{"id":4598,"date":"2025-10-21T09:13:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/?p=4598"},"modified":"2025-11-06T05:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T05:44:07","slug":"ranking-sri-lanka-among-the-worlds-top-mismanaged-waste-polluters-does-model-data-change-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/2025\/10\/21\/ranking-sri-lanka-among-the-worlds-top-mismanaged-waste-polluters-does-model-data-change-the-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking Sri Lanka among the World\u2019s Top Mismanaged Waste Polluters: Does Model Data Change the Story?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ranking Sri Lanka among the World\u2019s Top Mismanaged Waste Polluters: Does Model Data Change the Story?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By R. R. M. K. P. Ranatunga, Dilhara Wijetunge, W. V. P. H. Ranaweera, Chin-Chang Hung, Shang-Yin Vanson Liu, Qamar Schuyler, T. J. Lawson<sup>&nbsp;<\/sup>and Britta Denise Hardesty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Published in: Sustainability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The accumulation of Mismanaged Plastic Waste (MPW) in the environment is a global<br>concern. The amount of waste generated by countries is estimated using globally available data layers<br>and\/or empirical surveys. Unlike globally available metadata, MPW estimates based on empirical<br>surveys allow for better visualization of amounts, potential pathways, and hotspots. A model study<br>conducted in 2015, based on global metadata, ranked Sri Lanka in fifth position among the world\u2019s<br>worst mismanaged plastic offenders. However, there is significant uncertainty in the source data on<br>waste generation and the parameters used for model prediction, such as plastic usage (5.1 kg per<br>person per day), since Sri Lanka is predominantly a service-based country with limited plastic-based<br>manufacturing industries. The source data for plastic usage has been derived from a very limited<br>study, biased toward waste hotspots that have not been verified. Our empirical data has shown<br>that population density, one of the key parameters used for global ranking, is a weak predictor of<br>debris densities. Therefore, we argue that the given plastic leakage data and the ranking is an error.<br>Therefore, Sri Lanka\u2019s position in the global ranking deserves reconsideration. Further, we propose<br>the need for model predictions that rely on global metadata to be backed by robust and unbiased<br>designed surveys that are based on empirical data and undergo intense baseline data verification to<br>generate more precise predictions on litter quantities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1948-5098\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ranking Sri Lanka among the World\u2019s Top Mismanaged Waste Polluters: Does Model Data Change the Story? By R. R. M. K. P. Ranatunga, Dilhara Wijetunge, W. V. P. H. Ranaweera, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/2025\/10\/21\/ranking-sri-lanka-among-the-worlds-top-mismanaged-waste-polluters-does-model-data-change-the-story\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Ranking Sri Lanka among the World\u2019s Top Mismanaged Waste Polluters: Does Model Data Change the Story?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":4599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4598"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4634,"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598\/revisions\/4634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/science.sjp.ac.lk\/zoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}