Financial Times

Innovative businesses
Productive use of old Pet bottles and plastic waste
By Quintus Perera
Waste material from factories, offices or homes can be recycled and reused after processing, whether it is metals, broken glass, paper, plastics or for that matter even garbage. The recycling process reclaims the original material and when using them to make new products the cost is less and the energy used is also less.

In today's world, plastic has become indispensable and inseparable from modern day-to-day life. There are pillows, mattresses, carpets, blankets, bed-spreads made out of plastic. Then automobile parts, computer accessories, telephones, textiles, compact discs, paints, plumbing fixtures, boats, furniture are also made out of plastic. Further, life saving medical equipment and even certain body parts made out of plastic are used to replace defective body parts such as incompatible joints.

Even planes are manufactured with plastics.
However in Sri Lanka the waste material scenario is completely different, due to a lack of proper waste disposal it has created major environmental problems resulting in disease and unpleasant garbage dumps. In the backdrop of such a crisis in waste management, Viridis (Pvt) Ltd (VL), a BOI approved company, is offering a total solution to the plastic waste problem in Sri Lanka. VL is putting up a factory on a two-acre block of land at the Homagama Templeburg Industrial Complex to process plastic waste with work commencing by mid August.

The project was a result of an idea generated by the InXcess Corporation (Lanka) Private Ltd, a company set up several years ago to export garments. This company has four directors -- Lee Hock Chai from Malaysia, John Martin Stewert Phillips from UK and two Sri Lankans, Sampath Karunathilaka and Jayantha Seneviratne. Stewert Phillips separately owns around eight garment factories in Sri Lanka.

InXcess doesn’t manufacture garments but buys from outside -- China, Malaysia and Sri Lanka and exports mainly to UK. Involvement in waste issues came when Chai negotiated with some of his friends in Malaysia as well as in Thailand to export recycled plastic waste. Thus the same directors floated Viridis to recycle plastic waste with a total investment of Rs 76 million.

Vidiris first undertook a comprehensive survey of the availability of plastic waste in the country. Sanjeewa Wijesuriya, General Manager, VL who is in-charge of the factory said initially PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) plastic bottles that are used for mineral water, edible oil, etc will be processed.
The machines would initially be running one shift per day which could give the company an output at the rate of 1000 kilograms per hour and “we expect to export 100 tons per month".

He said that the machines could run continuously for 24 hours a day once they are able to collect all the plastics in the country. At the factory, old plastic bottles are cleaned and through the process transformed into flake form, packed in bags and exported. Wijesuriya said that at present the company plans to only convert the plastic waste into flake form while the real recycling would take place in the countries where the processed waste is exported. He said that the recycled plastic could be used to turn out car parts, plastic collars, bicycle seats, etc. Gradually VL expects to turn the raw waste into finished products and export or use it in Sri Lanka itself. He said initially the flakes would be exported to countries like Thailand and Malaysia while exploring the possibility of exporting to other countries too. There are plans to also import plastic waste from other neighbouring countries if this is economically viable and once they accomplish the total Sri Lankan programme of turning products out of waste.

Jayantha Seneviratne, Director, VL said their venture helps the country immensely by eliminating plastic pollution and turning it into productive use, and earning foreign exchange to the tune of around US $ 75,000 per month now. During the first stage around 50 would get direct employment while indirect employment would also be created. At full capacity, the factory would double the number of direct employment. Sampath Karunathilaka, the other Sri Lankan director, said it’s not an easy task to make the people aware of the environmental impact created by plastic waste.

“To make the people aware of the present crisis and also to motivate them on the potential of earning extra money in supplying this plastic waste, we have launched extensive awareness and motivation campaigns which have been successful." He said that they have linked up with various environmentally friendly NGOs and also got school children involved in the collection of plastic waste in a project called "Inter-school campaign to protect the environment". A kilo of plastic waste is purchased at the rate of Rs 20 or an exercise book is given instead.

He said that receiving educational material would be more advantageous for the students than receiving money. The company has an extensive network of collection agents in each district. Major publicity campaigns have been planned to make the people aware on supplying the plastic waste to these agents. Wijesuriya said that PET is only one part of the plastic waste problem. There are other plastic waste such as High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE). "Our machines could process this waste too. Once the process where the PET plastic waste is collected, processed and turned into finished products is streamlined, we would venture to collect other plastic waste too."

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