The Effectiveness of the Existing Waste Management Practices in Hostels of the University of Peradeniya

Abstract

The University of Peradeniya is one of the oldest and largest residential and the most beautiful Universities in the country. Its environmental and aesthetic beauty is one of its identities. But the Solid Waste has been a significant and harmful challenge to the beauty of the University. Therefore, it is identified that Solid Waste has become a free dominant environmental, social, aesthetic, and economic issue on the premises of the University of Peradeniya with the growing residential student population in hostels, changing the lifestyle and consumption patterns and the rapid development in every aspect of the University community. It is essential to find a sustainable solution to overcome this issue because the daily Solid Waste generation has increased rapidly day by day. If Solid Waste can be managed properly with best practices, very few negative impacts come out. Currently, Solid Waste has become a big issue at the University of Peradeniya due to Existing Solid Waste management practices. Therefore, the Existing Solid Waste management practices should be evaluated to find a sustainable solution for this issue. By focusing on the above matters, this study mainly targeted to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing Solid Waste Management practices in residential hostels in the University by using SWOT analysis. Further, it focused on proposing proper and sustainable strategies to overcome this issue and implement an eco-friendly sustainable solution. A mixed method of data collection has been used in this research and SWOT analysis was used as qualitative analysis. Both primary & secondary data were used for SWOT analysis. According to the SWOT analysis, it is identified that the existing Waste Management practices are inefficient. Therefore, sustainable strategies are proposed to minimize waste generation and to maintain a sustainable and eco-friendly solid Waste Management mechanism within the University hostels.