28 November 2023 12:00 am Views - 555
The overflowing Gohagoda Garbage dump has stopped taking in waste, but looks so unhygienic and an eyesore to passerby
“During the past 10 years, we have successfully reduced garbage by 60-70 tons per day. Mostly hotels, hospitals, and housing complexes are given the necessary instructions to reduce their waste in different ways”
- Nimal Dissanayake,
Engineer overseeing Waste Management at Kandy Municipal Council
“We have agents who collect waste in these places and distribute it to our factory. When we take the Central Province around 60 tons of plastic are discarded every month. Every citizen has a part to play in this issue and take the responsibility to separate these plastics from the waste”
- Akeel Hassem Managing
Partner FIFAS Recycling
Dissanayake said that the Gohagoda dump takes in the garbage from Harispaththuwa; the facility is used to store 15- 20 tons of garbage daily. As a solution to negotiate the garbage being collected exceeding stipulated limits the KMC has stopped dumping Polythene. The Polythene that is collected is sent to the Insee Cement Manufacturing Factory in Puttalam to be used as a fuel to manufacture cement. Nearly 200 tons of polythene is given to the factory by the KMC. He also stated that inorganic waste without glasses is collected for a new project planned by the KMC. The project is a new semi-automated sorting plant constructed after spending 60M rupees to sort out the Inorganic substances from garbage. As a result, the garbage dump at Gohagoda doesn’t collect any Inorganic waste today, according to Dissanayake.
He added that inorganic waste such as e-waste (electronic waste) is collected and sold by the KMC through the buying centre ‘Sampath Piyasa’ for recycling purposes. The plastic recycling factory at Gohagoda recycles plastics and makes zips which they sell back to the recyclers. The Engineer also complained about the absence of rules and correct ways of disposing bulbs and batteries; which is becoming a great issue in the future.
Akeel Hassem, the managing partner of FIFAS recycling factory spoke about the process of how this institute works with plastic and paper materials. The company collects waste materials from locations such as Kandy, Peradeniya, Nuwara Eliya, Welimada, and Hatton and supplies these raw materials to companies producing plastic products. FIFAS Recycling collects 40% plastic and 50% paper from Kandy.
Hassem stated, “We have agents who collect waste in these places and distribute it to our factory. When we take the Central Province around 60 tons of plastic are discarded every month. Every citizen has a part to play in this issue and take the responsibility to separate these plastics from the waste. If they do their part by separating the plastic and other materials, the recycling process would be much easier.”
The responsibility thereby not only falls on factories that take such initiatives in preventing excess garbage dumps, but it falls on every individual in terms of segregating and disposing of garbage in the right manner.
Improper dumping of plastic has caused damage to the environment. Dissanayake said that Pp (Polypropylene) and HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) are the only types of plastic that are recycled. He also said that 70% of ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastics are found in the circuits of televisions which consist of the E-waste used by the people, but this type of plastic isn’t bought by recyclers. Therefore, the volume is high and uncontrollable. It has been found that cement blocks can be constructed using polythene and as a result it would reduce the polythene being used.
He also explained that compost is made using domestic and commercial waste collected around Kandy City. The garbage-generating pattern changes every 10 years due to the difference in people’s lives. The COVID-19 pandemic reduced the quantities of garbage being dump due to the smaller number of visitors. The hotels created the largest organic waste, which was down due to the effects of the pandemic. Currently, as a result of the economic crisis, the lower and middle-income earners have reduced their quantities of garbage disposal.
“During the past 10 years, we have successfully reduced garbage by 60-70 tons per day. Mostly hotels, hospitals, and housing complexes are given the necessary instructions to reduce their waste in different ways,” said Dissanayake. He strongly rubbished the statement made by mothers that their children have developed rashes due to the accumulating of garbage and its trickledown effect of threatening hygiene.
He elaborated on Meda Ela stating that the canal at William Gopallawa Mawatha is polluted due to the dumping of garbage. He added that though the people are allocated days and time slots for different types of garbage to be kept on the road for the KMC to collect, people are still dumping garbage into the canal. Dissanayake stated that people are reluctant to separate garbage and they are used to dumping garbage into the canal. He added that they will fine and take legal action against the people who dump garbage into the canal. He also wants to advise members of the society not to dump garbage using illegal ways at night and when passing by in their vehicles.
Dissanayake stated that Kandy is 80% free from Garbage. He also said that Kandy had won the Waste Management Presidential Silver Award in April, 2023. In order to make Kandy a cleaner city, he requested the people to support the awareness programmes and to dump garbage in keeping with the time table provided by KMC. He added that people should cooperate more with the Municipal, Urban Councils and other local authorities.