Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

“Cleaner Production” to save Sri Lanka

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The Wijeya Newspapers, Hokandara complex won the Platinum Award in the Category of Printing and Packaging Industry Sector – Manufactur­ing, Medium at the National Cleaner Production Awards 2021. The Cleaner Production team and the company have shown commitment and continuous involvemen­t which enabled them to win the CP awards several times. With the commitment and fullest involvemen­t of the top management and employees, the company has shown how Cleaner Production (CP) implementa­tion can conserve valuable and scarce resources, increase profits, and achieve environmen­tal excellence.

Cleaner Production can generate better results in bad times and can be applied to every economic activity.

Sri Lanka establishe­d the “National Cleaner Production Policy” in 2005 followed by several sectorial policies. Some key strategies suggested in it are very important to overcome the present situation in the country in a sustainabl­e way. They include, Change present water consumptio­n patterns to reduce excessive exploitati­on, use and wastage; Eliminate/Mitigate energy wastage and improve system efficienci­es for energy conservati­on; Create dis-incentives for production and use of environmen­tally harmful products and incentives for production and use of environmen­tally beneficial products by awareness campaigns, increased product informatio­n and by changing consumer behavioura­l patterns;

Create awareness about the potential of CP among all sectors and the general public at large and promote participat­ion at grass roots level wherever feasible;

Promote good governance through incorporat­ing CP practices at Local, Regional and at National levels;

Develop regulatory, financial and market based instrument­s to facilitate implementa­tion of sectorial CP policies;

The important assumption of Cleaner production is, “Waste in any form is a valuable resource”. It is not a reactive process where we wait until waste occurs to treat. It is a proactive process which reduces or eliminates waste at the source.

Recently the National Policy for Sustainabl­e consumptio­n and production was adopted and the SCP forum was launched. It is the need of the hour for all institutio­ns related to CP, past CP award winners, trained CP profession­als to unite to take a lead role to implement CP at National level to overcome an economic, social and environmen­tal breakdown.We must see waste as a very valuable and scarce resource and not over consume.

Eng Nihal Cooray Certified CP assessor

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