The main causes for the rapid growth in the quantity of solid wastes are-

(i)     Over population: the ever increasing population is increasing all types of pollution; same is true for solid waste pollution too.

(ii)   Urbanization: solid waste pollution increases with the increase in urbanization. In developed countries, for instance in USA, urban areas produce about 7.0 lac of solid wastes each day-an amount sufficient to cover more than 1.6 sq. km of land every day to a depth of 3.0 m.

(iii) Affluence: with production or per capita consumption, there is a tendency to declare items as obsolete, resulting in their. This leads to solid waste pollution.

(iv) Technology: rapidly growing technologies for most economic goods are leading to returnable packaging to non-returnable packaging. For example, returnable glass bottles/ containers being replaced by non-returnable cans, plastic containers etc.