Sri Lanka’s Central Environmental Authority seeks alternatives to plastic and polythene
Sri Lanka’s Central Environmental Authority (CEA) has reportedly urged Sri Lankan manufacturers to forward the list of environmentally friendly alternative products that can be used instead of polythene papers and plastic bags in order to prevent the country’s land and ocean from being polluted from excessive waste polythene and plastic waste.
CEA, Director (Investigations) N.S. Gamage has told Daily News Business that whatever precautionary measures taken by the CEA to stop dumping used polythene and plastic to the environment without using proper waste management disposal methods, people do not listen to their requests and continue to dump them.
“This situation is increasing the dumping of waste polythene and plastics to the environment every day, and this sorry situation prompted CEA to invite Sri Lankan manufacturers to forward proposals of alternative products that can be used instead of polythene and plastics. “We have already inserted newspaper advertisements in this regard and after receiving suitable proposals we will discuss the possibility of their proposals after discussing with relevant Ministry officials, expert committee and health authorities in this regard.”
Gamage has said many bio-degradable materials are currently used by people to make many kinds of items such as plates, cups , bags, spoons straws to drink water and that are easily degraded without causing any harm to the environment.
He further noted that the CEA is hopeful that it will be able to introduce environmentally friendly items to the country instead of plastic and polythene that create harm not only to the environment but also to the ocean damage to the fishing industry.
“Manufacturing of ear buds with plastic stem, inflatable toys , sachets which are having capacity of 20ml (20g) or below, filling or formulation of agro- chemicals or pesticide in plastic bottles made of PET (Poly-Ethylene-Terephthalate) and PVC (Poly-Vinyl-Chloride) have also been banned from January 1 this year,” he has said.
OSL take:
The search for alternatives to plastic and ploythene in Sri Lanka is a growing business opportunity that could also be included in the country’s manufacturing exports sector. Foreign businesses engaged in introducing eco friendly consumer products could look at the growing business opportunity in Sri Lanka. They could also look at setting up a manufacturing facility in Sri Lanka to engage in exporting goods to countries with which the island has preferential trade deals.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20210121/Z_4 |