One of the most discernible outcome of the increasing pace of urbanisation, along with the rise in the spate of consumerism in the post liberalised economic environment has been the dramatic rise in municipal solid waste generation across the urban centres world over and more so in the developing countries. So enormous has been the challenge of managing the same along with the issue of providing efficient service of garbage collection at household and city level that the municipalities since the mid-nineties started turning to the private sector.
 
Set against a milieu of solemn concerns emanating from inadequate municipal solid waste management on one side and the impetus given to private sector participation, this book critically examines and generates empirical evidence on the performance and implications of private sector participation in municipal solid waste management through the lens of a sustainability assessment prism specifically constructed for this purpose. With robust evidence emerging from the four-cornered sustainability prism, i.e. social, economic, environmental and institutional, the book offers valuable insights for retrospection and course correction in Indian cities and other similar contexts.