Indian cities are often characterized by poorly rendered services including waste management—the most ignored of all basic services, on account of various reasons. The situation worsens with increasing population pressure in urban centers. Kanpur is one such metropolitan city of North India, having an inefficient, outdated and unscientific waste management system. This paper attempts to assess the existing state of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) in Kanpur city with the aim of identifying the main obstacles to its efficiency and the prospects for improvisation of the solid waste management system in the city. The existing solid waste management system in the city is found to be highly inefficient. Primary and secondary collection, transportation and open dumping are the only activities practiced that too in a non-technical manner. This paper systematically assesses the obstacles in the existing solid waste management system in Kanpur city and also tries to assess the potentials for its improvisation.