## 1 Introduction
There is a massive quantity of waste that seems unmanageable due to capacity and funding issues within municipalities with subject priority/recognition challenges at the central government level [17]. Basic waste management principles, including source separation, controlled dumping, and waste treatment, should be addressed in the MSW management scheme [18]. Disposal of MSW is a challenge in the subcontinent, causing potential hazards to human health. Composing is a more suitable treatment option due to the massive quantity of organic kitchen waste with high moisture content [19]. Long-term outsourcing contracts for MSW management could be suitable options if municipalities in low-middle-income countries managed to control political interference and enhance technical and monitoring capacities. It will also help to decentralize the service delivery with community engagement towards sustainability in services with a positive impact at the local level [20]. The local government's responsibility is to ensure the affordability of outsourced services for its residents through subsidies and user charges. User fee collection is the responsibility of the Government of Pakistan to retain financial control and to meet revenue targets. As a lesson, outsourcing should include quality monitoring parameters in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) with clauses to include stakeholders and local community participation to improve the MSW management services [12]. The methodological approach applied to assess the performance of the local waste sector and its comparison with other cities around the globe is explained in a scheme as depicted in Figure 1.  
South Asian Association for Regional Corporation (SAARC) countries (Figure 2a) are home to 23.75% of the world population with a 3% land share [21]. Initiatives to find new sources of renewable energy are essential for attaining sustainability in the economic growth of SAARC countries, and the waste management sector can help to achieve the target [22]. An assessment of the waste management services is carried out against indicators: waste collection efficiency, mode of collection, i.e., Door-to-Door (DtD)/Container-Based Collection (CBC), availability of Transfer Station (TS), recycling rate, and existing waste treatment methodologies, i.e., composting, incineration/Waste-to-Energy (WtE), Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), and biogas capital/major SAARC cities as depicted in Figure 2b. Lahore city [23] emerged with the highest waste collection efficiency (84%), followed by Delhi [24] (80%), Dhaka [25; 26; 27; 28; 29] (77%), and Colombo [30] (75%). Waste collection efficiency in Kathmandu [31; 32; 33; 34; 35] and Maldives [36; 37; 38] is reported as 60% with 57% and 54% in Bhutan [39; 40], and Kabul [41; 42], respectively. Lahore and Delhi have a hybrid system for waste collection, i.e., CBC and DtD collection, while the remaining cities have DtD collection predominantly. South Asian cities have informal recycling mechanisms as the highest recycling rate 21% is reported in Lahore, followed by Dhaka (15%), Bhutan (14%), Delhi (10.6%), Kabul and Kathmandu (10%), Colombo (5%), with lowest 3% in Maldives. Compost manufacturing from organic waste is the dominant waste treatment in South Asia (Figure 2b). Delhi city is on top, the single town generating 52 MW of electricity from waste. RDF is the only facility located in Lahore. Municipal waste-to-gas production pilot projects are reported in Lahore and Colombo. Projects are reported in PPP in the waste collection except in Bhutan and Maldives. Dhaka, Lahore, and Bhutan attempted to convert open dumping sites into controlled disposal with some arrangements for leachate and gas collection. Figure 1: Scheme of methodological approach. Further, the low-middle-income cities/countries [43] ranking was performed against the collection efficiency parameter (Figure 3). Tehran, Tashkent, and Beirut are found at the top rank with 100% waste collection efficiency [44; 45; 46; 47]. Kyiv maintained the second rank with 90% waste collection efficiency [48].