Faced with tonnes of waste material from furniture manufacture, Moratuwa, on Colombo's southern outskirts, has come up with a unique solution. Municipal authorities have returned the problem to source, asking furniture companies themselves to develop a product using wood waste.

Moratuwa is home to Sri Lanka's best carpenters, with 4,000 furniture shops and timber merchants. And everyday, 20 tonnes of wood waste is dumped. With no dumping ground and transporting elsewhere too expensive an option, the waste is dumped anywhere