Major functional elements of urban solid waste management (USWM) are collection, segregation, storage, transportation, treatment and disposal. Waste collection constitutes a vital component in the management of urban solid waste. Solid waste collection in India is undergoing a change from community bins to Door-to-Door (DtD) collections. Community’s encouraging response to this transition has motivated the city municipality to deal with the waste handling and management through the local residential associations. This paper provides an overview of existing current practices of all functional elements of urban/municipal solid waste management as well as a comparative analysis of DtD collection versus the community bins in the Indian Institute of Science campus, Bangalore. The campus waste management has evolved from the community bins to DtD collection with segregation of garbage at source level. Detailed field investigations were carried out to assess relative merits of interventions in the waste management system with the conventional system through characterization and quantification of waste. It reveals an improvement in waste collection evident from higher quantum of waste collection (three to four times) in DtD collection apart from significant improvements in the local environment evident from reductions in littering on road, disease vectors apart from the reductions in street dogs in the campus.

Key words: Urban solid waste (USW), Functional elements, Door-to-Door collection, Waste management.