This case study investigates better and sustainable waste management for a given area in Sri Lanka. A questionnaire and field surveys were performed in a small local authority adjacent to Colombo, the capital city. Composting for organic waste and incineration for non-compostable waste were found to be important treatment methods for solid-waste management. The reduction of solid waste is a critical process for sustainable management. Currently, people in the area do not have much interest in waste recycling to decrease the cost of solid-waste management. It was therefore concluded that raising people's awareness would play an important role in the reduction of solid waste. A suitable waste-management plan needs to be made for each community and area. The situation and conditions of every area is different, therefore each community needs to make an effort to find its own better and sustainable solid-waste management process.

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This study is an attempt to find the fundamental key to improving the social status of waste management workers by examining the history of nurses. A strong prejudice and discrimination against waste management workers still exist in Japanese society. The social status of nurses also used to be extremely low, but has improved drastically. Nursing has become a profession that many parents would like their daughters to choose as a career. The drastic improvement resulted from a change in the mindset toward "patients." Similarly, the status of waste management workers can be improved if people start thinking of waste in terms of resources. Improvement in the social status of waste management workers could be one of the powerful driving forces for making waste management a more interesting profession and respected field.

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The adverse effects of lead poisoning have long been of environmental concern. A large number of research papers have reported many routes of lead poisoning, of which lead sinkers used in fishing require urgent attention. Lead sinkers that are abandoned or scattered from individual fishing gear are notorious for environmental pollution and have been reported in many papers; moreover, lead-core "sinker rope" is used in fishery nets. This paper discusses the latter, which generally has limited public awareness. Preliminary work and field studies were conducted to develop a system for total treatment of lead from fishing nets with lead-cored sinker ropes, in order to prevent environmental pollution and conserve natural resources. Lead sinkers in fishing nets were successfully removed, yielding high-quality lead suitable for commercial purposes. Appropriate management of fishing nets is crucial for environmental protection and resource conservation.