Financial Times

Making Moratuwa more environment friendly
From wood waste to chip board
By Iromi Perera
Wood waste is one of the most serious issues that those who live in Moratuwa face. This town, which has more than 4,000 furniture makers, has had no place where people could dump their wood waste.

Everyday around 20 metric tonnes of wood waste is produced in Moratuwa. It had come to a point where people were thinking of dumping the wood waste in the sea, as getting rid of the waste and transporting it elsewhere was too expensive.

The Moratuwa Municipality placed an advertisement in the newspapers, asking for companies to come up with a product using wood waste. The product that Gamini Ranasinghe's company put forward was chosen. The product was chipboard made out of wood waste. Ranasinghe, who is the Chairman and Managing Director of the Malindu Group of Companies, had learnt of this method of making chipboard from wood waste when he was in America for a training exhibition.

After Ranasinghe's company was chosen, they were given an abandoned factory in Moratuwa, which is under the Divisional Secretary, to use as a factory. People can give their wood waste to collectors who will buy one bag of wood waste for Rs.5 each. The collectors would then take the collected wood waste to the factory where it would be sorted out and cleaned and used for production.

A special machine is located in the storeroom to clean and separate the wood waste as people give wood waste in different sizes, along with other things. According to Ranasinghe, who has been in this industry for almost 25 years, one particle of wood waste makes better board, so they try their best to separate them into the same size.

Using machines specially brought down from Germany, the end product of wood waste is chipboard. A group of experts from the United Kingdom had set it all up at the factory last month. Ranasinghe said that they would be making 400 boards (4'x8') per day, using around 15 tonnes of wood waste everyday. After the chipboard is made, it will be laminated, for value addition. This can be used for any sort of furniture - pantry cupboards, beds, furniture, etc. Once it is laminated, the board is waterproof and this sort of board is unavailable in Sri Lanka, making Ranasinghe's company the first to manufacture it.

This company is one of the few in Sri Lanka that manufactures chipboard, as it is mostly imported from India, Indonesia and Malaysia. Ranasinghe said that Sri Lanka needs 4000 boards per day and that this demand can be supplied locally, without having to import them. He said that they could even export the excess production. For this, he says, the government support is essential.

Speaking on BOI companies who bring down these products duty free, he said they should buy the boards locally as companies such as his can supply the same product for a much cheaper price. An investment of Rs 250 million has gone into the factory, which employs 25 people directly and about 250 indirectly. The factory will be officially opened on May 5 with Minister Anura Bandaranaike as the Chief Guest.

Once the factory is fully functional, the wood waste in Moratuwa will be reduced by more than 80 percent.

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