Waste to Resources Conversion Model to Sri Lanka and Analysis of Unidentified Socio-Economic Leakages

Abstract

Sustainable waste management is a prerequisite for all societies today to protect the environment and human health. The environmental burden caused by high waste generation rates should be effectively dealt with, since the link between economic growth and waste should be broken and decoupling should be achieved. Sri Lanka is facing a dilemma of how to effect economic development while preserving its rich environment and culture. As people’s lives and incomes rapidly change, traditional methods of waste disposal become increasingly inappropriate and detrimental to health. Existing organisations are taking steps to address the issues but, individually, lack the necessary network and linkages to effect widespread change. Most of the institutions are in their own silos without addressing the bigger issue with a holistic view. The paper is looked at the how experience in country specific on managing waste to resource conversion models and the consequences that are currently facing. How it should have being functioned in a sustainable manner. Further it analysis of key success factors of successfully running waste management system and waste to resources conversion models in other parts of the world, how such a system could have embedded to Sri Lanka. It identifies that this system is essential for Sri Lanka with Sustainable Development as the goal. It also addressed the socio-economic leakage that is not being addressed and no proper solution presently. There are limited statistics available of health trends over the past years that could reveal garbage related illnesses in humans, such as cancers, birth defects, respiratory disease, and impotency, related to the unmonitored dump sites located in wetlands and low-lying areas.
Keywords: Waste to resources conversion, Socio economic leakages, Sustainable model