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Friday, 22 March 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Rashika Fazali
In an attempt to help dispose waste materials properly in the Katunayake-Seeduwa area, Geocycle, the waste management arm of Holcim Lanka and Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST), in association with the Katunayake-Seeduwa Urban Council and co-financed by Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (DEG), announced the launch of a promising Municipal Solid Waste Management project to better the lives of 75,000 people in that area by creating a greener and cleaner environment.
Speaking at the launch held on Wednesday (20) at Waters Edge, Geocycle General Manager and Head of External Affairs Asela Iddawela stated: “We are completing 10 years on Friday and we want to give something back to the community as our celebrations.”
In celebration of providing waste management solutions, this move will help send biodegradable waste for composting and recycling processes and the non-recyclable wastes for co-processing. Materials in need of segregation will also take place at this waste management site. The plant will have a material receiving centre, a segregation bed, composting plant and specific area for pilot engineered land filling.
Assisting in the project, ASSIST Group Managing Director N. Sreenivas stated that with the use of innovation and partnership, everyone can learn to decompose and use fewer resources. “This launch is the first step,” stated Sreenivas.
He added: “In the last 100 years, billions were destroying the environment. In the next 100 years, billions will be saving the environment.” This could only mean that people are more aware about the environment and want to live in environmentally friendly areas adding: “Private sector companies are doing something beyond for the community.”
Sri Lanka currently generates an estimated 6,700 metric tons of waste daily where only 2,800 metric tons of waste is collected. What happens to the rest? Most often than not, they are either left to rot on the side of the road, dumped at an empty land or burnt.
In order to change this atmosphere in Sri Lanka, the project was initiated after a thorough search with findings showing that there was opening dumping and uncontrollable burning in the Katunayake area.
Sociologist K. Jinnapala noted that while the population increases, technology becomes more sophisticated and many industrial plants are installed, waste becomes a complex problem due new materials of waste like synthetic and non-biodegradable are found.
He further stated that 65% of the waste in Seeduwa is biodegradable. Geocycle and DEG together have invested Rs. 86 million in this project.
Minister of Environment and Renewable Energy Susil Premajayanth stated: “We are on the correct path of the development of our country. In the last four years, we were maintaining somewhere around a 7% to 7.5% GDP growth rate. With all these challenges we have already achieved MDGs set by the United Nations. We have achieved primary education targets 100% of our children to complete five years and bring to primary education whether it’s public, international or private school. More than 85% complete their junior secondary admission.”
Geocycle has disposed over 300,000 metric tons of waste since their inception with 62,641 metric tons disposed last year alone.
Pix by Krishan Ranasinghe
