Pollution from open waste burning triples in cities during winter: study

Why in the News

Open waste burning across Indian cities rises sharply in winter, with the average incidence, the quantity of waste burned and the associated emissions as much as three times higher than in summer. The finding comes from a working paper by the World Resources Institute (WRI) India, built on field surveys carried out between 2019 and 2026 in 11 polluted Indian cities whose names have not been disclosed. The burning is not a major source of citywide particulate pollution, contributing under 1% of total PM2.5 and PM10 emissions in the cities assessed. The contest is over what the finding measures. Read as an air quality number the share is small, and read as a service delivery number it is evidence that municipal waste collection is failing in the poorest wards of the smallest cities.

Why does the burning rise in winter?

1. The seasonal multiple: Incidence, quantity burned and emissions run up to three times higher in winter than in summer across every category of city examined.
2. The weather compounds it: The post monsoon period brings falling temperatures and stagnant atmospheric conditions, which make it harder for pollutants to disperse.

How does the burden differ across city tiers?

1. Tier 3 cities burn most often: They recorded the highest winter incidence, at an average of 49.6 incidents per square kilometre per day.
2. Tier 2 cities burn the most waste: Cities with populations between 500,000 and five million recorded the highest quantities of waste burned, at 46 incidents per square kilometre per day.
3. Tier 1 cities trail: The largest cities recorded 39.4 incidents per square kilometre per day.

Why does a share under 1% still matter?

1. The citywide share is small: Open burning contributed less than 1% of total citywide PM2.5 and PM10 emissions in the cities assessed.
2. The exposure is close range: Burning happens near homes, streets and waste dumps, so it raises short term exposure to toxic smoke for the people living beside it.

What does the income gradient reveal?

1. Poorer areas burn more: Lower income neighbourhoods recorded substantially more burning than higher income areas within the same cities.
2. The single highest reading: Nearly 84 incidents per square kilometre per day were recorded in the poorer areas of Tier 2 cities during winter, the highest figure in the study.
3. What the researchers read into it: The pattern points to disparities in waste collection and other municipal services between neighbourhoods, rather than to differences in household behaviour alone.

Challenges to municipal solid waste collection

1. Segregation at source stays low: The Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 require households to hand over segregated wet, dry and domestic hazardous waste, and mixed waste continues to reach collection points. Eg. Indore’s ward level segregated door to door collection is cited as an exception rather than the norm across Indian cities.
   The Fix: Tie Swachh Bharat Mission grant releases to third party audited segregation rates at ward level rather than to citywide self reported figures.
2. Collection routes stop at the settlement edge: Informal settlements and peri urban wards often sit outside the contracted collection route, so waste there has no lawful disposal path. Eg. Peri urban wards added to municipal limits after boundary expansion frequently retain no collection contract for years.
   The Fix: Use burning incidence mapped per square kilometre to identify uncollected pockets and extend contracted routes to them.
3. Processing capacity lags behind collection: Waste that is collected still lands on legacy dumpsites because sorting and processing plants are missing or underused. Eg. Delhi’s Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla legacy dumps continue to receive fresh waste, with bio-mining running alongside.
   The Fix: Release bio-mining funds against verified reduction in dump height and volume rather than against tonnage cleared on paper.
4. Enforcement against burning is nominal: Open burning of waste is prohibited and carries a spot fine under the 2016 Rules, and prosecution is rare because the offence is momentary and unwitnessed. Eg. The Graded Response Action Plan bars open burning across Delhi and the National Capital Region every winter, and incidents persist through the season.
   The Fix: Make the ward sanitation officer accountable for a measured incidence figure in the ward, so enforcement is judged on the count rather than on fines issued.

Conclusion

The paper converts open waste burning from an air quality footnote into a measurable test of municipal performance. The unit it uses is a count of incidents in a defined area, which a city can track ward by ward and compare across seasons. That makes the finding usable in a way a citywide emission share is not. The marker to watch is whether city clean air action plans adopt burning incidence as a service delivery indicator before the coming winter, or continue to treat it as a source with a negligible share.

Back2Basics

1. World Resources Institute: A global research organisation founded in 1982 and headquartered in Washington DC, working on climate, energy, food, forests, water and cities.
2. WRI India: An independent research charity registered in India, which works with State governments and urban local bodies on air quality, mobility, energy and urban development.
3. What a working paper is: A pre-publication research document circulated for comment, which has not been through peer review.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2026, GS3, 15.0 marks] What are the challenges to solid waste management in India? Discuss the governmental policy framework on solid waste management. Discuss the success/failure cases of Delhi and Indore cities highlighting the salient feature of their solid waste management initiatives.”