Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2021-09-21

Management of recyclable waste generated from agricultural inputs in the North Central Province

- Many of the packagings used for agricultural inputs are made of polyethylene terephthalate, glass, high-density polyethylene and polypropylene. Haphazard disposal of these into environment and burning such things on farmlands and in households have caused environmental pollution and therefore a programme had been organized by the Ministry of Environment to recycle them in a proper manner. In the first instance, it has been planned to implement the proposed programme as a pilot project in the North Central Province in collaboration with the farmer organizations, Regional Offices of the Department of Irrigation and the Divisional Management Offices of Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority by further expanding the programme to collect and recycle discarded empty containers (plastic and glass), which is being implemented since 2016 by the Central Environmental Authority, the Office of the Registrar of Pesticides and Croplife-Sri Lanka Private Limited under the guidance of the Ministry of Environment. Measures have been taken to secure provisions under the Food Security and Climate Change Mitigation Assistance Programme of the World Health Organization for the purpose. Accordingly, the Cabinet approved the joint proposal made by the Minister of Environment and the Minister of Agriculture to declare the second week of March of each Yala season and the third week of September of each Maha season commencing from the year 2022, as empty plastic and glass container collection weeks under the said programme and to implement the said programme with the assistance of the Officers in the field of Agriculture and farmer organizations.