Country Report: Status of Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka faces substantial challenges in managing its Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), attributed to factors like population growth, urbanization, changing consumption patterns, and fast growth of industrial and service sectors. Alarmingly, only 37% of city and district centers in the country benefit from official MSW collection services. The use of open dumps for solid waste disposal remains a primary method, leading to environmental degradation and posing substantial health and climate hazards. The global landscape, influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and international commitments to combat the growing issues of plastic pollution, chemical waste and environmental degradation, has profound impact on the waste management scenario in the country. In response, the Ministry of Environment (MOE), Sri Lanka in collaboration with other stakeholders, have formulated a comprehensive policy encompassing all aspects of waste management in 2020. However, the critical challenge lies in executing those policies at the national, provincial, and local authority levels.