Engineered landfills are not common in cities and towns in India.  There is a practice of disposing solid waste collected by municipality or local controlling agencies, in open low laying area around the periphery of city boundaries.  In due course of time the waste become part of hydrological cycle and cause air pollution, surface water pollution, and sub surface water pollution etc. Since the towns and cities are expanding very rapidly the unsafe disposal is proving to be a critical problem. 

The study gives an overview of the Landfill Cost Model for disposal of Municipal Solid Waste. The objective of the work is to produce a flexible, user friendly computer model that predicts the capital and operating costs of new Landfills for disposal of Municipal Solid Waste generation in any city in India. The quantity of waste to be put in Landfill can be input by the user or allow the program to calculate the amount of waste material from the information of population of city, industries and other sources of waste generation. The model calculates the construction cost to build the Landfill (including cost of site selection), the operating costs to maintain it through the life of the Landfill, and post-closure expenses required to maintain it after it is closed. Operating costs include the cost to land, transport, fill and charecterisation of waste as well as monitoring the general maintenance of the site. Post-Closure activities include a continued monitoring program and site maintenance. The model provides a total cost on a cost/unit wt. basis for all activities that are associated with Landfilling municipal solid waste, including a specified internal rate of return. The accurate cost information is needed by utilities to make the most economical and environmentally sound decision.