The 3R Awareness campaign is a joint initiative between the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) Environment Programme and the Waste Management Authority (WMA), Western Province aimed at promoting the 3R concept Reduce, Reuse, Recycle among the general public.

The campaign was initiated in April 7th 2008 through a joint initiative by CHA and WMA

The first phase of the campaign was the awareness programmes conducted via electronic media in both Sinhala and Tamil broadcasting services of SLBC. City FM and Tamil National Service ran a series of radio programmes covering themes such as waste separation at source, collection of recyclable items and the Pivithuru Pasal programme.  There were also environmental jingles broadcast on Sinhala Commercial Service twice daily for a period of one month.

There were also several environmental forums conducted by CHA, two of which were done specifically on the theme of recycling. It was through these forums that the need for a mass-scale public awareness campaign was identified.

As a result, CHA and WMA initiated the next phase of the campaign which involved publishing a series of advertisements in the local newspapers in Sinhala, Tamil and English, so as to create awareness among the public on the 3R concept of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The advertisements carried simple steps to practice 3R at home and also contained lists of separated waste drop-off sites (sampath piyasa and eco kiosks) as well as places to drop off reusable containers and to buy items in bulk.

The next phase is to publish a series of informative articles in the local papers in Sinhala, Tamil and English, containing more information on waste reduction practices, composting, recycling and other pertinent information. Additionally, WMA and CHA have selected 50 public walls in different locations across Western Province to paint environmentally themed messages and graphics. This will be carried out by involving the community, namely schoolchildren, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, and other interested groups through community service projects, art competitions etc.