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| Wednesday, 1 September 2004 |
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The Board of Investment (BOI) recently froze post consumer waste investment project proposals totalling in excess of Rs 1 billion, pending regulations by government authorities on the import and/or export of hazardous waste. These projects from the UK, Germany, Switzerland and India are for the recycling of used PET bottles, the recycling and washing of used clothes and the recycling of electronic waste. These project proposals were subject to careful screening at the BOI investment appraisal stage, and were later rejected due to the risks of contamination and the threats of excessive disease and environment pollution, caused by such operations. Chairman/Director General BOI, Saliya Wickramasuriya affirmed that BOI will not foster any efforts to make Sri Lanka a dumping ground for any projects involving post consumer waste from other developed or developing countries. "This decision has been made particularly in regard to projects involving used plastic waste, used clothes, used industrial and/or automobile parts and scrap metal recycling." he said. Wickramasuriya said that if there were any local project proposals to recycle locally collected waste, the BOI would be happy to consider an enhanced incentive package for such projects. "Primarily with reference to our own export processing zones, the BOI would certainly offer its assistance in accelerating any project involving local solid waste disposal. However, we will not market the country as a destination for overseas post consumer waste projects," he added. Tissa Fernando, Director Environment, BOI explained that Sri Lanka was a signatory to the BASL Convention Treaty regarding the control of transboundary movement of hazardous waste and that the items mentioned above by the BOI Chairman, were all on the list of restricted items that may be considered for recycling in developing countries. "The disadvantage here is that since it is only a "restricted item" as opposed to a "banned item", there are efforts to obtain the necessary approvals and go ahead with such projects. The biggest hurdles faced by countries like Sri Lanka, are the lack of legislation to ban the import of plastic waste, limited monitoring capability and the lack of infrastructure to engage in proper pollution control, resulting from such plastic recycling industries," Mr Fernando explained. Mr Fernando also highlighted that the BOI was not thereby referring to any manufacturing industry in which plastic was the off shoot, while engaging in the manufacture of other items, such as a polythene manufacturing industry, for example. Other items on the list of industries, suggested by the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), which will be discouraged by the Board of Investment, include post consumer PVC items and scrap PVC, waste/used electronic or electrical items, waste battery recycling projects, waste photographic film, used tyres, and post consumer rubber waste. It is learnt that the Ministry of Industries is in the process of formulating regulations for the import of plastics. |
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