Hence about 15 percent of the waste is recyclable and most of it is paper. Due to the very high components of organic materials in the municipal waste the moisture content is also as high as 40 percent.

Solid waste management (SWM) in the city of Colombo is a function and responsibility of the CMC which allocates about 30 percent of the municipal budget for this purpose. The existing system of solid waste collection can be classified as follows:

- door to door collection where the collector enters the premises and the householder is not involved in the collection process

- communal storage, where collection is from a point to which households carry and deposit their waste

- curbside collection, where each householder either dumps waste on the curb or places it in disposal bags or bins at separate points on the curb and

- block collection where the householder delivers the waste to the vehicle at the time of collection.

The door to door collection is not a practice in Colombo municipal area. According to the municipal law, municipal vehicles or the labourers are not allowed to enter into the private roads or the private premises for garbage collection. They collect waste only available on the public and municipal roads. Nearly 1500 low income settlements scattered throughout the municipal area are considered as private properties. Therefore, most common waste collection systems are the communal storage and the curbside collection. Both these systems have the disadvantage that waste pickers and animal rummage through the waste littering on streets and into open drains. About five years ago Colombo municipality gave polytene bags to households to use them as waste disposal bags. However, it did not help to overcome such problems because bags were left for long at the places of collection. Block collection exists in areas where the community is organized and the community organizations have some kind of formal or informal agreement with the municipal waste collectors to deliver the waste to the vehicle at the time of collection.

In Colombo there are two kinds of waste collection methods for disposal:

- Primary collection that is the collection from curbside or the communal storage and

- Secondary collection where collection is from a secondary point to which it has been brought by a primary collection vehicle.

The process of collection in Colombo city generally involves loading from curbside into handcarts which dispose into transfer bins at secondary collection points. CMC has about 2,000 secondary collection points. Some secondary collection points have no containers and waste is simply disposed on the road side. In certain places containers and collection bins are not adequate for the waste collected. Waste is transferred or loaded into compactor trucks and tipper for final disposal from the secondary collection points. Secondary collection process involves a double handling of waste. Household waste is collected twice a week while commercial waste is collected daily. According to the CMC, the collection network covers nearly all areas of the city. In many occasions, due to the inadequate vehicle maintenance and temporary breakdown in service, uncollected waste and left out remain for more than two days at secondary collection points.

According to the solid waste study done by the National Building Research Organization of Sri Lanka none of the usual methods of treatment such as size-reduction, composting or incineration are carried out by the CMC. All waste, therefore, is disposed on open dump sites located in the adjoining local authorities due to the none availability lands within the CMC. None of municipal sites are qualified to be sanitary landfills. A potential landfill with a seven years capacity has been identified thirteen kilometers away from Colombo and is to be developed as the first sanitary landfill in the country.

Compared with other local authorities Colombo municipal council has got a bigger vehicular strength and labour force. It has compactor trucks (38 nos), tippers, skip hoist trucks, tractor and trailers (50) road sweepers, bull dozers, waste compactors, loaders and handcarts (323) and 2100 labour force. In relation to the amount of waste collected it was found that the CMC has 4 persons per m.ton of waste. In CMC, with the largest fleet of mechanized vehicles and labourers, cost per m. ton was Rs.327 while other LAs in CA had a lesser cost. (Rs 297 for Kotte UC, Rs.217 for Negambo MC in 1991).

The city of Colombo is divided into 6 districts for the purpose of cleansing administration. Each district consists of 6 to 8 wards, total number of wards in CMC is 47. Each district has a solid management depot which is managed by a trained engineer with overseers, their assistants and labourers. The entire collection effort is coordinated at city level by a superintending engineer who is working under a deputy municipal engineer. In all other urban local authorities in Sri Lanka the subject of solid waste management is under the Chief Medical Officer of Health.

Most of the recyclable waste is recovered at various stages along the waste stream. The recovery of recyclable waste materials is a highly organized sector in Colombo in the informal sector. It is a habit even in the middle income society in Colombo that waste materials which have some value of reuse or recyclable are not thrown away. Paper, milk and beverage bottles and cans are generally separated out and kept aside to sell them to the waste buyers who go from house to house to collect recyclable materials. Apart from them there are poor people (scavengers and street sweepers ) who collect materials from the secondary collection points and from final dumping grounds. Various waste materials are purchased by a network of middle-men who are operate their business according to supply and demand conditions. They in turn sell to buyers in bulk purchases. Municipal workers (Street sweepers and city garbage collectors) are also involved in sorting the waste during the collection round and selling the recovered materials to middlemen who are located on the route to the landfill. On a rough estimate it is found that CMC collectors spend about 20 percent of their time in sorting recyclables from for sale.

Solid waste collection and disposal has been a major issue in Colombo. It is not only an environmental issue but also a socio-political problem. At present CMC's daily solid waste collection is about 750 m.tons per day. CMC has already used its all vacant lands for waste disposal. One third of its annual budget (about Rs. 62 million) is spent on solid waste collection and disposal. Due to the rapid urban growth, it has been a major difficulty to find alternative lands for landfills even from adjoining local authorities.

In view of the above, the government has given priority for the solid waste problem in urban development programs. Urban Development Authority with the UNDP / World Bank assisted Metropolitan Environmental Improvement Program (MEIP) in Colombo has completed a major environmental management study for the CA. Based on recommendations of this study, a land has been identified for a large sanitary landfill project. Solid waste management has been a priority area in all donor funded urban development projects in Colombo. Colombo municipality has increasingly recognized the importance of recycling and reuse. According to the municipal engineering department, composting has been proposed by at least 15 studies with proposals using sophisticated technologies. Several pilot projects are being carried out by CMC to test the financial and marketing feasibility of large scale compost production.

It is estimated that nearly 2000 NGOs are engaged in various activities in Sri Lanka. Most of them are working in rural areas where solid waste is not a major environmental issue. Historically, there was no policy to encourage NGOs to engage in urban environmental issues. Urban Development Authority under the pilot project phase of its slum and shanty upgrading program from 1978 to 1985, invited local and international NGOs to undertake community development activities in low income areas. As a response to this request two international NGOs and several local NGOs started charity and welfare oriented activities. International NGOs who had sufficient man power and financial resources undertook comparatively large settlements to carry out integrated shelter upgrading projects with people's participation. This was a partnership arrangement between the Government and NGO with the understanding that government would assist NGO to sort out all land and legal matters and to provide necessary technical support to improve environmental services for low income settlements. Due to the several reasons such as high overhead costs, delays in resolving land tenure issues and the absence of a policy to encourage NGOs as development partners, activities carried out by NGOs were not expanded beyond the pilot project phase.

The Urban Housing Sub-Program of the Million Houses Program

(1984 -1990) was a national program to provide land tenure, housing loans and environmental services for urban low income communities. It was a support based program implemented through a decentralized government mechanisms. This program also did not persuade NGOs to work as facilitators or partners in poor urban areas.

Since 1990 several local NGOs have gradually been engaged in environmental issues with grassroots level organizations. This has happened due to:

- the limited success of government programs

- increase of environmental problems in urban areas

- change of donor policy to promote NGOs and Private sector for development other than the government

- influence to change government policies from state dominated delivery process to collaborative participatory approach.

- donor funding were on increase for local NGOs to promote community based urban environmental programs after the UN conference on Development and Environment held in 1992.

After 1992, two major government programs, national poverty alleviation and community water supply and sanitation programs, have recognized local NGOs as partner organizations for program implementation. Major focus of the both programs was on the rural poor.

As far as the role of NGOs in urban environmental management are concerned that the pilot project implemented by SEVANATHA with the assistance of the MEIP, Colombo is important. Having realized the limited successes of government programs in urban low income areas, the MEIP executed a pilot project with an active local NGO to get people's participation in environmental improvement and management. Lessons learnt from this project were very useful for the government to change policies in order to build collaborative partnership arrangements and to mobilize NGOs as intermediary agency for environmental management. In MEIP pilot project, NGO had mobilized community organizations to improve their living environment and gradually to undertake environmental management activities in the settlement. Under this arrangement community was able to obtain basic amenities such as drains, toilet facilities and community centres on self finance basis without government financial assistance. It was found that many low income settlements can be properly managed in a partnership arrangement. Based on this experience, government has introduced a new program with World Bank supports to provide basic infrastructure facilities for low income settlements in the western province in Sri Lanka in partnership with NGOs and CBOs. Presently six NGOs are engaged in the provision of environmental services in six settlements in CUA with the assistance given by the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Public Utilities. Under such situations, NGOs are now embarking on urban environmental management activities. Composting directory (1995) prepared by a local NGO called EMACE had identified ten NGOs in Colombo who are mainly engaged in urban solid waste management.