The accumulation of garbage, including household food waste and polythene, has become an acute problem faced by modern societies worldwide. Sri Lanka is no different – changing lifestyles have led to households and commercial entities producing more garbage than ever. The Colombo city alone produces a staggering 800 tonnes of solid waste per day, which indicates the scale of the problem facing local bodies islandwide.
Dumping garbage at various sites is not a long-term solution – the Meethotamulla ‘garbage mountain’ which collapsed killing dozens is a good example (This is to be removed and the area redeveloped). The key is to realize that ‘trash is money’. Yes, garbage can be recycled and put to various uses, including power generation.
The good news is that we already have a couple of projects in Colombo and Balangoda that recycle all types of garbage. According to Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, the Government has been able to earn Rs. 300 million from recycling garbage during the last six months. This is a breakthrough solution to the garbage problem that also generates revenue on the side.
Compost fertilizer
In this project initiated by the Sri Lanka Land Reclamation Development Corporation (SLLRDC) in November last year, compost fertilizer had been produced out of the garbage in Colombo. The compost and recycled garbage in the Colombo city would be used to fill the park area in the proposed Colombo Port City now under construction. The garbage is transported to Kerawalapitiya, recycled and composted in a yard and sold as Mihijaya Pohora (‘Victory for Earth’ Fertilizer) for coconut cultivation and other purposes. Moreover, plastic, polythene and glass, including bottles are separated and sold to traders at the site. This project will apparently be able to handle Colombo’s garbage situation until 2100, in conjunction with other proposed solutions such as, garbage-sourced power generation.
The Government’s ban on non-biodegradable polythene is certainly having an impact with almost all traders complying with the new regulations. Many people now take a recyclable bag when they go to the supermarket or grocery store. The segregation of garbage into paper, food waste and polythene/plastics is already ingrained in our collective conscience after just a few months. This is a victory for the environment. However, plenty of places still offer food in polystyrene packaging harmful to the environment. They should be encouraged to switch to recyclable paper packaging.
Unfortunately, Sri Lanka has emerged as one of the worst offenders in terms of generating plastic waste. In the recent report on “Top 20 Countries Ranked by Mass of Mismanaged Plastic Waste”, Sri Lanka occupies fifth place, behind China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. According to this table, plastics account for seven percent of waste generated in Sri Lanka, of which 84 percent is classified as mismanaged waste, which means, the wasted amount could have been reduced if properly used. By weight, more than one million tonnes of plastic is thrown away each year in Sri lanka, which is disproportionate to our 21 million population (the four leading countries have much bigger populations). Most of the plastic waste ends up in the ocean, where it damages vital marine ecosystems and kills marine mammals and fish species that ingest it. This is not an easy problem to solve, given the worldwide single-use plastic production will grow from the current 250 million tons to 328 million tons by 2020.
Clearly, sanity must prevail with regard to the use of plastics. Many countries are debating whether to ban the humble plastic straw for the soft drink, one of the biggest contributors to plastic waste around the world. Around one billion plastic straws are used and discarded globally every day. In layman’s terms, this is enough to fill 250 buses. An equal number of plastic cups, PET bottles and polystyrene packages are also used every day. One can imagine the scale of the problem.
One solution is the 3R method proposed by environmentalists – Reduce, Re-Use and Recycle. We can reduce waste if we reduce consumption – for example, cooking just the right amount of food needed for a meal will reduce food waste. Nationally, we should strive to reduce Post-Harvest Losses of crops that see them ending up on garbage mounds and experiment with more ways to preserve perishable foods. We can re-use plastic bags and other plastic goods quite a few times without discarding them at once. And do you really need a straw for that soft drink? Before the plastic revolution, we practised recycling without even thinking about it. Remember the days when we had to hand over an empty glass bottle to get a new soft drink bottle ? That was recycling in action, long before the word became fashionable.
Pioneering initiative
This recycling culture should be renewed if we are to avoid an environmental catastrophe. Coming back to the theme of making money from garbage, recycling does have a lot of potential in terms of revenue. Our policymakers, municipal engineers and scientists must also keep an eye on the latest developments in garbage-based technology around the globe. We must put our garbage to work. Some of these developments may not be suitable or even financially not viable for Sri Lanka right now but we must study them. In one pioneering initiative, a suburb in British Columbia, Canada, has started a biofuel facility that turns curb-side organic waste into biofuel for the city’s fleet of natural gas vehicles. In effect, the garbage collected today powers the very garbage collection truck tomorrow. This is an elegant solution. (Many Municipal Councils are turning to electric garbage trucks to eliminate fuels of any kind). Recycling projects are a massive business in many parts of the world. These have helped reduce the number of landfills in use. Incinerators too are falling out of favour as cities and suburbs turn to recycling and garbage-based power generation. As outlined earlier, garbage is a big business with a huge potential. We must think of it as a precious resource, not something we literally throw away.