The first pilot project on IRRC in Sri Lanka was implemented in 2007 by SEVANATHA in Matale town with the financial and technical support from the UN-ESCAP, Bangkok, Thailand and Waste Concern Consultants in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The IRRC is a new concept of Urban Solid Waste Management which is aimed at promoting a business model to implement the 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycling) approach. It is envisaged that IRRC approach would be able to promote the city environment as well as generate sufficient income from urban waste to operate a sustainable Municipal Waste Management system.

SEVANATHA Urban Resource Center acts as the local partner organization in Sri Lanka for planning and implementation of the IRRC in close cooperation with Matale and Ratnapura Municipal Councils.

In Matale, the SEVANATHA with its subsidiary company called Micro Enrich Compost (Pvt) Limited is currently managing the IRRC project. This project has conducted extensive community awareness to motivate the people in residential and non- residential areas to separate waste at source and hand over it to the collectors of the IRRC. In Matale city, the IRRC is handling around seven (07) tons of organic waste at present and working towards achieving nine (09) tons per day capacity soon. It also collects all the recyclable materials and further segregates them for selling at the local market.

Considering the success of IRRC project in Matale, the UN-ESCAP has provided the funding and technical support replicate this model in Ratnapura Municipal area where the city council has provided required support for the project. Accordingly, five (05) tons per day capacity IRR Centre was built at Kanadola in Ratnapura town. This centre was opened in January 2014 and currently running its operation as in Matale. SEVANATHA through its MEC (Pvt) Ltd manages this project in Ratnapura in partnership with the Municipal Council of Rathnapura. The following pictures highlight the key project activities.