Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for Waste sector in Sri Lanka – How effective are they?
In September 2016, Sri Lanka, as a signatory of the Paris Agreement, submitted its initial Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The second communication was published in July 2021, but the document was amended to include the renewed efforts by the power sector to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. This led to revisions in the NDC report which was published on September – 2021.
5 NDCs were considered for the waste management sector to be achieved by 2030.
NDC 1 includes the following key targets to achieve; prevent, avoid or reduce MSW generation, improve the segregation of MSW at source, improve MSW collection and transportation system, improve waste recycling, and implement regulatory framework to control high waste generating products.
In Sri Lanka, local authorities of the specific Divisional Secretariat including municipal councils, urban councils, or local councils (Pradeshiya Sabha) have responsibilities over waste management. ?While municipal and urban areas waste collection and management is visibly occurring, rural areas that are mostly managed by Pradeshiya Sabha do not implement this collection service properly. It is doubtful whether the expected improvement of improving 60% of waste collection and transportation system out of the western province can be achieved by the defined timeline.
The issues in such Pradeshia Sabha have to be addressed while introducing systemic changes such as using a fee structure for waste management services which will motivate the public to reduce their waste generation and implement a better service by the waste management providers with the financial support received through the fee and improve MSW collection and transportation system can be done by creating a proper waste collection plan with a complete information system that includes garbage collection routes, collection frequency, responsible collection supervisors, their contact information, collection material for the specific day etc. This type of information system should be prepared and be publicly available on a website or social media network. Currently such a system is available in the Colombo municipal council website which can be used as a pilot program.
NDC 2 includes achieving the following; Increase the present level of composting to 30% of compostable waste collected in Western Province and other Provinces, Apply suitable treatment facilities for liquid waste, and adopt biogas technology where composting is not practically applicable.
Composting has many advantages such as increased crop productivity, using for bioremediation, plant disease and weed control, landscaping and wetland restoration etc. while it also includes disadvantages such as generating odours, having long mineralization time etc.(Ayilara et al., 2020). These problems can create negative impression in public discouraging the large-scale composting projects. Especially, the odour can be a critical factor that draws public displeasure. This will have same effect on wastewater treatment facilities as well. Therefore, it is important to address this when implementing central largescale composting facilities. For composting facilities, site design that considers wind distribution, incorporating thick vegetation buffers and designing the site for effective runoff and drainage and maintaining optimum conditions for microbial activity such as C:N ratio, moisture level and porosity are key measures that can be used to address this issue (Coker, 2016).
NDC 3 describes fulfilling the following targets; establish already committed two waste-to-energy generation facilities, make policy enhancement to clearly define the purpose of waste-to-energy and plan the phasing out of preferential feed-in-tariffs, regulate the establishment of new waste-to-energy facilities, Introduce other thermal treatment technologies.
Currently, waste incineration and related power generation is the most well-known waste to energy technology (WTE) in Sri Lanaka. However, different WTEs are available that can be used, which are more beneficial than incineration. For example, Gasification has lower capital cost, operational cost as well as GHG emission when compared with incineration while producing the same amount of energy (Alam et al., 2022). Therefore, introducing new thermal treatment technologies is a good initiative while the establishment of planned WTE facilities will address the current waste management demand. It is also a very important step to establish policies on regulatory requirements of such facilities since they are already least preferred options that have high emissions.
NDC 4 involves achieving targets as follows; operationalize policy and regulation for siting and implementation of sanitary landfills, rehabilitate existing waste dump sites, introduce Land-fill Gas recovery systems. Landfilling is in the least preferred region of the waste management hierarchy. Sri Lanka currently have two major sanitory landfills; Dompe and Aruwakkaru. According to Vaverková (2019), landfill leachates and landfill fires are the most concerning issues of sanitary landfills that needs to be addressed.
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In October 2019, there was an explosion in a gas collection tank in Aruwakkaru. Such type of incidents draw attention of public regarding their safety and health. Therefore, establishing proper policies on siting and implementation of sanitary landfills is very important. Land-fill Gas recovery systems is also imperative to be introduced to avoid such incidents as well as reduce the global warming impact with conversion of methane to carbon dioxide since the global warming potential of methane is 28 times higher than carbon dioxide.
NDC 5 describes general goals intended to achieve apart from the 4 specific goals above. These include; update or introduce the required legislation to facilitate and enforce the implementation of NDCs, introduce a mechanism for waste generation forecasting with a tracking system to monitor the generation, introduce legislation to make segregation of waste at household level mandatory, introduce or amend necessary legal framework and instruments to initiate Market-Based Instruments (MBIs) and non-market-based instruments to incentivize and promote sustainable consumption patterns, implement “Polluter Pays Principle” for mixed waste generators, conduct awareness and capacity building programs for behavioral changes of waste generators as well as waste management personnel, facilitate public-private- partnerships to finance waste sector NDCs.
The targets described in NDC 5 are very important and strategically valuable in terms of waste management. Especially, implementing a waste generation tracking system will be beneficial for future planning in reduction target setting. Further by monitoring the generation data, it will be easier to create sector specific profiles and analyze the waste generation, waste reduction potential and identify which types of waste management practices are best suited.
Due to the lack of waste collection infrastructure issues in some areas, people in such areas resign to unsustainable practices such as burying the waste in the backyards, open burning, dumping waste at public places etc. For example, although regulations are in place for open burning of waste, it is very poorly enforced. Therefore, it is imperative that people are aware of the legislation and why they are imposed, and the enforcement should be properly followed. There should be a centralized waste management authority that addresses such violations, to take action, conduct regular awareness programs to achieve the NDC 5 as intended.
The expected GHG reduction in the waste sector against the business as usual scenario due to the above NDCs is estimated as 11%. Sri Lanka already has such authority that is active only in provincial level as Waste Management Authority of the Western Province which can be used as a model for implementing this nationally. Conducting awareness and capacity building programs is a major component that we need to focus with regards to the waste generation reduction as well as proper waste management.
References
Alam, S., Rahman, K.S., Rokonuzzaman, M., Salam, P.A., Miah, M.S., Das, N., Chowdhury, S., Channumsin, S., Sreesawet, S. and Channumsin, M., 2022. Selection of Waste to Energy Technologies for Municipal Solid Waste Management—Towards Achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainability, 14(19), p.11913.
Ayilara, M.S., Olanrewaju, O.S., Babalola, O.O. and Odeyemi, O., 2020. Waste management through composting: Challenges and potentials. Sustainability, 12(11), p.4456.
Coker, C. 2016. Controlling Composting Odors. BioCycle, February.
Interesting ??