“Burning garbage is a serious environmental problem”

According to the World Bank Report 2021, 80 percent of Sri Lanka’s waste will be incinerated, most of which is found in the rural areas, Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.

The Minister was addressing the World Recycle Day conference held on the occasion through the Zoom application recently.

Eighty percent of our population lives in the rural areas. It has been confirmed that most of the garbage incineration takes place in the rural sector. The urban sector is somewhat systematic in disposing of garbage and solid waste.

But even in the urban sector, there are instances where some people burn plastic polythene. Burning of polythene and plastic is a serious environmental hazard.
Under the current government, polythene and plastics have been banned on several occasions, giving priority to environmental protection.

Accordingly, we banned the sachets packets. According to the statistics we are used at a cost of Rs. 960 million per year. Also, according to the ban on non-perishable lunch sheets, we will be able to get rid of them 100% in another three months.

I also obtained Cabinet approval to ban eight other types of plastic and polythene products. Although it was informed to prepare the relevant gazette notification, it has still been delayed. Some multinational companies have taken steps to replace plastic spoons and forks as well as new alternative products.

But it has been reported to me that due to the delay in the gazette notification; those companies are now turning to plastics again.

This is due to delays in the work of some officials in the Ministry of Environment. Therefore, I instructed the officers to prepare the gazette notification as soon as possible. About 08% of the plastic and polythene used in our country is recycled. Everything else joins the environment.
The next major environmental challenge we face is face masks.

The Marine Environmental Protection Authority says that more than 05 billion masks used to protect against the Covid 19 virus have been released into the environment during the past and have been released into the ocean. The population of our country is close to 22 million. Fifty percent of that, or at least 11 million, dispose of face masks daily. All of this eventually adds up to the environment.

Therefore, my advice on World Recycling Day today is to educate as many children as possible about proper garbage disposal. There is no point in giving advice to adults. But our children love the environment very much. I request you to initiate a continuous awareness program for this purpose, ”he said. Additional Secretaries to the Ministry and a number of officials were present at the occasion.