Kattankudy’s waste management story is one of the most striking in the region: a
town that once dumped its waste along its own riverbanks — and protested, block
by block, until that changed — now runs a segregated collection system covering
three daily waste streams, processes organic waste into compost, disinfectants
and energy on its own land, and has been chosen as the site of the first Solid
Waste Recycling Centre established under the national Clean Sri Lanka programme.
The crisis years were long. Before 2010, collected waste went to the riverbanks,
damaging the area’s natural beauty and drawing continuous objections from the
public. When the major flood of January 2011 submerged large parts of the town,
there was still no proper place to dispose of waste — and no drainage system to
let water flow away freely. In 2013, waste was carried by tipper vehicles all
the way to Addalaichenai, a system whose high cost made it unsustainable.
Temporary dumping on private land at Karbala faced strong community opposition;
the matter was discussed with the Eastern Province Chief Minister, but no
lasting solution was achieved — until the Chairman and the community staged
protests to show how urgent the crisis had become.
The turning point came in 2014, when — with the community’s support — the Urban
Council purchased 110 perches of dedicated land for waste management. From that
same year, residents were taught to separate waste into biodegradable and
non-biodegradable categories, and the Green Solid Waste – Zero City Initiative
set the town on a path towards a zero-waste city. The transformation reached
back to where the crisis had begun: by 2020, the riverside ground once used as a
dumping site was filled with gravel and turned into a playground for students
and the general public.
The system running today is a complete loop. Three streams are collected every
day — 30,000 kg of biodegradable waste, 20,000 kg of non-biodegradable waste
and 15,000 kg of dry & non-biodegradable waste — weighed on arrival and managed
by a separate office system. Organic waste is processed on site: the
Japanese-made Kawashima machine handles the 30,000 kg of daily biodegradable
waste with capacity for 50,000 kg a day, earthworms turn further organic
material into vermi compost, and a mini bio-gas plant converts waste into
energy piped directly to a nearby school for children with special needs. A
Night Soil Treatment Plant — the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, built at a
cost of Rs. 50 million with Japanese engineers staying for months to install
it — treats septic-tank waste without odour, and its by-product feeds the
Council’s parks and the beach-cleaning project. Fruit waste, molasses and
sugar mixed with water yield disinfectants produced using natural bacteria,
while the Beach Tech machine cleans the shoreline where manual labour could
not keep up.
The loop also pays for itself. Through the fertiliser business the Council
earns around Rs. 200,000 a day and Rs. 1,000,000 a week — an overall monthly
income of Rs. 4–5 million. Council delegations from across the island,
including Oddamavadi and Nanattan (Mannar), have visited the solid waste
management centre to study the model, and the work has been recognised with
the Presidential Environment Award and the Green Energy Champion title in 2019
and a Bronze Presidential Environment Award in 2024.
The final piece is the Material Recovery Facility. Under the national Clean
Sri Lanka programme, Kattankudy was selected for the island’s first Solid Waste
Recycling Centre with an allocation of Rs. 50.8 million, and work commenced on
23 September 2025. Nationally, 54 potential sites have been identified — six
per province — with feasibility studies under way at 25 of them, and the
programme targets a 30% reduction in waste sent to landfill over three years
through reduce, reuse and recycle. For Kattankudy, the centre is designed to
cut landfill reliance to near zero — the definitive solution to a waste crisis
two decades in the making.
Waste management here is run by a dedicated Solid Waste Management Division of
the Urban Council. This page follows the full journey — the crisis years before
2014, the community’s response, the facilities built since, the circular
products they yield, and the recycling centre that is set to cut landfill
reliance to near zero.
