswa, in the north of the city, is first visible from the elevated platform of the final Metro station on the northern line. From that distance it looks like a natural feature, a sort of gloomy mesa with black kites wheeling above it. Only when you get closer does it resolve into a hill of trash: compressed and decayed into crud at the base, but higher up, streaming with gray ribbons of polythene and pixelated with bright packaging.

Looked at one way, it is a vision of the future: the endgame for India’s consumption economy, which is producing waste at a rate we are nowhere near equipped to handle. Delhi alone throws out at least 7,000 metric tons of trash every day. The four landfills rising around the capital, of which Bhalswa is one, reach the height of 10-story buildings.

Soon after Narendra Modi was elected prime minister last year, he signaled that sanitation would be a priority — the priority — of his social program. In October, Mr. Modi introduced the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign, a raft of policies and public appeals aimed at creating a “Clean India” by the end of his term. Corporate support was commandeered to reduce open defecation, while the general public was charged with recycling and eradicating litter. In April Mr. Modi urged a gathering of state ministers to help create “wealth out of waste.”

After making his announcement in October, Mr. Modi personally swept up some leaves and junk. He then nominated nine public figures to do the same, and asked each of them to nominate nine more — setting off a brief chain reaction of awareness and awkward broom-handling. He pledged to spend two hours every week cleaning up his surroundings, a commitment that was echoed down the halls of government and in schoolyards across the country.