Lucknow Becomes UP’s First Zero Fresh Waste Dump City with Smart Processing Tech

Waste collected through a 96.53% door-to-door coverage system is segregated at source, with over 70% compliance.

Lucknow has taken a major leap in urban sustainability, emerging as Uttar Pradesh’s first city to achieve 100% scientific processing of municipal solid waste. With the inauguration of its third fresh waste processing facility at Shivari, the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) has eliminated open dumping of fresh waste—setting a new benchmark for technology-led, circular waste management in India.

Home to nearly 40 lakh residents and over 7.5 lakh establishments, Lucknow generates close to 2,000–2,100 metric tonnes of waste every day. Managing this volume has long been a challenge for fast-growing cities. LMC’s answer is a data-driven, infrastructure-heavy, and resource-recovery-focused model that blends automation, energy recovery, and material reuse.

A Scalable, Tech-Enabled Waste Processing Ecosystem

The newly commissioned Shivari plant adds 700 MT/day of processing capacity. Along with two existing plants of equal size—developed in partnership with Bhumi Green Energy—Lucknow can now scientifically process 100% of its daily waste generation.

Waste collected through a 96.53% door-to-door coverage system is segregated at source, with over 70% compliance. The waste stream is split into organic (55%) and inorganic (45%) fractions:

• Organic waste is converted into compost and biogas

• Inorganic waste is sorted for recycling or converted into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) for industrial co-processing

This closed-loop system reduces landfill dependency while transforming waste into usable economic resources.

Turning Legacy Waste into Infrastructure Assets

Beyond fresh waste, Lucknow is rapidly eliminating its legacy dumps. Of the 18.5 lakh metric tonnes of accumulated waste, 12.86 lakh MT has already been scientifically processed.

The recovered materials are being reused at scale:

• 2.27 lakh MT of RDF supplied to cement and paper industries nationwide

• 4.38 lakh MT of coarse fractions, 0.59 lakh MT of bio-soil, and

• 2.35 lakh MT of construction & demolition waste reused for infrastructure and low-lying land development

This effort has reclaimed over 25 acres of land, now transformed into a modern waste processing complex with windrow pads, internal roads, weighbridges, sheds, and integrated processing units.

What’s Next: Waste-to-Energy at City Scale

LMC is now preparing to launch a 15 MW Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plant at Shivari. The proposed facility will consume 1,000–1,200 MT of RDF daily, converting waste directly into electricity.

This move will:

• Cut long-distance RDF transport (currently ~500 km to cement plants)

• Lower operational costs

• Strengthen Lucknow’s local clean energy mix

A Call to Innovators, Startups, and Smart City Leaders

Lucknow’s transformation is not just a civic milestone—it’s a living testbed for urban tech, cleantech startups, waste-tech innovators, and circular economy solution providers. From AI-driven segregation systems and sensor-based logistics to energy recovery and materials reuse, the city is primed for early adopters looking to deploy, pilot, or scale next-generation urban sustainability technologies.

As India’s cities search for scalable answers to waste and climate challenges, Lucknow’s zero fresh waste dump model offers a replicable, tech-forward blueprint—one that turns waste into value and infrastructure into opportunity.