May 11, Colombo: The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) of Sri Lanka has planned to start a new waste recycling process from next month.

Municipal Commissioner Badrani Jayawardana said that the CMC waste management division will collect waste as sorted and unsorted from June 01.

Solid waste management is a burning issue in the Sri Lankan capital and a huge mountain of garbage is piling up in the north of the city.

The Chairman of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) Wimal Rubasinghe recently pointed out that successful solid waste management is not possible unless there is a systematic separation of solid waste.

The Minister of Environment and Renewable Energy Susil Premajayantha has also stressed the need to promote the habit of waste separation before disposal from households.

The CMC move to collect solid waste separately comes after the Minister's instruction to take measures to get the public into the habit of separating solid waste and promote recycling within the next two years for an effective management of solid waste.

The CMC official said that special vehicles would be deployed to accept sorted waste once a week.

Three centers have also been established in the city to collect sorted waste, she further said.

The CMC is currently distributing two million waste disposal bags to the people to enhance the waste management process.