Recycling Entrepreneur recognised with Asia-pacific award

Sri Lankan industrialist Indhra Kaushal Rajapaksa who runs a successful recycling business – Kalhari Enterprises - in Heiyantuduwa, was recently awarded the Most Promising Entrepreneurship Award by Enterprise Asia.

The Most Promising Entrepreneurship Award is awarded to recognise individuals in the Asia- Pacific region who have shown very promising efforts, perseverance and growth in their business, the local company said in a statement.

Mr. Rajapaksa schooled at Ananda College, Colombo, studied Polymer Science Technology at the Katubedda Campus of the Moratuwa University, and has an MBA in Business Management. A Fellow of the Plastic and Rubber Institute [PRI] of Sri Lanka and its current Vice President, he has experience working in all the major footwear exporting companies in the Free Trade Zone.

Kalhari has around 80 employees nearly 80 per cent of whom are from the village of Heiyantuduwa where the company operates from. It has since expanded to five companies engaged in footwear upper stitching, tyre waste recycling, trading and has factories in Heiyantuduwa, Mahara and Minuwangoda. In addition, it provides the livelihood for around 40 collectors who supply the factory with waste for recycling, the statement said.

“Today, Sri Lanka needs sustainable development more than ever before. We have followed the more industrialised countries in their model of development and the increased consumption is already straining our environment with waste products that could prove harmful if not recycled safely. I am happy that our efforts at waste management and recycling have been successful,” Mr. Rajapaksa said.

He founded Kalhari Enterprises in 2003 recycling used PET bottles. Today it is a group of five companies exporting signif- icant quantities of recycled waste every month to several countries including China, India, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Among the recycled products exported by Kalhari Enterprises are waste products from the tyre industry, the rubber latex industry, the garment industry, and the steel industry. Other export products include a variety of plastics including used PET bottles and electronic waste.

He said the company has signed agreements with several corporate entities in Sri Lanka to be their service provider for waste management and it is an on- going process.

“We are aggressively pursuing MOUs with corporate entities for the management of their e- waste so that these could be recycled in Sri Lanka itself. With the proliferation of computers, mobile phones and other electronic equipment, Sri Lanka will soon face the challenge of how to deal with e- waste safely,” he added.