Waste Collection-
01. Daily garbage collection is carried out according to a schedule, following a route map.
02. Providing barrels for waste collection for every fish and meat shop.
03.Fish and meat shops are located at the end of the garbage collection route map.
04.The municipal council uses four-wheel tractors, hand tractors, and carts.
05.Using lorry dustbins to collect garbage.
06.Only 03 employees per vehicle will be deployed to collect street garbage.
07.The biodegradable waste collected daily from each street is collected by 04 tractors in 02 shifts, day and night.
08.The Bell Collection system has been introduced for garbage collection.
The collected waste arrives at the compost yard, where it is finally disposed of, at a rate of one load every 45 minutes.
09.The collected waste arrives at the compost yard, where it is finally disposed of, at a rate of one load every 45 minutes.

Recycling
01. The segregated biodegradable waste collected daily is sent to the composting process on the same day.
02. The recyclable materials contained in the two tractors that collect sorted non-biodegradable waste include paper, cardboard,Tin, iron, old tires and tubes, coconut shells, etc. are separated and handed over to Sampath Piyasa.
03.The polythene, plastic, and bottles collected here are taken to the Bankiyawatte Plastic Polythene Recycling Center.
05.Of the daily waste collected, 75-80% is biodegradable, 15-20% is non-biodegradable recyclable, and between 5% and 8% is landfill material.

Compost-
01.Using the separated waste, garbage piles measuring 12 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 6 feet high are formed in an open window manner.
02.The garbage piles created in this way are left for a period of 6 weeks.
03.In such open-loop landfills, the contaminated water contained in the waste begins to seep out after about 6 hours.
04.he polluted water has a high biochemical oxygen demand and acidity. This liquid causes foul odor and flies to breed. This leachate is carried along concrete drains and collected in a tank.
05. It is then mixed with clean water at a ratio of 1:1000 and sprayed again on the garbage heaps.
06. During the dry season, garbage is sprayed onto open windows every half hour.
07.During the first 6 weeks of this process, the temperature of the garbage dumps is regulated and the environment necessary for bacterial growth and activity is created.
08.At the end of the 6-week period, the partially digested waste is turned over, which aerates the pile well and speeds up the digestion process.
08. Diluted, contaminated water is sprayed onto the overturned garbage pile.
09.After 2 weeks, the decomposed waste is turned over and mixed well.
10. After the second turning, the stimulated compost is dried in a gentle breeze to reduce the moisture content to 8%.
11
The mixed waste with a moisture content of about 8% is sent through a composting sieve to separate the compost from the non-biodegradable waste.
Special moments in composting at Balangoda Municipal Council.
12. Garbage turns into compost under aerobic conditions.
13.Open Window Piles are open areas where composting waste is done. Storks are abundant here and are used as a biological indicator to determine the quality of the composting process.
14.These garbage dumps are devoid of cranes, and toxic gases are generated through anaerobic activity, rather than the aerobic process of garbage digestion.
15.As a quick fix, this situation can be completely controlled by mixing jaggery with the contaminated water flowing from the garbage dumps, leaving it for a few days, and then spraying the solution again on the garbage. This is also one of the measures to try out new methods to control the stench.
16.Steps taken to improve the quality of compost.
17.The mass ratio is a very important factor in the conversion of waste into compost. It also improves the quality of the compost.
18.Understanding this, the leadership of the Balangoda Urban Council is dumping the blood-stained animal waste collected from the slaughterhouses and fish and meat shops within the city limits into pits created in the middle of the decomposing garbage heaps.
20.This process directly helps increase the nitrogen content of the compost.
21.There are 4 paddy mills in the Balangoda Municipal Council area, which produce about 1 MT of paddy husk per week. This husk has been used to fill wetlands since 2004.
22.Later, through the production of rice husk charcoal introduced by the Department of Agriculture, the Balangoda Municipal Council Waste Management Unit was able to produce 2500 kg of rice husk charcoal per month.
23.The resulting slurry is mixed with charcoal and compost in a ratio of 1:100.
This process directly improves the quality of the compost and increases the moisture content of the compost to 15%..
24.Batteries and hair are added to the daily garbage collection and are a major problem in the production of compost. The addition of batteries and hair reduces the quality of the compost. • Balangoda Municipal Council has successfully overcome this obstacle by creating good community awareness and making appropriate laws.
25.Accordingly, all barbershop owners will separate the hair collected in their workplaces into bags and deliver it to garbage collection vehicles. Similarly, watchmakers will separately collect discarded watch batteries.