SL dumps 40,000 tonnes of recyclable hazardous waste

Sri Lanka outputs 40,000 tonnes of hazardous waste a year, out of which plastics, mercury lights, computer boards, generators, compressors for air conditioners, etc. can be recycled. While there is no domestic facility for recycling this waste, because it is too expensive to set up; it can be exported to countries like China and Malaysia where there is a market for it, according to pioneer electronic waste exporter Nalin Gunaratne.

Nalin Gunaratne.

Speaking exclusively to the Business Times, Mr. Nalin Gunaratne, the Managing Director of N.S. Gunaratne and Co., and its e-waste subsidiary Green Link, noted that while he first started collecting e-waste with only his own vehicle and storing it at his house in 2004; this venture only became a real business last year after he applied for and received the relevant local and international licenses (as pertains to the Basel Convention) from Central Environment Authority (CEA) which has allowed him to become the country's only e-waste exporter. He also recently received a CEA commendation for his service to the country as the only e-waste exporter in the domestic market.

Now after his first full year in the business and with 700 tonnes of e-waste exported by him last year, Mr. Gunaratne is at the break-even point in his business and intends to become fully profitable next year.
As such, he recently moved into a new 7,000 square foot facility in Wattala where he intends to offer the value addition of dismantling, segregating/separating and safe packing of e-waste prior to export, services which are labour intensive and thus expensive in the countries he exports to.

Discarded computer monitors

He has also recently started a new initiative whereby, over the next few weeks, 1,000 collection boxes will be distributed to Sri Lankan blue chips and government departments like customs, ports, armed forces, etc. to facilitate collection of e-waste.Additionally, his current collection network depends on partnerships with Abans Environmental Services, Singer, Dialog, Etisalat/Tigo, Mobitel, Suntel, Commercial Bank, Sampath Bank, etc. However, his main source of supply still remains landfills.

Mr. Gunaratne is also quick to point out that before he started offering his services, corporates, the biggest producers of e-waste, would auction off old computers en masse. Bought for re-usable parts, these components would be stripped of all, useful parts in Panchikawatte and later dumped in landfills.

Collection boxes

These leftover components would often contain poisonous heavy metals such as lithium, iron, mercury, lead, copper, zinc, etc. which could not easily degrade and so would seep into the groundwater and possibly contaminate it. For example, Mr. Gunaratne indicates that, prior to using him; armed forces personnel dumped old walkie-talkies, etc. into the sea for years for lack of a better alternative. He also recalls that once cyanide was found in a stock of old mobile phones he procured. As such, auctioning off e-waste or disposing of it without care must be avoided at all costs and only licensed contractors should be brought in to deal with e-waste.

Meanwhile, Mr. Gunaratne's exported computer components, on reaching their final destination in China or Malaysia, would have its metals extracted so that these could be recycled into similar or even different products. In fact, according to Mr. Gunaratne, the biggest problem he faces to date is making the public aware that this type of service exists so that they can safely dispose of e-waste.

He also suggests that this is a new business here and while his business partners in Australia, just one company of the many in Australia's e-waste sector, ships 40 containers a month; Sri Lanka can barely ship 10 containers every two months. Therefore, this industry has a lot of room to grow. He also notes that a common problem in both public and private sector organisations is the bureaucracy that must be dealt with before anything can be disposed.