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Self-help by individuals and local community groups in solid waste management is widespread in cities of the developing world as a coping strategy to overcome the lack of public services. This study identifies and analyses the driving forces, factors of sustainability, as well as internal and external factors that influence failure or success of solid waste community-based initiatives in India. The ability to reflect on the situation, to judge existing risks and to trust in the capability to master the risks of everyday life in interaction with other persons and organisations forms the framework of analysis, as a core of ‘social and individual resilience’. The concept of resilience is used, together with the sustainable livelihood framework, to analyse eight south Indian community-based solid waste schemes. The results clearly underline the importance of the human and social capital that an individual ‘instigator’ brings to an initiative and highlights the importance of a ‘champion’ in every successful initiative.