As the government works to stabilise the Meethotamulla dump and the National Building Research Organization (NBRO) conducts studies to determine exactly how the garbage slide occurred, solid waste management experts are lamenting both, the tragedy itself and the lack of progress the country has made in fixing it’s ever-mounting garbage problem.
Despite various proposals for waste management solutions, little action has been taken over the years, and the result of this deadlock was last week’s disaster.
Government officials are working to formulate a permanent solution to the garbage issue, but they have not come up with a course of action as of yet.
Prof. Mahesh Jayaweera, a Civil Engineer at the University of Moratuwa, who also works with the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development, noted that the authorities are looking into several options, but that nothing has been settled on as of yet.
Since garbage is no longer being deposited at Meethotamulla, authorities are sending garbage to a landfill in Dompe and an open dump in Karadiyana. These are not permanent solutions, but merely stopgap measures.
Other experts, however, contend that the Meethotamulla disaster should be a wake-up call for government officials to modernize and advance garbage disposal techniques to protect both, citizens and the environment.
Except for the landfill at Dompe, the rest of the garbage disposal sites are open dumps, or plots of land on which solid waste is dumped. This method of waste disposal is, obviously, environmentally disastrous.
“When you take a piece of land and dump millions of kilograms of garbage on it, you are creating major environmental issues. Firstly, you are going to have leeching and seepage into groundwater, and secondly, rainwater that comes into contact with garbage will contaminate surface water. The runoff naturally gets into various water bodies, be they lakes or rivers, and can contaminate them,” said former Director General of the Wildlife Department and a solid waste management expert Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya.
The land that the Meethotamulla open dump is situated on was a wetland from which a network of streams emanated, and officials are worried that the surface and groundwater contamination from the dump is severe. Furthermore, several houses situated near the dump draw water from wells, raising concerns about the quality of water the inhabitants drink.
Along with fouling water, dumps emit a large amount of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas closely linked to global warming. While those living around dumps must contend with the stench, methane release poses a problem for humankind.
Experts also pointed to the fact that hazardous waste routinely find their way into the dump.
“We don’t generally segregate hazardous waste from normal household waste, so tube lights, mercury bulbs, and batteries are being deposited in Colombo’s dumps, and the consequences of this are severe,” said Professor Ajith de Alwis, a chemical engineer at the University of Moratuwa and a waste management expert.
Though Colombo started a waste segregation program that was meant to enhance recycling, the results so far have reportedly been mixed. Many people do not separate their plastic and glass from paper and metal, and much plastic is still ending up in the Meethotamulla dump.
Officials have called for improvements to be made to the current system, but others are calling for a complete re-imaginating and redesigning of Colombo’s solid waste disposal strategies.
The Way Forward
The obvious place to start when trying to limit trash output is to promote the reuse of materials that would otherwise end up in open dumps. Reuse limits the buildup of trash, but it is only one part of an integrated waste management programme.
“In an integrated solid waste management project, the last point is a landfill. But before waste reaches that point, you recycle everything you possibly can, compost organic matter, and go for waste-to-energy projects,” said Pilapitiya.
Indeed, many developed countries have invested heavily in waste-to-energy technologies, many of which incinerate garbage to create electricity. Sweden, for example, incinerates about 50 percent of its solid waste to generate power. Critics of the procedure, however, note that the process releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“I am personally totally against incinerating garbage, even for waste-to-energy projects. It’s not the way forward, since you will spend more energy and effort trying to control the air pollution that the process produces,” said de Alwis.
There are, conversely, other waste-to-energy methods that do not depend on incinerating trash, and de Alwis noted that he would support those. But for him, the best path for the country would be a system that uses waste as the raw material for manufacturing.
“Some waste that comes from manufacturing processes has become quite complex, and it can be valuable. This waste should enter into a manufacturing environment and then be processed into useful materials. It then can be coupled back into the economy,” said de Alwis.
He added that several developed countries are doing similar projects. Sweden, for example, uses waste to create biogas, and 50 percent of this material is used in the transport sector to power trains and buses.
Vast swaths of the economy could be transformed through waste management innovations, as the country could benefit economically from environmentally sustainable waste processing measures. It would take significant investment to commence projects like the above, but de Alwis believes it is necessary to adopt the idea.
While advanced recycling and waste-to-energy projects are the golden standard in integrated waste management, it is still necessary to invest in and build engineered sanitary landfills.
These landfills differ from open dumps in that they have liners underneath that collect toxic leakage and seepage that can then be treated and disposed of, according to Pilapitiya. Furthermore, waste is often compacted and covered with soil, if not lightly treated to remove some toxicity. Methane is funneled to vents and then burnt.
“If you properly engineer and operate the landfills, the pollution potential coming out of the them is not that significant. I wouldn’t say there is no pollution, since there’s never zero pollution, but the pollution potential is very low,” said Pilapitiya.
Landfills are not perfect solutions, but they are significantly better and safer than open dumps.
These landfills, if properly organized and maintained, can later act as resource extraction points later on, once recycling is expanded in the country, said to de Alwis.
He noted that, if you have a bunch of old tires, you could store them in a landfill and then recycle them later on.
Pilapitiya noted that engineered sanitary landfills are safe for people to live near, and he argued that the country should not bring politics into the waste management discussion.
“For over two decades, Colombo has been trying to solve its garbage problem.
And successive governments have not been able to do that because there is public protest against having a landfill in their neighborhood or backyard. But putting a landfill in suburb of Colombo is not as bad as people think it is.”
“Waste is going to get generated, and it must be collected and disposed of. If we as public generate waste, we have a role to play in solving the problem. We have no choice whatsoever but to locate landfills for the waste in Colombo, and we should put the politics aside to solve the issue,” Pilapitiya added.
De Alwis offered a similar stance, and noted that it was important that the country learn from the Meethotamulla disaster in order to better its waste management system.
“Meethotamulla is a sad story, but we have to learn lessons from it. In Sri Lanka, we never learn lessons from the past. The incident was unfortunate, people paid with their lives, but that is a reason for us to look and learn lessons to ensure that they didn’t die in vain,” he said. 
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