Methane emission from landfills due to unmanaged dumping contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately to climate change. The green house gas emission from the dumping sites depends on various factors like quantity of waste generated, composition of solid waste, and characteristics of solid waste. The quantification and characterization of urban solid waste generation is fundamental for adequate decision making in the management strategy of urban solid waste in a city. The objective of this study is to quantify and characterize the waste generated in the three cities of Himachal Pradesh i.e. Shimla, Solan and Nahan. The chemical characteristics study include pH, Moisture, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Carbon and C/N ration and physical studies includes the composition of different waste categories. The annual waste generation in Shimla, Solan and Nahan calculated in this study 17,426.52, 7,130.70 and 1,608.37 tons (t) respectively for the year (yr) 2012-13. The main fractions were: Food and Carbon waste, paper and plastic waste. The pH of MSW was found slight to highly acidic in nature whereas moisture content was found to be in the range from 42.60 ± 1.95 in Nahan to 60.12 ± 1.39% in Shimla. The N, K, P and C estimated were found maximum 0.81% (Shimla), 0.65% (Nahan), 0.33% (Shimla), and 40.49% (Solan) respectively.