With inadequate waste management infrastructure, Sri Lankan cities have been contributing to the global waste problem by adding significant amounts of plastic and other waste to terrestrial and marine environments. Currently, the Local Authorities (LAs) in Sri Lanka have the capacity to collect only one-third of municipal solid waste, which is estimated to be around 7,110 metric tons/day (MT/D) from a generation of 21,331 MT/D (Kaza et. al., 2018). Much of the waste is disposed of within the premises or outside the source (e.g., residential and business units) by burning, burying, or other illegal means (Karunarathna et al., 2019). Similarly, from a wide range of polythene and plastic used in the country, 50% ends up in about 350 open dumpsites as post-consumer plastic waste (Dharmasiri, 2019; Jayasekera and Karunarathna, 2019).
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