Transcription
Every year in Sri Lanka, over 200,000 tons of plastic waste is dumped into landfills like what you're seeing behind me. And the worst part is it not only affects the environment as you can see and the people and the communities that call these places home, but also the wildlife.
What is up guys and welcome back to my channel. In this video, we are going to be diving head first into the plastic crisis here in Sri Lanka. And I'm going to be taking you through some of the incredible solutions that are being brought up to solve this issue.
Sri Lanka generates more than 250,000 tons of plastic waste every single year. And nearly 70% of it remains unmanaged. Only about 11% is collected and sent for recycling. The rest slips through weak waste systems and ends up in rivers, canals, beaches, roadsides, and in more than 300 unofficial dump sites scattered across the island. As a result, Sri Lanka is now listed among the top five countries contributing to ocean plastic pollution per capita.
But despite the overwhelming scale of this crisis, the real story isn't just about the problem. It's about the people who are beginning to change the way we use plastic and the solutions big and small that are slowly taking shape across the island.
In developing countries like Sri Lanka, plastic tends to take a very linear route where you take pellets, you make plastic and then you dispose of it. And there's no real circular economy or way of reducing the plastics at the source let alone recycling it.
Now, we are here in Shrinkali today, which is a tourism hot spot, but one that also famously has a notorious plastic issue. And I'm going to be taking you to see not only the distance that the plastic that we use travel across the land, but also under the sea.
Hi, my name is Modita. We're here in Trinkamali to do a seabed cleanup. The plastic pollution here and also the fishing nets is quite severe. And what we've seen is plastic bags, plastic bottles, sachets, food wrappers, you name it, it's there. And what it has caused is all these reeves are just filled with plastic that they break into small microplastics. they go and get stuck inside the cavities of the reef.
As we know, most of this plastic ends up in the ocean through rivers and canels because of the lack of waste management in Sri Lanka and everything else ends up in the environment. So, we really need to change our behavior, our addiction to single-use plastic because only if we be the change makers can we only really see the change happening in our ocean and in our environment.
Last year, we produced a video called The Ultimate Guide to Origami, showcasing its stunning beaches, surf breaks, and vibrant local life. But during that time, we also became aware of another side to this paradise, a landfill just a few kilometers inland from the tourist hotspot. We knew we had to see it for ourselves to truly understand the scale of the waste disposal issue that continues to plague this island.
The reason we came here is because we've been hearing about this landfill in Arugami. And most importantly, we heard that there were elephants coming here and feeding off the garbage. And so we wanted to come and see it for ourselves. And it's just the most shocking thing ever.
Every single piece of plastic here is us. It's us humans. It's our greed and our convenience and our ignorance of like not really caring about how we throw away these things, what happens to it after. All that really matters is what we want right now. That's where we are as a society of people today. And if you if we want to be that way, that's fine. But why do we have to affect the animals? Like I mean this is so unfair. And what's even more frustrating is that there are solutions available. There are people who are willing to provide solutions. So this doesn't have to be this way.
Problem identification is extremely important but I've always been a big believer that being solution focused is the way to solve the problems in our society. Now we are here today in Kalutura in the western province where we are with Paraml Plastics and I want to show you guys some people who have made some great leaps and bounds in solving a part of the problem. Not completely but everything matters. So let's go in and see what they've been up to.
Every day three tons of plastic is brought to this factory and offloaded where the men and women who work here right here behind me where they sort out this plastic and the people who bring it in are usually individuals or there are smalltime collectors who make sure to sort out this garbage into hard plastics only. Now hard plastics come in a couple of different varieties and that's what's happening back here. They're separating it into the different types of hard plastic as well as sorting it out by color before going into the next process.
But just looking at this plastic that I see here in front of me, I can already see so many household products including ice cream containers to liquid laundry, detergent bottles. So the work that's being done here is very important to everyday people like you and me. These are products that we use on a daily basis. And there are 150memes that are involved in this value chain that acted is supporting actively to create this ecosystem. And right now we are at another one which is called SKK recycling. This is a bigger operation where they handle six tons of hard plastic on a daily basis. I think at that point you're doing community service here in Sri Lanka.
After the plastic is sorted by type and color, it moves on to the processing stage. Powerful shredders break it down into smaller and smaller pieces until it becomes a fine uniform material. These fragments are then washed and dried to remove dust, labels, and other impurities before moving forward. Once clean and ready, the plastic is gently heated, preparing it for the final stage of its transformation.
And now was the coolest part for me. So the particles we just saw are put into this machine, this final machine, and it moves through here. And this area heats it up to a very high temperature where it's now liquid. And then it is output in these strings where it immediately dips into this water, this cold water that hardened the consistency. And now once it is hardened, it moves all the way along here. is relatively cool now as well into this last machine. We will finally chop it into uniformsiz that can now be bought by other companies or used to make something. for cash flow.
It's very encouraging to see the work that is done here at Paramouth Plastic, especially when it comes to hard plastic. There is life after disposal. And we'll get to that later. But what I can see now just from understanding this operation is that this is extremely valuable to the plastic problem that we have. And the solution should involve multiplying operations like this, but also scaling operations like this.
And that's where these operations really need help and that's where organizations like act which is funded by the European Union switcher fund really come in and do a lot of handholding and support and that can go from consultations trainings even to providing machinery needed to increase capacity all the way to green financing the financing that is necessary to expand this kind of operation. So, I'm very, very impressed with what's happening here.
Now, this property is a little different, and I really appreciate the extra work that goes in here. They take in a lot of different varieties of hard plastic that usually get rejected by most people because there's just too much effort and manual labor involved in taking out the parts that are usable and discarding the parts that aren't. For example, we have right here silicone gum that you usually use to seal things. And what's interesting is that this is hard plastic on the outside. But you need to do what he's doing, break it open and in fact dislodge the hardened silicone that is there once these are tossed away and remove a different type of plastic that's within it before you can release this for your use.
Now, a lot of people will just outright reject these kind of things because it's just too hard to process. But there's extra effort being taken in here. And that is that intricateness that I said before. One thing that this makes me realize is that we do need more policy around the type of packaging that we do allow for products. Cuz usually I would look at all of the plastic, even the ones that are easily processed, and think to myself, "Oh, this is all bad." But now I understand that okay plastic is something that's going to be very difficult to stop the usage of overnight at least. But if plastic is that is being used in the market is the type of plastic that can easily be processed like the cans that I can see right outside here. Those things can be just bottle cap off chucked into the machine ready to go. And if there were a policy to make sure packaging is easier to recycle and not complicated, that might actually make plastic a little bit less negative as long as it's feeding into the recycling ecosystem, which is what's happening right here as we see or the start of what's happening right here in the western province of Sri Lanka.
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when we started filming for this project, uh, we ended up in Arugambe, as you may have seen the footage from, and it absolutely broke our hearts to see not only the state of the environment, but also to see our majestic elephants feasting on this toxic waste.
And now after my experience with these two factories, what I'm understanding is a lot of this plastic that I'm seeing here that is being given value that is being reused and recycled and put back into the system to good use. There was so much of this stuff in that landfill as well. So clearly this is a solution that can be applied to all over the island. I mean if not a complete solution it will at least take 50 to 80% of this kind of hard plastic out the environment taken by people who can put a value on it and sold to people who can put a further value on it and this really is part of the solution.
While solutions have existed for some time, educating stakeholders and encouraging them to take part remains a challenge in itself and that's where acted and partners funded by the European Union switch Asia program truly comes into play. Bridging the gap between awareness and action.
Fore and right behind me you will see the final product of all the plastic that has been recycled. So this factory makes two products. The agro hose which is used widely for irrigation and farming purposes as well as the PVC pipe. Now I don't need to get into the use cases of that. Everyone knows but these are two products that are very widely used.
Now, I want you to think about the fact that everything you see behind me is a brand new product and will go to the market as a brand new product, but it has all been made from the recycled plastic of what we just saw being unloaded from the lorry this morning. And you would see that kind of stuff in a canal. You'll see it in a beach and uh you will see it littered in all sorts of places and you would think this is worthless. But here is living proof that it is actually not worthless. There's absolute value in the plastic that you see all around you. It just needs to be collected, organized, sorted, and given to the right people who will make the right use out of it.
And I also want to add in the fact that if this factory feels like the demand is too much and they don't have enough plastic to recycle and make this, they will actually buy from another organization that does a similar kind of process. So now you're becoming extremely efficient and you're kind of depending on each other and just multiply this kind of operation just in the western province alone and you'll be able to see a huge impact.
But the truth is that just recycling and reusing plastic isn't enough to solve the problem in the long term. We have to look at ways to reduce our plastic consumption as a community at the source. Now the interesting thing about Sri Lankan society is that traditionally we had a lot of sustainable habits in our culture. That can look like using clay pots and plates, using banana leaves as plates, using wooden cutlery or even using woven bags for when you go to do your grocery shopping or you're going to the market.
Now, those are things that we can fall back into as a community. And it's places like the Good Market that actually create a platform for vendors to bring back those items and those techniques and habits to the modern consumer, but in a way that is more relatable to them. But sustainability isn't just about reviving old habits. It's also about adapting them into modern life.
Across the country, new initiatives are finding innovative ways to reduce single-use plastic and make sustainable choices easier for everyone. One such initiative can be found right here in Columbbo at the Fort Railway Station where a simple refill system is helping people make a big difference in their daily routines.
So, this is a perfect example of a circular economy solution. This is basically reusing the plastic that you already have at home and not buying a new container every time you want new set of detergent or whatever the liquid that you need. You can just come here to a vending machine like this. Bring your own container and you get this nice label which gives you the date of filling, the volume and everything. You can decide how much you want, pay by card or cash. And also it's 20% cheaper than buying at the supermarket because you're just buying the liquid and you're bringing your own container. It's it's a really great solution. It's just a matter of getting everyone on board and getting them to understand how this is actually easier for them. I mean, this is at the train station here in Columbus. So, anyone who's done with work and go heading home can just stop here, refill their containers, and get on the train and go home. So, we have multiple of these around the island in locations. It'll make it easier. And our act is trying to do is similar to this except they're going to include not only detergent and shampoo. Uh there's going to be more things such as coconut oil, fresh milk, and even pulses and grams can be included in a system like this. So, it's basically going back to our roots where we used to go shopping with our own bags and our own containers.
From reduce reuse to recycle. This is a problem that we can solve within the next 10 years in Sri Lanka. And this is something that you can see right here where I'm standing. This is the Mito garbage dump or the Kunukanda, also known as the garbage mountain. As you can see behind me, I'm standing in a place of pure greenery with wind and no bad smell and lots of birds in the background. So, what happened to this garbage mountain? Unfortunately, this mountain that towered over this suburban region of Columbbo actually collapsed and fell on to communities of people that were living below it. And this crisis really did lead to something amazing. This whole area has now been cleaned up and the earth was given a chance to breathe and look what it has brought out into the world. And that exactly is my point. This is an example of what can happen when people come together and demand for changes. But it can't be done alone. Our superpower as a nation has always been our ability to come together in crisis. And this is a crisis. It may not look like it right now because we do a great job of cleaning our streets, but behind the scenes, the crisis still exists and we should solve it and attend to it before it becomes out of hand.
And so if you enjoyed this video, please share this message and start talking about what everyone can do. Because if I can leave you with one thing, it is that you do not have to be perfect in this journey. Everyone just simply needs to try and start and do their best. It is fine to slip up and make mistakes. It is about the intention. Do your best in your capacity. And if everyone does that and we multiply that by 22 million, we will have the most incredible progress and results in this issue. And with that, thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye.