Hyderabad/Chennai, May 12 -- On a warm mid-April morning, the Jagadgiri Gutta waste transfer station in Hyderabad is a beehive of activity. Scores of small vehicles-locally called swachh autos-line up to deliver waste collected from households in Kukatpally, a suburb in the Northwest of the city. The waste is then compressed and loaded into compactors, air-tight cylindrical containers, which then transport it to a site in Jawahar Nagar, 50 kilometres away, for processing.

Re Sustainability (formerly Ramky Enviro Engineers), one of the largest environmental management services companies in Asia, runs the Jagadgiri Gutta station and 64 other such transfer points across the city. The company bears the responsibility for managing the 9,000 t...