Solid waste management (SWM) is an important environmental health service, and is an integral part of basic urban services. From the earliest primitive human society there have been attempts to safely dispose of solid waste. In the early days, disposal did not pose difficulty as habitations were sparse and land was plentiful. Disposal became problematic with the rise of towns and cities where large numbers of people started to congregate in relatively small areas in pursuit of livelihoods. On one hand, the density of population increased in these centres of congregation and therefore wastes generated per unit area also increased. On the other hand, available land for disposal of waste decreased in proportion. SWM thus emerged as an essential, specialised sector for keeping cities healthy and liveable.