POLICY & REGULATION · 8 min read
Sri Lanka Now Has a Producer-Responsibility Law. Nobody Owes Anything Under It Yet
The National Environmental (Amendment) Act, No. 15 of 2026, introduces an extended producer responsibility law for Sri Lanka. It names no product, sets no target and fixes no fee. Those decisions are set out in two ministerial instruments that have not been published, and the percentages companies have been quoting are not in the statute.
By the ESGNexus Editorial Team · September 2026 · Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Since 21 July 2026, Sri Lanka’s National Environmental Act has included a Part titled Extended Producer Responsibility. As of this week, no Sri Lankan company owes anything.
That is not a loophole. It is how the provision is drafted. Section 23QQ — the entire new Part IVF, inserted by section 27 of the National Environmental (Amendment) Act, No. 15 of 2026 — is an enabling power. It sets out what the Minister may do. What a manufacturer, importer or brand owner must do will be set out in two instruments that do not yet exist.
For finance and sustainability teams, the consequence runs the other way from most of the coverage. The obligation is certain; its size is not. Any budget, supplier contract or disclosure based on a percentage quoted in the press rests on a figure the law does not contain.
What Section 23QQ Actually Says
The Speaker certified the Act on 21 July 2026, and it was published as a supplement to the Gazette on 24 July. Section 1 gives the short title and nothing else. No clause holds any Part back until an appointed date, so Part IVF already forms part of the principal Act. It runs to six subsections.
| Subsection | What it does | What it leaves open |
| 23QQ(1) | The Minister specifies, by Order published in the Gazette, the goods or products subject to extended producer responsibility. | Which goods. Until an Order names them, no producer is covered. |
| 23QQ(2) | The Minister may, by regulations, establish a mechanism that makes producers responsible for the life cycle of their goods, up to recycling, reuse, or disposal acceptable to the Central Environmental Authority. The mechanism also sets the fees, including non-compliance fees. | Targets, reporting, fee levels, and whether producers act alone or through a collective scheme. |
| 23QQ(3) | Every producer of goods specified under (1) must comply with the mechanism. | The duty is real, but it has nothing to attach to until (1) and (2) are made. |
| 23QQ(4) | The Director-General may recover unpaid fees by summary procedure in the Magistrate’s Court. | Fee amounts. |
| 23QQ(5) | Contravening the regulations is an offence: a fine of not less than Rs 100,000, imprisonment of up to two years, or both. | No maximum fine is stated. |
| 23QQ(6) | Defines extended producer responsibility and “producer”. | The reach of “or otherwise”. |
Source: National Environmental (Amendment) Act, No. 15 of 2026, section 27 inserting section 23QQ, pp. 39–41, certified 21 July 2026 — documents.gov.lk
Section 6 of the same Act gives the Central Environmental Authority a new function: implementing an extended producer responsibility mechanism for prescribed goods or products, either on its own or in collaboration with any other person. That wording leaves room for an industry-run collection body to work alongside the regulator. It does not require one.
Three Sets of Numbers, None of Them Law
The figure most often cited in Sri Lanka’s plans is 40%. It stems from remarks by Deputy Minister of Environment Anton Jayakody, reported by EconomyNext on 12 May 2026. He was explaining how a quota would work. For example, a soft-drink manufacturer might have to certify that it had collected and recycled 40% of the plastic it distributed in a fiscal year, with a three-year grace period before legal action. He was describing regulations his ministry had prepared, not the Bill.
A month later, the figures had shifted. Speaking in Parliament, as reported by Lanka News Web on 12 June, the Deputy Minister said targets could reach 50% in the first year, 60% in the second and 80% in the third. The grace period was again three years. He called the system Mandatory Reporting and Collect-Back.
The Bill passed its Third Reading on 24 June, with amendments, by 113 votes to 10, according to Sri Lanka Mirror. Neither set of numbers appears in the Act. A search of the certified text finds no percentage, no target and no phase-in anywhere.
| Source | What it says | Legal status |
| Deputy Minister, reported 12 May 2026 | 40% of plastic distributed in a fiscal year, given as an example; three-year grace period. | A statement about draft regulations. |
| Deputy Minister in Parliament, reported 12 June 2026 | 50%, 60% and 80% over three years; three-year grace period. | A statement: the targets were described as potential. |
| Act No. 15 of 2026, section 23QQ | No percentage, no timeline, no grace period. | Law, certified 21 July 2026. |
Sources: EconomyNext, 12 May 2026; Lanka News Web, 12 June 2026; National Environmental (Amendment) Act, No. 15 of 2026
| The responsibility is assigned to the producer. — Anton Jayakody, Deputy Minister of Environment, as reported by EconomyNext, 12 May 2026 |
The two statements start at different levels, and neither has been published as a draft regulation. What they share is the grace period and the direction of travel. Companies should read both as signals of ambition, not as an obligation.
Who Counts as a Producer — and What “Or Otherwise” Leaves Open
The Act defines a producer as a person who deals with goods or products as a manufacturer, or “as an importer or brand owner or otherwise”, in accordance with written law. Manufacturers, importers and brand owners are named. Distributors and retailers are not.
The words “or otherwise” keep the category open. The Order and the regulations will determine whether it applies to a supermarket’s own-label range, a distributor that repackages imported goods, or an online seller. On the face of the statute, none of these questions is settled.
The Baseline the Regulations Will Be Written Against
The most comprehensive public overview of Sri Lanka’s plastic flows is the National Plastic Waste Inventory. The Ministry of Environment published it in February 2024, in collaboration with the University of Peradeniya and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, drawing on data from 2015 to 2022.
| Stage | Tonnes a year | Share of generation |
| Plastic waste generated | 249,037 | 100% |
| Collected | 181,071 | 73% |
| Not collected at all (typically burnt, dumped or buried on site) | 67,965 | 27% |
| Recycled | 26,775 | 11% |
| Leaked from the waste management system | 101,450 | 41% |
| of which leaked at designated disposal sites | 78,068 | 31% |
Source: Ministry of Environment, University of Peradeniya and IGES, National Plastic Waste Inventory for Sri Lanka: A Material Flow Approach, February 2024, Table 1, p. iii — env.gov.lk. The 31% share is an ESGNexus calculation.
Two readings matter for the regulations. First, the gap between collection and recycling is far wider than the gap between generation and collection. Nearly three-quarters of plastic waste is collected, but only 11% is recycled. Second, the largest single leak, 78,068 tonnes a year, occurs at designated disposal sites after the waste has been collected. A regime that pays producers to hand plastic to the existing system will not, by itself, move that number.
The 41% figure has elsewhere been reported as waste “unaccounted” for. The inventory does not describe it that way. It classifies the 101,450 tonnes as leakage from the waste management system and itemises them by stage: collection, transport, sorting and disposal. The inventory is also national. It gives no producer-level baseline, and a percentage target cannot be measured without one.
The Machinery That Already Exists
Sri Lanka is not starting from nothing. From 2021, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce ran a pilot with Biodiversity Sri Lanka, funded by USAID’s Clean Cities Blue Ocean programme. It used a Mandatory Reporting and Collect-Back model, the same term the Deputy Minister used in Parliament.
The Chamber reports that the pilot:
- set up 12 material recovery facilities
- formed two private-sector consortia, one for PET and one for HIPS plastics
- trained more than 500 collectors and recyclers
- managed 1,586 tonnes of plastic waste over the life of the project
When the project ended, it was handed to the Central Environmental Authority.
The difficulty is scale. The pilot’s 1,586 tonnes is the total for the whole project, whereas the inventory reports national recycling at 26,775 tonnes per year and generation at 249,037 tonnes. The pilot shows the model can run. It does not show that the collection and recycling capacity exists to meet a 40% or 50% obligation across every covered producer. Both ministerial statements included a three-year grace period, and that gap would have to be closed within it.
What Is Not Known
- Which goods come first. Ministerial statements have focused on plastic and polythene, but section 23QQ covers any goods or products the Minister specifies.
- The target levels, and whether they will be measured by weight, by unit or by material.
- The fee levels, including non-compliance fees.
- Whether producers will comply individually or through a collective scheme, and who will run it.
- Whether the three-year grace period in both statements will appear in the regulations.
- When will the Order and the regulations be published?
What to Do Now
1. Do not book a percentage. A budget or supplier term based on 40% or 50% rests on statements, not on law. Model a range and keep it open until the regulations are published.
2. Measure what you place on the market. Any percentage obligation will be calculated against the plastic a producer places in Sri Lanka. For both manufactured and imported goods, the required quantity is the tonnage by polymer and format.
3. Determine whether you are a producer. The Act names importers and brand owners. Distributors, repackers and own-label sellers should seek advice on “or otherwise” before the Order is made, not after.
4. Watch the Gazette, not the press. The obligation begins with an Order under section 23QQ(1). That is the date to track, and it will not necessarily be announced in advance.
5. Secure collection and recycling capacity early. If the targets align with the ministerial statements, the national figures suggest capacity will be strained in the first years. Relationships with collectors and recyclers are cheaper to build before the deadline than after it.
ESGNexus will publish the Order and the regulations clause by clause once they are gazetted. Exporters also face a parallel timeline: the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, covered in our analysis of 6 August 2026, already applies to packaging shipped into the EU.
Sources & Further Reading
Parliament of Sri Lanka, “National Environmental (Amendment) Act, No. 15 of 2026”, certified 21 July 2026 — documents.gov.lk
Ministry of Environment, University of Peradeniya and IGES, “National Plastic Waste Inventory for Sri Lanka: A Material Flow Approach”, February 2024 — env.gov.lk
EconomyNext, “Sri Lanka new environment bill to mandate plastic recycling for producers”, 12 May 2026 — economynext.com
Lanka News Web, “Proposed Environmental Law Amendments to Make Producers Responsible for Waste Management”, 12 June 2026 — lankanewsweb.net
Sri Lanka Mirror, “National Environmental (Amendment) Bill passed in Parliament”, 24 June 2026 — srilankamirror.com
Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, “Extended Producer Responsibility” project page — chamber.lk
ESGNexus, “The EU’s Packaging Rules Apply on 12 August”, 6 August 2026 — esgnexus.lk/2026/08/06/eu-ppwr-packaging-rules-sri-lankan-exporters/
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Data disclaimer: Information in this article is sourced from publicly available documents. ESGNexus does not independently verify company disclosures. Errors and omissions excepted.