Mid Term Report Solid Waste Management and Disposal

Meegoda M.K.D.C.S Sri Lanka

1. This assignment is based on the waste collection disposal and generation data of Kandy city of Sri Lanka. Kandy is a city with a population of 102,459
and an area of 28 km2.Within the Kandy municipality there are 26722 households, 4947 commercial places, 647 institutions and 26 industries.
Figure 1: shows the solid waste stream of Kandy city

Mid Term Report Solid Waste Management and Disposal

Sri Lanka

Meegoda M.K.D.C.S

2. According to researches and reports regarding the Kandy city solid waste management system. There are
several survey methods that authorities and researches have done in order to take data of the composition
analysis of solid waste at generation point and point of disposal, Questioner survey to identify the SWM
behavior of residents.
Solid Waste Composition Analysis at Households (Generation Point)
The study lead by Abeynayaka and Werellagama, 2007 they have selected a randomly selected 400 houses
out of 2000 households and Each household was asked to dispose their SW into a bag given on the previous
day. Residents were instructed to dispose only the waste that they generally dispose to the KMC SW collection
system. The collected waste form the houses was separated into seven components including short term
biodegradable, long term biodegradable, polythene and other plastics, metal, glass, paper, and other minor
components. Then the weights of each component were measured.
Solid Waste Composition Analysis at Gohagoda Landfill (Disposal Point)
The same research group has taken samples from SW collection trucks of KMC in the study area once it arrived
to the disposal site at Gohagoda landfill. Then the collected sample size was reduced to a reasonable size to
sort by quartering technique. After that the reduced sample was separated into the seven components as in
generation point analysis.
Questionnaire Survey among the Households to Identify the SWM Behavior of the Residents
Questionnaire survey was conducted among selected households to collect the information about SWM.
Under the survey the information related to composting and source separation of the residents were collected
3. From the study conducted by (Abeynayaka and Werellagama, 2007) the composition of solid waste generated
in households in Kandy city and composition at dumping site is shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2 respectively .

Figure 2 : SW composition at generation

Figure 3 : SW composition at disposal

According to the results at generation and disposal Large portion of SW in Kandy city consist of Short term
biodegradable wastes which includes kitchen waste, garden waste ect. 15% of SW is possible to recyclable.

4. Two independent studies have conducted by JICA in 2002 and Science and technology research partnership
for sustainable development program in 2012 (SATREPS) they have estimated the total SW generation rate
and Total SW discharge rate the values are tabulated in table 1.

Mid Term Report Solid Waste Management and Disposal

Sri Lanka

Meegoda M.K.D.C.S

Table1: Per capita SW generation and disposal in Kandy city

Total Generation rate

Total Disposal rate

430.7
481.8

376.0
470.9

(kg/person/year)

JICA (2002)
SATREPS (2012 )

(kg/person/year)

Comparing with the values of Figure 8.6 in the text in 1999 the per capita SW generation of whole Sri Lank
was to be 325 kg/year. The SW generation values of Kandy is well above than the national per capita Solid
waste generation
5. According to a survey conducted by SATREPS in 2014 it has been estimated the waste composition in SW
according to the income levels of households and Commercial institutes. The results are shown in table 2.
Table 2: Composition of SW according to the income levels of households

From the data in the table it emphasis that there is a clear difference in solid waste according to the income
and the size of the institutions. In high income group percentages of Paper & cardboards, soft plastics and
hard plastics in SW is more than of middle income and low income group which indicates that they tend to
use more package items in their day today life. When considering e-waste high income group has higher
percentages over the other two groups. When considering the type of commercial institutes, the table clearly
gives information, that there are clear differences in the SW composition according the functionality of the
building.
6. In KMC the waste collection coverage is 90% and the total area of KMC has divided in to 6 Zones. Waste is
collected at pre informed time periods. Kandy has adopted two strategies to collect waste generated. Namely
curbside collection and Door to door collection. Previously Kandy did not practice waste segregation but
recently KMC has introduced waste segregations. Now residents are expected to segregate waste as
biodegradable and non-biodegradable. Non bio degradable are collected once a week and biodegradables are
collected 3 days per week. To collect waste KMC use different kind of equipment. To collect waste in main
Roads KMC use tractors or compactors. In narrow roads they use Hand carts or Tree wheelers.
3

Mid Term Report Solid Waste Management and Disposal

Sri Lanka

Meegoda M.K.D.C.S

Figure 4: Waste collection equipment in wide and main roads

Figure 5: Waste collection in minor or narrow roads

7. In the SWMS in Kandy there are material recovery activities .According to the study conducted by (Abeynayaka
and Werellagama, 2007) only 14.4% houses are currently engaged in source separation and 9.8% houses do
home composting. The materials recovered at the source is sold to middle man locally known as Bothal
pathtahra karaya he use to go by door to door and buy papers, glass bottles and metals and sell them to
recycling stations. Also the waste pickers who goes in garbage collection will collect the valuables separately
and sell them to collection points. Table 3 shows the market value for recovered materials in Kandy city in
year 2005. There are some special collection points established by established KMC where residents could
bring paper glass plastics and metal. Currently there are 3 recycle material collection centers and 12 junk
shops in KMC area.

Table 3:

Figure 6: Recycle material collection man ( BothalPaththara-Karaya ) at a junk shop

Waste is also separated at the dump site there waste is separated by waste pickers at the dump site mainly
they focus on the plastics. They collect plastics according to the color and type of plastics and they clean them
and shred them and make plastic pallets and sell them for the buyers.