Waste remediation at Delhi's landfills at 4-year high; yet garbage mounds far from being flattened

Biomining at Delhi's three major landfill sites has reached its highest level in four years, with over 74 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste remediated in the current fiscal.

Biomining at Delhi's three major landfill sites has reached its highest level in four years, with over 74 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste remediated in the current fiscal so far. Yet, a substantial quantity of garbage remains to be processed, according to official data.

Official figures for FY 2025-26 (April 2025 to February 2026) showed that 74.11 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste was processed at the Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla landfill sites, while fresh waste disposal during the same period stood at 30.74 lakh MT.

Despite the progress, around 115.18 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste remains at the three sites as on February 2026, the data showed.

Officials said the average bio-mining rate in the current fiscal year touched 20,000 tonnes per day (TPD), compared to 6,000 TPD in FY 2022-23 when large-scale remediation work had begun.

According to the data, Bhalswa recorded the highest remediation of legacy waste with 31.43 lakh metric tonnes removed against the addition of 12.54 lakh metric tonnes of fresh waste.

Okhla saw remediation at 25.44 lakh metric tonnes waste with addition of 11.48 lakh metric tonnes while 17.24 lakh metric tonnes were removed from the Ghazipur landfill against 6.72 lakh metric tonnes of fresh waste.

Ghazipur is the biggest landfill site among the three and MCD officials have said the timeline to clear it is December 2027, while the two other sites are expected to be cleared by the end of 2026, after much delay.

According to official data, the remaining legacy waste stands at 68.60 lakh metric tonnes at Ghazipur, 30.18 lakh metric tonnes at Bhalswa and 16.40 lakh metric tonnes at Okhla.

In FY 2022-23, the three landfill sites together had processed 21.90 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste, while 189.83 lakh metric tonnes of waste remained at the sites at the end of the that fiscal.

The remediation figures rose to 54.34 lakh metric tonnes in FY 2023-24 before dropping to 29.93 lakh metric tonnes in FY 2024-25, official data showed.

According to officials, the data reveals that both total annual biomining volume and average daily processing rates were significantly lower in previous years compared to this fiscal.

Officials attributed the sharp rise in biomining during the current financial year to increased deployment of machinery and round-the-clock operations at the landfill sites.