Case Study: Finding Better Solutions for Municipal Solid Waste Management in a Semi Local Authority in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This case study investigates better and sustainable waste management for a given area in Sri Lanka. A questionnaire and field surveys were performed in a small local authority adjacent to Colombo, the capital city. Composting for organic waste and incineration for non-compostable waste were found to be important treatment methods for solid-waste management. The reduction of solid waste is a critical process for sustainable management. Currently, people in the area do not have much interest in waste recycling to decrease the cost of solid-waste management. It was therefore concluded that raising people's awareness would play an important role in the reduction of solid waste. A suitable waste-management plan needs to be made for each community and area. The situation and conditions of every area is different, therefore each community needs to make an effort to find its own better and sustainable solid-waste management process.

Environmental impact assessment of organic fraction of municipal solid waste treatment by anaerobic digestion in Sri Lanka

“…The typical waste composition in Sri Lanka (Table 1) consists of high organic matter, a moderate amount of plastic and paper and a low content of metal and glass (Vidanaarachchi et al, 2006). Liyanage et al (2015) specified the other features of Colombo city’s MSW as 300–350 kg m −3 specific density, 55–65% moisture content and 600–1200 kcal kg −1 for calorific value. Based on the analytical results, the moisture content of the generated OFMSW in the Kaduwela area is 73.9 ± 1.05%.…”

Solid Waste Disposal Management Practices in Ghana, A Case Study of Subin Metropolis

“…In tackling waste management problems, Liyanage et al (2015) noted turning organic waste into compost and incinerating non-organic waste are important treatment methods for solid-waste management. Liyanage et al also found that reduction of solid waste is a critical process for sustainable management but people do not have much interest in waste recycling which has the potential to decrease the cost of solid-waste management.…”

Organic waste management: a review of practices from selected Asian countries

“…Household-level and community-based (decentralized) composting near to the source, is proven to be successful in most SAARC countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Comparatively, centralized composting sites are less successful (Guerrero et al, 2013;Liyanage, Gurusinghe, Herat & Tateda, 2015;Zurbrügg, Drescher, Rytz, Sinha & Enayetullah, 2005). Moreover, in island nations such as the Maldives, composting of organic waste is mostly done in backyards of homes (Glawe, Visvanathan, & Alamgir, 2005).…”

“…Unsuitable locations, public protests against odor and contamination of water bodies, marketing constraints are the reasons for the failure of centralized composting sites (Cofie et al, 2006;Hai & Ali, 2005;Liyanage et al, 2015). However, in some countries, composting is done in commercial level successfully.…”

“…Unplanned waste dumps cause broad range of issues to the local environment, such as bad odour, the release of greenhouse gases and other hazardous chemicals, soil contamination and spread of diseases through insects and rodents (Kamal et al, 2016;Ramachandra et al, 2018). Further, it has observed that most landfills are located in low-lying areas near water bodies where the water contamination risk is high (Gunaruwan and Gunasekara, 2016;Liyanage et al, 2015). Open burning of waste at landfills is another problem of poor waste management.…”