Plastic waste and its shadow twin, plastic pollution, are topics of urgent concern in Sri Lanka. The Indian Ocean island-nation of 21 million people is rich with biological diversity and ecological splendor, but it is also faced with an abundance of waste, driven by increasing plastics use. As a patient, the country is diagnosed with acute plastic pollution. Symptoms include both visible and invisible warning signs: plastic piles in waterways and on beaches; wildlife ingesting plastics; increasing dengue and other disease vectors; landfills running out of space, and new dumpsites popping up. In recent years, public awareness of the waste problem has been more readily acknowledged (especially after the Meethotamulla landfill collapse in 2017), and remedies attempted, yet definitive solutions to this growing menace remain elusive. However plastic has not always been so ubiquitous.
Plastic was invented in 1907, but has only been used widely since the 1960s. In these past 60 years, it has become pervasive in all aspects of human life – from how we eat (take out, packaged foods), to how we travel (plastic parts, plastic seats), to how we dress (synthetics), to how we pay for things (credit cards), to what we buy (cheap plastic items). It’s not easy to kick the habit when society is geared to make plastic the ‘easy option.’ Plastics are also linked to the development of economies, or as Captain Charles Moore says, “Plastics are the lubricant of globalization.” Yet, the convenience of plastics comes with a high social and environmental cost to current and future generations. One illustration of the problem is the polluted face on the tropical island of Sri Lanka, much different than anything previous generations witnessed.
Outdated Conceptions of Waste Management In a Time of Environmental Crisis
Delineating what is waste, and when and how items are to be ‘thrown away,’ are taught, social behaviors. The current habit of ‘throwing things away’ is a mindless practice of waste management, which discounts the value of nature and natural resources; the processes that went into making goods and producing food; transportation factors; and ultimately the health of both environment and society. If we look at a material like plastic — from extraction, production, use, to disposal — there are varying levels of harm embedded in each stage. When items are used only once and then thrown away, the whole cycle repeats itself.
Rising waste challenges in urbanizing Sri Lanka have caused shifting waste practices over the years. However, these changes have not been sufficient to address the core of the waste issue. For instance, ‘beautification’ and ‘clean streets’ programs were designed to keep waste out-of-sight-out-of-mind, instead of questioning the increasing availability and use of plastics. In cities and towns, dumping rates accelerated with increasing appetites for packaged foods and consumer goods. In Colombo, the island’s main city, this phenomenon resulted in the filling of three urban landfills: first the Blue Mandel landfill; then Meethotamulla landfill; and finally the Mutharajawela landfill.
In 2017, after the Meethotamulla collapse, the social awareness and outcries around waste made it seem as if new social norm for waste practices could be catalyzed. Waste sorting and segregation were put into policy. Scientific management techniques of waste management were put forward, and new guidelines were formulated. Public interest in beach clean-ups and city beautification surged. However, the primary emphasis of the waste plans that emerged have focused on the downstream management of waste (managing waste more efficiently once it has already become waste), rather than the upstream solutions (keeping material out of the waste stream in the first place, reducing the amount of waste generated).
The Multiple Challenges of Plastic Pollution
By relying on an economic system that externalizes waste at the cost of the environment, society has run aground. Plastic waste and the impacts of plastic pollution are broad, relatively recent, and evolving issues – not unrelated to climate change, water pollution, air pollution, forest loss, biodiversity loss, etc. Yet, how do we relate to the present environmental crisis, when nothing of this magnitude has ever come before?
There are many entry points into the topics of plastic waste and plastic pollution. For instance, the marine perspective, that plastics as marine debris are washing up on coastlines around the world. The biological perspective, that microplastics are eaten by animals along the food chain and bio-accumulate into foods we eat. The health perspective, that exposure to certain kinds of plastics and their additives leads to adverse human health effects such as chemical exposure and endocrine disruption. The environmentalist perspective, that plastics littered throughout natural areas destroy habitat and interfere with wildlife. The social perspective, that lower income groups are more exposed to plastics and their ills as more cheap, packaged goods are marketed to them. The engineering perspective, that management and efficiency of waste are lacking. The political advocacy perspective, that policy needs to be revisited to reflect the challenges of the times – and so forth. Yet, each of these is only one piece of the complex whole of the current scenario.
In a systems problem like waste, the reality is not ‘one’ issue, but interlinking issues where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Valid efforts to address waste issues come from all sides, yet a piecemeal ‘solving’ of plastic waste and plastic pollution is one of the reasons why complex problems like this persist. Fundamentally, it is not about solving a linear problem, but shifting the social system from a state of environmental imbalance to one of responsibility and stewardship.
Valuing Waste as Resource
Part of the challenge of waste is the way we define it. The negative conception of waste perpetuates the process of getting rid of waste as quickly and efficiently as possible in a linear fashion, without considering the consequences. Waste is something we don’t want; something we don’t want to look at; something we want to throw away. Junk, trash, refuse, rubbish, litter, debris, dumps, landfills, junkyards, wastelands, zones of sacrifice– all the antithesis of order and cleanliness, something to be distanced; associated with the poor. These ideas are all part of the negative framing of waste. What if we called it ‘second-round resources’ or ‘urban resources’ or a similar term? How would systems for second-round resources differ from waste management systems?
Waste is undoubtedly coupled with the processes of consumption. Just as we buy and accumulate things to show what we are and what we have, we can be defined equally by the inverse of this equation: what we waste and throw away. Modern society is founded on the mechanism of ‘wasting;’ while earlier societies placed more value on the repurposing and reuse of materials.
Opportunity for Shifting Waste Practices
If we observe the symptoms of waste in Sri Lanka, the diagnosis is bad. However, if we look for potential leverage points for change, in many ways, Sri Lanka is at an advantage to tackle plastic waste and ensuing plastic pollution. The population is relatively small and the area is relatively concentrated. The country is still in the process of urbanizing and infrastructures not yet in place can be designed to minimize and conserve (and not burn or bury wastes). The nation is home to many alternative materials such as jute, areca, hemp, and banana leaf that offer entrepreneurial packaging potential. Tourism is an important industry, so it might be possible tax visitors in order to fund environmental programs, including the greening of hotels. As an island, harmful materials can be banned and kept out, and sustainable materials practices supported and incentivized. And most importantly, there is a rising citizen concern about the impact of waste. The urgency to do something is clear. Every day is a day of waste generation. For the pearl of the Indian ocean to maintain its ecological diversity and verdant charm, concerned citizens and social leaders from all sectors must coordinate on minimizing plastics and minimizing waste generation.
Questions for Further Discussion:
1.) Have you ever visited your local dump and/or local recycler? Do you know where your waste goes and how it is processed?
2.) What is something that you define as waste that could be considered a resource?
3.) Have you tried to minimize your plastic consumption footprint? If so, how?
