Conceptual Model for plastics Waste Management in Developing Countries – A Review

Plastics waste management is crucial in developing countries such as Sri Lanka. The mass of plastics waste has been increasing yearly due to the rise in plastics demand. Mismanagement of plastics waste is an alarming issue that creates critical environmental and health problems. Although plastics waste management methods, including recycling, pyrolysis and incineration, are available, sorting plastics waste is a challenging part of the process. This literature review mainly focuses on the available plastics waste separation techniques and the conceptual model for plastics waste management in developing countries. The results of the literature review show that plastics waste sorting techniques can be categorized as manual, dry, wet, and combined separation techniques. The conceptual model suggests inventing plastics waste parks in Pradeshiya Sabha areas and carrying out the separation of plastics from other waste and the separation of plastics according to the plastics type. Normally, manual and combined separation techniques can be used for this separation process. In addition, public awareness and legal framework are very important to build up a sustainable waste management system in a country. The proposed conceptual model can be applied to smaller administrative boundaries of the country with suitable separation techniques. To reduce usage of plastics, efforts must be made by citizens to study the usage of renewable raw materials to create innovative goods using current technological advancements. Additionally, daily usage of plastics should be minimised, which aids in the improvement of healthy environmental conditions.