Abstract:
Plastic pollution remains a major global environmental concern, with post
consumer PET (polyethene terephthalate) waste forming a significant share of
plastic debris. Sri Lanka, as a developing island nation and popular tourist
destination, faces many challenges in managing plastic waste, particularly during
periods of increased tourist arrivals. While previous studies have broadly
examined plastic waste generation in tourism contexts, there are no proper studies
related to PET plastics or to quantifying their relationship with tourism in Sri
Lanka. This study addresses that gap by investigating the relationship between
monthly international tourist arrivals and PET plastic waste collection volumes
reported by a major private sector recycler from 2019 to 2024. The recycler
collects PET from both formal and informal streams nationwide, and tourist
arrival data obtained from the Tourism Development Authority. Descriptive
analysis and Pearson correlation tests were applied to assess both direct and lagged
relationships between two variables. Lagged analysis was conducted by shifting
the PET waste data by one month to test for delayed impacts of tourism.
Descriptive analysis revealed sharp declines in both tourist arrivals and PET
collection in mid-2019 and early 2020, corresponding to Easter attacks and
COVID-19 travel restrictions, respectively. PET collection gradually recovered
from late 2021, and even as tourism recovery was more gradual, indicating that
domestic consumption and improvements in collection infrastructure also
influenced collection trends. Pearson correlation tests showed a statistically
significant moderate positive correlation between tourist arrivals and PET
collection (r = 0.629, p<0.05). The lagged analysis also revealed a moderate
correlation (r = 0.430, p<0.05), suggesting that the effect of tourism on PET waste
collection may not be immediate but may emerge in the following month due to
delays in waste generation, collection, and transport processes. By linking the
nationwide PET waste collection to tourism flows, this study provides new
empirical evidence of tourism’s contribution to plastic waste in Sri Lanka. The
findings highlight the importance of seasonally responsive waste management
strategies and can inform waste collectors, recyclers and local authorities in
planning resource allocation during peak tourist seasons.
