A giant mountain of garbage towers at Jawahar Nagar dump yard, just outside Hyderabad. Despite the National Green Tribunal's (NGT) big order on October 28 telling the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to stop bringing new waste here, rubbish trucks have kept making trips even two days after the directive! Why this stubborn mess? The NGT paused the dumping pending a report from IIT Bombay on how to safely manage the huge pile of old, or 'legacy,' waste. Along with stopping new solid waste, the NGT banned Refused Derived Fuel (RDF) too, but said existing trash at the site can still be processed. GHMC feels stuck. "We will contest the order, as it is not a feasible solution. The only other site we have is at Pyaranagar, and there is a stay by NGT on that place too," said a senior GHMC official. Without any other large dumpsite to hold garbage for four days, the civic body continues to dump waste at Jawahar Nagar, even though it's against the rules. The other dumps proposed by GHMC—Lakdaram in Medak and Khanapur in Rangareddy—are tied up in land problems, while Pyaranagar faced angry local protests. So with nowhere else to go, garbage keeps piling at Jawahar Nagar. To put numbers in perspective, Jawahar Nagar sees nearly 9,684 metric tonnes of garbage daily! GHMC alone delivers about 8,500 tonnes, with 14 nearby municipalities adding the rest. The NGT is acting on a petition demanding GHMC follow the Solid Waste Management Rules from 2016 and an earlier 2018 NGT order to start biomining of the 12 million tonnes of legacy waste—a process to recycle old garbage safely. But GHMC failed to get bidders for the biomining project. Adding to the dilemma, IIT Bombay, who is the technical expert for GHMC, warned that biomining could pose health risks. So here we are: A massive heap of garbage, a city running out of dumping spots, a tussle between court orders, technical doubts, and furious locals. The question on everyone’s lips—how long before Hyderabad's garbage crisis finally finds a sparkling solution?