The government of Sri Lanka announced on Tuesday (February 13) a total ban on non-biodegradable single-use plastic products as a measure to protect the environment, partly motivated by the death of wild elephants and deer caused by plastic waste.
According to Cabinet Spokesperson and Media Minister Bandula Gunawardana, the manufacture and sale of plastic products (cutlery, cups, artificial flowers, etc.) will be banned from June. The measure follows the recommendations of a committee of experts, appointed eighteen months ago to study the impact of plastic waste on the environment and wildlife.
Non-biodegradable plastic bags have been banned since 2017 due to flash flood concerns. The import of cutlery, cups, food packaging and even plastic toys has been banned since 2021 following several deaths of elephants and deer in the northeast of the island.
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The animals had fed in open rubbish dumps. Autopsies revealed that they had ingested quantities of plastic materials mixed with food waste. But the local manufacture and sale of single-use plastic products had endured.
Protect the sacred animals of the country
Sri Lanka’s top authority on Asian elephants, Jayantha Jayewardene, welcomed the measure, but said the ban should also apply to biodegradable plastic bags. “These bags enter the food chain of elephants and wild animals and that is not a good thing”he told AFP.
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About five years ago, dozens of wild deer died after swallowing plastics in the northeast Trincomalee district, prompting the government to ban open dumps near reserves forests.
Elephants, sacred animals in Sri Lanka, are protected by law but animal-human conflicts cause the death of about 400 pachyderms and fifty people each year, near nature reserves.
The shrinking of forests in favor of urban development is pushing wild animals, including elephants, to raid villages in search of food.
