Case Study
Arugam Bay, Sri lanka
- Activities Undertaken:
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Responsible Disposal - Initiator: Waste Less Arugam Bay
- Year: 2012 onward
Key Takeaways
- Developing a viable business case for plastic recovery can be difficult where transport costs exceed the market value of recovered materials.
- Combining plastic recovery with value-added products, alternative revenue streams and higher-value materials can improve the economic viability of recycling initiatives.
- Tourism-dependent destinations generate large seasonal
fluctuations in waste volumes, requiring flexible collection systems and partnerships with local businesses.
Situation
- As a popular surf destination on the coast of Sri Lanka, Arugam Bay experiences disproportionately high volumes of tourism-related plastic waste relative to its resident population. Waste management services have struggled to keep pace with seasonal visitor numbers, and open burning and informal disposal practices have historically been common.
- Although PET recycling markets exist in Sri Lanka, recycling operations in remote coastal locations face significant challenges due to transportation costs and limited local processing infrastructure. Recovered materials often need to be transported long distances to recycling facilities, reducing financial returns.
- Discarded fishing gear is also prevalent along the coast, creating opportunities to recover higher-value materials while addressing marine pollution.
Complications
- Seasonal tourism: Waste generation increases significantly during peak tourism periods, creating operational pressures for collection and processing systems. Lower waste volumes during off-peak periods can make recovery operations less economically efficient.
- Transportation costs: The distance between sites of generation and recycling plants presents a significant challenge.
- Behavior change challenges: Waste segregation and recovery systems require sustained participation from households, businesses and visitors. Existing disposal practices can make adoption of new systems difficult.
- Institutional constraints: Local authorities often face resource and capacity limitations that affect the consistency and scale of waste management services.
Resolution
Plastic credits partially fund operations.
- Waste materials, especially PET lids, are used to create products for sale. PET lids, rather than whole bottles, offer higher margins and lower transportation costs, and nylon fishing net recycling confers higher market value.
- Water filtration systems reduce plastic bottle waste.
- Collaboration with hotels and restaurants for refill stations reduces waste generation.
- Baling machines were adopted to compress plastic waste for more efficient transportation to landfills, to prevent leakage into the marine environment.
Impact
Plastic recovery and upcycling: More than 120,000 plastic bottles and 60,000 rice bags and spice sacks are recovered and upcycled annually into new products.
- Waste reduction and management efficiencies: Plastic waste has been reduced by providing water filtration, and baling machines reduced the burden of materials transportation.
- Livelihoods: More than 60 women have been engaged in upcycling and production activities, creating additional income opportunities in rural communities.
- Focus on tourism sector: Hotels, restaurants and tourism operators are engaged to focus specifically on waste generated by tourists.
- Diversifying material streams: Pilot initiatives have demonstrated the feasibility of recovering and recycling discarded fishing nets, creating opportunities to address ghost gear while generating additional value from recovered materials.
The data for this case study is dated to Feb 2025. For more information, please visit: lankaupcycles.
com/wastelessarugambay or @wastelessabay on Instagram.
Governance & Policy
- Limited local government resources and operational capacity for waste management services.
- Challenges in enforcing and monitoring waste management regulations.
- National waste management and plastic reduction policies provide an enabling framework for local action.
- Growing recognition among public, private and community stakeholders of tourism-related waste challenges.
- Emerging partnerships between local authorities, businesses and civil society organisations.
Capacity, Capability, and Technology
- Logistical challenges associated with transporting recyclable materials to processing facilities.
- Limited local recycling and waste processing infrastructure capacity.
- Seasonal fluctuations in tourism-generated waste volumes create operational pressures.
- Availability of baling and compacting technologies to improve storage and transportation efficiency.
- Development of localized recycling and reprocessing approaches for PET materials and fishing nets.
- Water filtration and refill systems help reduce dependence on bottled water consumption.
- Emerging systems for recovering fishing gear create opportunities to expand material recovery.
Funding, Financing, and Access to Market
- Low commodity values for many plastic materials reduce the financial viability of recycling.
- Transportation and operational costs may exceed the market value of recovered materials.
- Upfront investment requirements create barriers for scaling recycling operations.
- Plastic credits provide supplementary financing for waste recovery activities.
- Value-added products created from recovered materials generate additional revenue streams.
- Higher-value materials such as fishing nets can improve recovery economics.
- Partnerships with downstream recyclers provide market access for collected materials.
Cross-Sectoral Collaboration & Other Value Chain Enabling Activities
- Limited participation from households and other local actors in waste segregation and collection practices.
- Continued reliance on disposable and packaged products within tourism supply chains.
- Challenges in coordinating waste reduction efforts across tourism, households, and local businesses.
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- Partnerships with hotels, restaurants, and tourism operators support waste reduction, collection and refill initiatives.
- Collaboration between recyclers, tourism businesses, community organisations and development partners enables coordinated action.
- Community engagement and awareness programs encourage participation in waste reduction and recovery efforts.
