Article: Why municipal solid waste management projects through private sector participation are uniquely challenging? – An exploratory study in India Journal: International Journal of Environment and Waste Management (IJEWM) 2025 Vol.38 No.1 pp.24 - 38 Abstract: Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been affected by a myriad of challenges if not failures. This study examines the necessity of municipal solid waste (MSW) infrastructure and the ingress of PPP as a preferred mode of procurement in India. This is done by reviewing the anecdotal evidence from the projects to extract the state of practice and then identify the contestations, gaps, and lessons for future research relating to MSW PPP project delivery. Apart from the challenges reported in the past literature on MSW PPPs, this paper argues four new situations which are prevalent only in the MSW sector. Private sector provision is not preceded by public sector provision, each segment of the supply chain will need a unique set of assets and services requiring exclusive focus; amongst such focus, technologies are diverse, and their maturities are diverse increasing the chances of failure because of bundling of various segments. The key to this sectors success hangs on the extent to which the sectorial challenges are incorporated into the institutional mechanisms developed for the MSW sector without any a priori assumptions from other sectors which implemented PPPs. This paper suggests further research, specifically on the challenges posed by bundling various segments. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Why municipal solid waste management projects through private sector participation are uniquely challenging? – An exploratory study in India

Authors: Tharun Dolla; Boeing Laishram

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, GITAM (Deemed to be University), Visakhapatnam – 530045, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, Infrastructure Engineering and Management Division, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781039, India

Abstract: Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been affected by a myriad of challenges if not failures. This study examines the necessity of municipal solid waste (MSW) infrastructure and the ingress of PPP as a preferred mode of procurement in India. This is done by reviewing the anecdotal evidence from the projects to extract the state of practice and then identify the contestations, gaps, and lessons for future research relating to MSW PPP project delivery. Apart from the challenges reported in the past literature on MSW PPPs, this paper argues four new situations which are prevalent only in the MSW sector. Private sector provision is not preceded by public sector provision, each segment of the supply chain will need a unique set of assets and services requiring exclusive focus; amongst such focus, technologies are diverse, and their maturities are diverse increasing the chances of failure because of bundling of various segments. The key to this sectors success hangs on the extent to which the sectorial challenges are incorporated into the institutional mechanisms developed for the MSW sector without any a priori assumptions from other sectors which implemented PPPs. This paper suggests further research, specifically on the challenges posed by bundling various segments.

Keywords: public-private partnerships; PPPs; municipal solid waste management; performance; private sector participation; PSP; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2025.148033

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2025 Vol.38 No.1, pp.24 - 38

Accepted: 11 Jan 2024
Published online: 15 Aug 2025 *

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Title: Why municipal solid waste management projects through private sector participation are uniquely challenging? – An exploratory study in India

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