Abstract:
The National Policy of Solid Waste Management (SWM) was publicised in Sri Lanka in the year
2007 with the aim to have waste-free Sri Lanka by 2011. However, the spread of Dengue
epidemic and respiratory syndromes persuade the present investigation with objective to
apprehend the effectiveness of SWM in terms of the National Policy of SWM empirically and to
find out strategies that make the SWM more effective. The study used the inductive approach
with Grounded Theory (GT) strategy and archival records and interview as data collection
techniques covering entire Sri Lanka. Survey data and the secondary data were clustered together
to process toward theorizing through open, axial selective coding. Results showed high Jaccard
coefficients of 0.505 between concepts, the impact of People and Bureaucrats on SWM, 0.285
between the impact of Authorities and Citizens and 0.296 with the impact on Legal and
Regulatory Framework. These results lead to construct a new social theory that explains the
effectiveness of SWM varies with the level of persuasion and the social conformity of people
and authority and the strength of legal framework. The theory explains that to achieve an
effective SWM, persuasion can be used as an instrument under the background of effective law
enforcement. The low effectiveness of SWM is related to the high Corruption Perception Index
(CPI) attributed to Sri Lanka 95/162 by the Transparency International. The result explains the
low effectiveness of SWM in other developing countries where CPI is high.
