Lanka must make polluters pay: CEJ Chief calls for plastic levy implementation without delay

Sri Lanka’s long-delayed effort to curb plastic pollution must now move from talk to tangible action, says Hemantha Withanage, Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ), warning that awareness campaigns and voluntary measures have failed to address the country’s growing plastic crisis.

- By IrHam NIZAM

Withanage, who has been involved in national plastic policy discussions since the 1990s, told The Island that imposing a price or environmental levy on plastic bags and packaging is the only way to hold producers and consumers accountable.

He added: “People say awareness alone is enough. But while we’ve been talking since 1990, global plastic production has jumped from 105 million tonnes to 460 million tonnes. Clearly, awareness hasn't worked,” he said.

Withanage urged the government to implement the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework — a system that forces companies profiting from plastics to contribute financially to collection, recycling, and waste management.

“Multinational corporations like Coca-Cola and Unilever, supported by chambers of commerce, are trying to water down EPR by calling it consumer responsibility. This is unacceptable,” he said. “For over 20 years, we’ve been stuck in endless discussions because of political and corporate resistance.”

He added that even past attempts to introduce EPR laws and product tracking systems, such as QR codes for plastic bottles, were blocked by industry influence.