Abstract

India faces a dual environmental challenge: inadequate solid waste management by resource-constrained municipalities and excessive reliance on chemical fertilizers that degrade soil health. Smaller municipalities often struggle to implement effective waste management, resulting in unprocessed waste in landfills and environmental pollution, while agriculture increasingly depends on chemical inputs, compromising ecological integrity. This review explores an integrated, decentralized solution: pit composting-that links urban wet waste with sustainable agriculture. Evidence suggests adoption of pit composting at the municipal level can divert up to 60% of wet waste from landfills and reduce farmers’ agriculture input costs by 20–30%. The approach fosters local circular economies by converting wet waste into a resource that enhances soil quality, while mitigating methane emissions and public health risks from unmanaged waste. The review synthesizes various composting methods, their features, and recent advances in pit composting, identifying gaps and directions for future research. It highlights the quantification and contextual relevance of pit composting, the challenges and opportunities for small municipalities, and an innovative municipality–farmer collaboration model for urban wet waste management, emphasizing farmer engagement. By presenting pit composting as a scalable, site-specific approach, this review outlines a pathway toward sustainable, cost-effective, and climate-resilient urban–agricultural systems.