For the first time in Sri Lanka, INSEE Ecocycle, the waste management subsidiary company of INSEE Cement, recently achieved a milestone when the company conducted a special mega operation. Never before has an operation of such an extensive size and complexity been carried out in the country.
INSEE Ecocycle initiated the mega operation to handle over 730 metric tons of hazardous solid wastes which included seventeen variants of chemical waste resulting from a burnt cargo shipment of a world’s leading shipping company. This unique ship-based waste handling operation was conducted under the close supervision of Central Disposal Unit of Sri Lanka Customs and the Central Environmental Authority.
The total sustainable solution for this ship-based waste included waste cargo inspection at the yard, waste identifications and simulation, loading and transportation, waste pre-processing and finally and most importantly, the thermal destruction of the waste consignment.
Initially, the chemical waste was inspected by the INSEE Ecocycle environmental services technical team jointly with the shipping company and other stakeholders to categorize the chemical wastes. The team was required to firstly identify the waste that can be directly sent for final thermal destruction and secondly, identify the waste which require further pre-treatment.
Based on this classifications and chemical simulations some chemical wastes were transported to INSEE Ecocycle’s Katunayake Pre- Processing facility to further pre-process with up-to-date techniques. The balance waste was sent to INSEE Ecocycle’s Puttlam facility for the final thermal destruction in an environmentally friendly manner. This specific disposal operation was fully supervised by Sri Lanka Customs officers for the transparency of the disposal mechanism
The CEO of INSEE Cement, Nandana Ekanayake commented “We take great pride that this unique solution initiated by INSEE Ecocycle ultimately ensured the sustainable waste management solution for the ship-based waste, significantly contributing to a national solution from Sri Lanka for the entire shipping industry.”
Director of INSEE Ecocycle, Sanjeewa Chulakumara explained “INSEE Ecocycle is the leading environmental services provider in Sri Lanka and has the unique capacity to offer Sri Lanka’s industries, an extensive portfolio of environmental services in industrial waste management.”
INSEE Ecocycle is a fully owned subsidiary of the Siam City Cement Lanka Limited known as INSEE Cement Sri Lanka and is the industrial waste management arm of the globally renowned INSEE Group founded in Thailand in 1969.