Building on our work in the Maldives, Sri Lanka became Parley’s second key country in South Asia in 2018. Since then, we have organized cleanups across all four coasts, deployed river booms and collection infrastructure, delivered education programs with schools and universities, and partnered with government agencies including the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA).
In 2025, our first physical hub—the Blue Station in Beruwala—became operational, serving as a permanent base for waste collection, sorting, education, and community action.
“It’s so nice to see the community come together to address plastics and environmental health. While there is still a long way to go, the ice has broken. Especially the smiling faces of the kids always remind you — this is the way.”
Philip Zerr – Parley Sri Lanka
Cleanups & Community Action
Since 2018, Parley Sri Lanka has organized 288 cleanups and mobilized 10,892 participants across all four coasts of the island. What began as a series of local beach cleanups has grown into a nationwide movement reaching Colombo, Galle, Jaffna, Trincomalee, and many communities in between. Each event brings together students, volunteers, fishers, businesses, and government partners in a shared effort to protect the ocean.
But cleanups are about far more than removing waste. They are highly visible moments of collective action that reveal the scale of plastic pollution to everyone involved—and to everyone watching. Every bag filled becomes a conversation about consumption, waste, and responsibility. Every participant leaves with a deeper connection to the ocean and a clearer understanding that meaningful change begins with action.
For Parley Sri Lanka, cleanups are often the first point of contact with communities. They create trust, build momentum, and open the door to longer-term collaboration. This approach proved especially important after the X-Press Pearl disaster, when our teams helped recover an estimated 3.5 million plastic pellets from Sri Lanka’s west coast, demonstrating the power of coordinated action in times of environmental crisis.
Today, our cleanup operations are supported by carbon-neutral logistics, including electric cargo bicycles and community collection systems. What starts with volunteers on a beach can evolve into education programs, infrastructure projects, and lasting partnerships. From local action to national movement, cleanups remain at the heart of our work.
Interception & Infrastructure
In 2023, Parley Sri Lanka installed its first river boom. What began as a pilot has since grown into a broader interception system designed to stop plastic before it reaches lagoons, rivers, coral reefs, and the open ocean. Today, 15 Parley-deployed river booms operate across Colombo and Beruwala, intercepting waste at some of the country’s most polluted waterways.
These barriers are part of a larger infrastructure network that addresses one of Sri Lanka’s most persistent challenges: the gap between households generating recyclable waste and systems capable of collecting and processing it consistently. Collection bins, reusable bags, and electric cargo bicycles create reliable routes that move plastic from communities to recycling facilities.
(At the center of this work is the Blue Station in Beruwala—Parley Sri Lanka’s first permanent physical hub. The Blue Station serves as a collection and sorting center, educational venue, and operational headquarters for field teams and community partners. It marks a strategic shift from campaign-based interventions to long-term environmental infrastructure.)
Recovered materials are then channeled through a nationwide network of more than 15 material recovery facilities. Together, these systems turn plastic interception into a scalable model for preventing marine pollution at its source and creating practical solutions that can be replicated across the island.
Education & Youth
Education is one of the most powerful tools in Parley Sri Lanka’s work. Since 2018, the team has reached more than 37,000 students, teachers, and community members. Our education programs move beyond classroom lectures and immerse participants in the realities of plastic pollution and the systems needed to solve it.
Our strongest academic partnership is with the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, where we have conducted more than 50 joint cleanups and formalized our collaboration through a memorandum of understanding. In 2024, first-year management students participated in a two-day environmental activation that combined campus and neighborhood cleanups with outreach to eight surrounding schools, demonstrating how universities can become catalysts for large-scale social impact.
Parley Sri Lanka also has worked with the University of Moratuwa, University of Jaffna, University of Ruhuna, Ocean University of Sri Lanka, and the Academy of Design (AOD). Through these partnerships, students took part in beach cleanups, recycling facility visits, sustainable design workshops, and research collaborations focused on ocean conservation.
From surf-based learning in Kabalana to coral replantation in Beruwala, education is always rooted in direct experience. By connecting young people with the ocean and equipping them with practical tools to respond, we are helping build the next generation of ocean guardians.
GFCR Beruwala Spotlight
In October 2025, Parley Sri Lanka launched its most comprehensive place-based intervention to date in Beruwala, one of the country’s most polluted coastal regions. Funded by the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) and supported by catalytic finance, the project was designed around a simple principle: plastic kept out of the ocean gives coral reefs a better chance to recover.
The project combines 54 cleanups, 48 education programs, five river booms, four electric cargo bicycles, 15 collection bins, 50 collection bags, and Sri Lanka’s first Blue Station into one integrated model. By May 2026, the education target had already been exceeded, with 51 programs completed and thousands of community members engaged.
At the center of the initiative is a partnership with the University of Moratuwa, which is leading coral replantation efforts in the reef system the project is designed to protect. This creates a direct connection between community waste management and marine ecosystem restoration: intercepted plastic leads to cleaner water, and cleaner water supports reef recovery.
More than 50 partners—including government agencies, universities, schools, hotels, and community organizations—have joined forces to make the project possible. The Beruwala Blue Station is more than a local facility; it is a working blueprint for how environmental infrastructure, education, and restoration science can come together to protect coastal ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
Parley × NRC — Enabling National Impact
Parley Sri Lanka believes lasting impact is created by empowering local leadership. Our partnership with Negombo Recycling Club (NRC) began with a small family-run recycling business — a second-generation company with roots in the cocoa fiber industry and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. We supported NRC as helping strengthen its operational capacity, strategic vision, and role within Sri Lanka’s emerging circular economy.
This collaboration helped NRC secure a US$1.5 million World Bank grant and establish a state-of-the-art recycling facility in Horana with a processing capacity of 300 metric tons per month. The facility produces high-quality recycled PP, HDPE, Nylon, and PS pellets while investing in research and development to address difficult waste streams, including degraded and flexible plastics through Wood Plastic Composite (WPC) innovation.
Through our partnership, the NRC network has deployed 50 trash barriers, 205+ collection bins, and 35 electric cargo bicycles across 15 districts. More than 1,000 collectors have been empowered, over 100,000 people reached through education, and hundreds of cleanups and school events implemented nationwide. Together, our work now extends from Negombo to Jaffna and Trincomalee, enabling impact across all four coastal regions of Sri Lanka.
Under the national Clean Sri Lanka initiative, Parley and MAS Foundation serve as technical partners, with NRC acting as a key implementing partner. What began as a collaboration with one local recycler has grown into a nationwide infrastructure network—demonstrating how investing in local ownership can unlock environmental change at scale.
Fearless Collective x Parley
Ocean conservation is not only scientific and operational work—it is also cultural work. Through our collaboration with Fearless Collective, we used art and storytelling to amplify the voices of the communities living closest to the environmental crisis, particularly women whose lives and livelihoods are deeply connected to the sea.
In Negombo, this partnership brought together the Shri Vimukthi Fisherwomen Organization to create a large-scale public mural that transformed lived experience into collective expression. The artwork celebrated resilience, identity, and the role of women as environmental leaders and narrators of change.
The project later connected to global climate conversations, including COP27, where these local stories became part of a broader international dialogue on justice and environmental action. By linking community voices to global platforms, the collaboration demonstrated that the fight for ocean health is inseparable from the stories people tell about their relationship with nature.
Through art, storytelling, and community celebration, Parley Sri Lanka expands ocean conservation beyond infrastructure and cleanups—creating emotional connections that inspire awareness, pride, and long-term engagement.
SUPPORT OUR WORK IN SRI LANKA
Help expand river interception systems, education programs, and environmental infrastructure protecting Sri Lanka’s coastlines and reefs.
Partners & Collaborators
Our work in Sri Lanka would not be possible without collaboration. Since 2018, our projects have brought together government agencies, universities, recycling partners, schools, hotels, artists, youth groups, and local communities into one growing network for ocean protection. From national environmental authorities to surf schools and fishing communities, this coalition reflects the belief that environmental change requires shared ownership across sectors. Key partners include:
Marine Environment
Protection Authority (MEPA)
Sri Lanka Navy
Sri Lanka Coast Guard
Clean Sri Lanka
World Bank
UNOPS
Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR)
MAS Foundation
Negombo Recycling Club (NRC)
Eco Spindles
INSEE Ecocycle
Curtin University
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
University of Moratuwa
Ocean University of Sri Lanka
Academy of Design (AOD)
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Parley’s global network works to protect marine environments from plastic pollution and other threats. Through collaborative cleanups with local businesses and organizations, our teams and volunteers intercept plastic waste from beaches, remote islands, rivers, mangroves and coastal communities. Each country team shares our vision for healthier oceans globally, and works locally to champion the Parley AIR Strategy.
Since the inception of Parley for the Oceans, our teams and volunteers have intercepted over 10 million kg of debris and cleaned 2.4 million square meters of coastline. We’ve also launched an extensive educational program, both virtual and physical. Our global cleanups
and educational initiatives have reached over 1 million participants across 66 different countries and counting.