cleaner waste

2/20/2016 Cleaner waste » The Nation

http://nation.lk/online/2016/01/30/cleanerwaste.html 1/8

Cleaner wasteBy Arthur Wamanan and Dimuthu Attanayake - Jan 30, 2016

Until recently businesses and environment have never seen eye to eye, andwere considered completely different entities, unrelated to each other.However, recent environmental hazards, climate change impacts and greenactivism have compelled big corporates to incorporate environmentassessment into their reports.

Several incidents reported in the recent past that resulted in detrimentalimpacts on the environment were allegedly due to the negligence ofcompanies and factories. A similar incident was reported in Hanwella earlylast year where residents protested against a rubber factory, citing watercontamination. The glove factory in Rathupaswala was forced to relocate toBiyagama after residents claimed that the drinking water was contaminateddue to improper waste management system adopted by the factory.

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Even though it was not proven that the factorywas the reason for the water contamination, theissue inculcated a culture in which the public ismore concerned about the environment they livein and businesses have to prove that they have anenvironment friendly waste management system.

More recently, one of the world’s leadingbeverage companies was embroiled in acontroversy after an oil leakage from one of its tanks contaminated the KelaniRiver.

Assessment of 4,000 companies The issue prompted the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) to conduct acontinuous assessment exercise on approximately 4,000 companies, situatedalong or adjacent to the river banks. The CEA earlier announced that it wouldrevoke licences of companies that fail to conform to the standards.

According to Acting Deputy Director General, Environmental Pollution andControl Division of CEA, Dr. RMSK Rathnayake, did not revoke EPLs of any ofthe companies during the inspection process. “We have identified certaincompanies whose waste management standards do not meet ourspecifications. We have given them a warning and a time frame to rectify thefaults,” he said.

Today, it has come to a situation where in many countries, companies wouldnot be allowed to function without an Environmental Protection Licence (EPL).However, experts say that the concept of Environmental Impact Assessmentis not enforced to its full potential.

Loopholes in the system Dean of the Law Faculty, Colombo University Prof. A Sarveswaran says thatthe lack of proper enforcement has resulted in people making use ofloopholes in the legal system which eventually affect the environment.

“For example, if the law says that the owner of a poultry farm should have aproper waste management system if it exceeds a certain land area, there are

The issue prompted theCentral EnvironmentalAuthority (CEA) toconduct a continuousassessment exercise onapproximately 4,000companies, situatedalong or adjacent to theriver banks



cases where they divide the land and function as separate farms. This sort ofmanipulation should be addressed through a firm enforcement strategy,” heemphasized.

Sarveswaran said that Sri Lanka needed to establish an Environment Tribunalwhich would allow concerned parties to take action on environmental issues.“The authorities could also come up with a mechanism where the disputecould be settled out of court,” he said. He also pointed out that the CEA needed to have a mechanism to monitorenvironment related issues at prisons. A CEA official stated that there was nomechanism to monitor environmental issues and waste handling in prisons.“We take actions based on the complaints received,” the official said.

Environmental auditing Senior Professor at Sri Jayewardenepura University Management Studies andCommerce Faculty, Kennedy D. Gunawardana pointed out that the concept ofenvironmental auditing was also important. “Environment is an importantasset. It is a broader concept that includes air, soil, building, people and theiractions. Environmental auditing takes into account whether the people’sactions harm the environment or not. When regular monitoring is carried out,we could take precautions, implement certain controls before the damage isdone. Releasing harmful substances to the environment is a serious issue asmost of the time it is deliberate. Profit-motivated industries pollute theenvironment as they believe this is a mode of cost reduction. However, part.of the company managers’ job is to take measures to protect theenvironment by proper waste-control mechanisms. They should not withholdinformation concerning their industrial processes.”

Accordingly, environment auditing is extensively carried out in the printingindustry in Thailand, where they focus on waste control mechanisms. He saidthat certain garment factories in Sri Lanka has included carbon footprintreduction mechanisms into their production process.

In addition, the European Union rejects our garments unless we adhere tocertain standards in the production process. However, environment auditingis rare in Sri Lanka. Although there are current government organizations forthis purpose, limited resources and expertise is a major barrier to practicing



this on a large scale.

Social responsibility However, Prof. Kennedy believes that community also has a responsibilitytowards their environment. Religious organizations such as temples andchurches should take an initiative to actively guard their environment. “Whatwe need is for environmental friendly groups to check the organizations intheir community for their water usage, chemical release and so on.”

According to Sabaragamuwa University, Management Studies Faculty,lecturer on Eco Business Management, Dr. Sampath Wahala, there arevarious environment management tools to measure the industrial processes.One such measure is the carbon footprint estimation. This is a measure ofclimate change impact. However, carbon footprint is not just carbon dioxide.It takes into account all green house gases. Therefore, there is anenvironment management tool referred to as carbon dioxide equivalentfootprint, which measures total climate change impact of all the gases. Usingthis tool is beneficial to the industry as well. “An organization has to measureall energy related emissions such as electricity, transport, waste disposal andso on. We can calculate emission factors based on this. These are linked toorganizations expenditure as well. Therefore, when carbon footprint reducessome of their costs would decrease.”

Life cycle assessment is a tool to estimate the industrial process frommaterial extraction to the final product and its usage. By using this, you canquantify climate change, acid rain, water pollution in terms of eutrophicationand other impact categories. Green production is a process where scarceresources have to be managed efficiently.

“In this process, material usage has to be minimal, energy usage has to beoptimized, water usage and wastage has to be minimized. This should belinked to production and service sector. Basically, the consumption should bereduced.” Referring to the recent environmental hazards such as the CocaCola incident on Kelani River, Rathupaswala and the Hanwella rubber factoryincidents, he said that these factories have obtained ISO 14001 certification,which has environmental standards in place. In reality, these certificationsshould be obtained by a verification process. However, importance should be



given to following the guidelines afterwards. If an organization follows theseguidelines properly, there is no need of risk assessment.

Cleaner productions While treating waste has been a popular method to address the issue, theNational Cleaner Production Centre, Sri Lanka (NCPC-SL) takes a preventiveapproach. “Here we focus on the production process and not on treating thewaste that has been generated. We then provide recommendations on howthe factories could reduce waste generation. There is no additional costinvolved in this method. However, the companies need to invest a certainamount in order to reduce waste generation,” NCPC-SL, Chief ExecutiveOfficer (CEO), Samantha Kumara told Nation.

He said that several companies were skeptical of shifting towards reducingwaste generation since it required an initial investment. “There are no softloan facilities for environment-friendly investment. This is one concern,”Kumara added.

Kumara also highlighted the importance of making Cleaner Productionmethod a law in Sri Lanka. “Countries like China have adopted this law, whichmeans that the companies will have to comply with the law,” he said. After allit’s easier to prevent pollution and waste generation than clean up after themess has already been made.

cleaner waste

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