Garbage trucks in Mumbai looked just like regular trucks, unlike those in Japan

As I walked through the streets of Mumbai, I came across a garbage collection truck parked on the roadside.

But this wasn’t the kind of high-tech, rear-loading truck you’d typically see in Japan. In fact, at first glance, you wouldn’t even recognize it as a garbage truck. It was just an open-bed truck—no roof, no cover—with piles of trash heaped high in the back. Workers were tossing even more garbage bags onto the growing mountain.

Mumbai is home to over 20 million people. Naturally, the amount of waste this city generates is staggering.

Compared to countries like the U.S.—where the average person produces around 1.9 kg of trash per day—India’s per capita waste is lower. In Mumbai, it’s estimated to be around 0.453 kg per person per day. Still, when multiplied by 20 million residents, it adds up fast.

Most of that garbage ends up in Deonar, one of Asia’s oldest landfills, operating for over a century.

Rather than being incinerated or processed, it’s simply dumped and piled, layer after layer. Over time, the site has grown into a towering mass taller than a ten-story building. There's hardly any incineration system in place, and as a result, smoke constantly rises from somewhere within—a slow, permanent burn.

In the photo I took, the man working atop the trash pile go about their job silently and mechanically.

Do they know where this waste is headed?

Maybe.

Do they care?

Perhaps not.

Their role is straightforward: get today’s trash to the mountain. And tomorrow, they’ll do it again.

It’s a job with no clear end—thankless, unseen, but crucial. Because this is what quietly keeps the spine of a sprawling megacity like Mumbai from breaking.

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