Three research grants totalling €110,000 ($126,000) will fund studies into single-use plastics across food and beverage value chains in Sri Lanka’s Colombo and Galle districts.
The grants are being provided through the EU-funded Circular project, with research teams from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Ruhuna and the Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Computing at the University of Kelaniya.
The studies will examine how single-use plastics are used and move through selected food and beverage value chains, as well as their environmental and public health impacts.
Life-cycle approaches
Researchers will use data collection, waste-flow mapping, environmental and public health assessments and life-cycle approaches to examine plastics use and identify opportunities for reducing waste and improving resource efficiency.
The research is intended to address gaps in available data on plastics waste in Sri Lanka, particularly single-use plastics. Existing information does not provide sufficient detail on the sectors, sources and types of plastics involved, according to the project.
The findings are expected to help policymakers, businesses and other stakeholders identify where plastics use could be reduced and assess potential interventions, including alternatives and circular economy approaches.
“Through our research grant programme, we aim to generate evidence that can contribute to better policy, planning and decision-making, while also strengthening collaboration between researchers, policymakers and practitioners,” said Mahmoud Gaballah, Circular project manager at Expertise France, at the grant signing ceremony at the University of Ruhuna.
Three-year initiative
Circular, or the Circular Economy in the Food Sector project, is a three-year initiative focused on reducing food loss and food waste and single-use plastics waste in Sri Lanka’s food sector.
The project is funded by the EU and partially co-funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. It is being implemented by Expertise France, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit.
This new research is part of wider efforts to address plastics waste in Sri Lanka and across Asia.
In 2025, the UN Development Programme and The Coca-Cola Foundation launched a three-year programme backed by a $15 million grant to improve plastics waste management across nine Asian countries, including Sri Lanka.
