The Garbage Queen of Sri Lanka • Ajantha Perera

(Founder, National Program on Recycling of Solid Waste || Sri Lanka)

“I got involved in environmental issues when I started studying tropical and ornamental fish. I realized how much stress the fish go through when exposed to pesticides. They show it so well: they change their color and show aggressiveness in the tank. I thought, ‘Oh my God, what are we doing to these animals?’ I didn’t become an environmentalist quickly — it slowly grew in me. I continued my work on fish pursuing a PhD in Germany. But when I returned to Sri Lanka a few years later, everything turned upside down.

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I realized there is a huge garbage issue in Sri Lanka. To me, that problem seemed far greater than the issue of pesticides. It was so obvious to me, looking at the sides of the road. I felt that I really needed to do something to clean up this country — that’s how I got into waste. I was probably the first professional woman to spend time at a garbage dump. I worked with waste pickers to understand what’s really happening and with local authorities — they hadn’t even heard of recycling! It just wasn’t a concept at that time. I had to find a word for recycling in Sinhala (one of Sri Lanka’s main languages), because nobody had ever thought about it. We now call it prathichakkrikaranaya, consisting of ‘prathi,’ meaning ‘again,’ and ‘chakkraya,’ meaning ‘cycle.’ Because of this work, I earned myself a nickname — they call me the ‘Garbage Queen of Sri Lanka.’

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I am a scientist, but I am also a common people’s person. It’s important that science comes into the household — it should be spoken about everywhere. Science can only succeed if we start speaking in simpler terms, so that everybody can understand how much humans and animals need clean air, clean water, clean food, and clean soil.”