U.K. agrees to take back the garbage containers

Colombo (News 1st): News 1st inquired into what happened to the containers of garbage that was shipped to the country previously. The Central Environmental Authority stated, that England has already agreed to take back these garbage containers found in the Colombo Port premises and the Investment Zone in Katunayake. When we continuously questioned the responsible parties about the stock of garbage which was found in July last year, they stated that they would take further action as per the court order. However, the party responsible for the case failed to submit the required test reports to the courts on time, delaying the court verdict. With the misplacement of case files on the 18th of December last year, the Court of Appeal even had to adjourn the hearing of the case. Under these circumstances, last February the panel of judges stated that orders issued by the courts would not interrupt the re-exporting process of the container carrying garbage. However, over a year later, the garbage containers remain in Sri Lanka. Director of the Chemical and Hazardous Waste Management Division at the Central Environmental Authority stated that with the COVID-19 problem around the world, it became difficult for authorities to properly coordinate their efforts, adding that arrangments to re-export the waste containers back to the UK are in place, with the relevant environmental agency in the UK also expressing willingness to accept all the waste containers back