PIB TrackerDepalpur clears 1,250 tonnes of legacy waste with a mentor city
Under the Swachh Shehar Jodi pairing, Indore's civic body helped Depalpur remediate a five-year dumpsite, recovering 4.5 tonnes of recyclables and 50-60 tonnes of refuse-derived fuel.
What happened
- Depalpur Nagar Parishad became the first city under Swachh Shehar Jodi to achieve zero legacy waste, mentored by Indore Municipal Corporation.
- 1,250 metric tonnes of waste accumulated over five years were remediated, after four-bin door-to-door segregation reached 100 per cent coverage.
- The pairing links 72 mentor cities with 200 mentee cities, which have run more than 1,600 activities in a 100-day intervention under SBM-U 2.0.
- More than 500 ragpickers from Indore worked with dumpers, JCBs and loaders; 4.5 tonnes of plastic, metal and glass went to authorised recyclers.
- 50 to 60 tonnes of refuse-derived fuel went to the NEPRA plant in Indore and on to cement factories for co-processing; 200 saplings were planted.
For Prelims
- Legacy waste: waste already dumped and accumulated at a site, remediated by excavation and segregation rather than by collection; at Depalpur it had built up over five years.
- Swachh Shehar Jodi: a mentor-mentee city pairing launched during Swachhata Hi Seva 2025 under SBM-Urban 2.0, on an Each One Teach One model.
- Scale of the pairing: 72 mentor and 200 mentee cities, more than 1,600 activities, over a 100-day time-bound intervention with MoUs between paired cities.
- RDF: refuse-derived fuel, the combustible fraction shredded and burnt in cement kilns — 50 to 60 tonnes from Depalpur, routed through the NEPRA plant at Indore.
- Co-processing: using waste-derived fuel in a cement factory so that it substitutes for fossil fuel and its ash is absorbed into the clinker.
- Source segregation: Depalpur runs a four-bin door-to-door system, achieved to full coverage before dumpsite remediation began.
- Recovery: only 4.5 tonnes of plastic, metal and glass came back as recyclables out of 1,250 tonnes excavated.
- Site after-use: 200 saplings planted, the Surajkund Bawdi revived, and the cleared land designated for a public ground.
For UPSC: The cleanest available illustration of dumpsite remediation as a distinct problem from waste collection, and of horizontal capacity transfer between urban local bodies. Use it on solid waste management, on circular economy in cement, and on municipal capacity building.
What it is NOT: This is not a recycling success — of 1,250 tonnes excavated, barely 4.5 tonnes returned as recyclables, the bulk of a legacy dump being inert soil-like fines.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.14 · GS2.15 · Linkage L1
Anchor
Of 1,250 tonnes lifted out of a dumpsite, about 4.5 came back as recyclables and 55 as fuel — legacy waste remediation is an earth-moving operation, not a recycling one, and pretending otherwise misprices the whole exercise.
Substantiation (data)
1,250 metric tonnes remediated over waste accumulated in five years; 500 ragpickers mobilised; 4.5 tonnes of recyclables sold; 50-60 tonnes of RDF co-processed in cement factories; 72 mentor and 200 mentee cities, more than 1,600 activities in a 100-day window.
Exemplification
The mentor was Indore Municipal Corporation and the labour came from Indore as well — a small town's dumpsite was cleared largely by another city's workforce and machinery.
Problematisation
The capability that made this possible is not Depalpur's; 500 ragpickers from a metropolitan corporation cannot be lent to every one of the 200 mentee cities, and the release records no permanent staffing or equipment left behind.
Way-forward
Full source segregation was achieved before remediation began, which is the sequence worth copying; what still needs specifying is who maintains the cleared land so the dump does not return.
Position
Mentorship between municipalities substitutes for the municipal finance and staffing that small urban bodies do not have — a workaround being institutionalised as a model.
Deploys into: Conservation and pollution + governance (GS3.14, GS2.15) · legacy waste remediation, RDF co-processing in cement, and capacity transfer between urban local bodies.
Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs · 2026-08-31 · PRID 2304919 · PIB source ↗