Expert: Do more for garbage management

nst
By Nor Ain Mohamed Radhi - February 23, 2020 @ 12:15pm

It should start with reducing waste at the source, along with the practice of reduce, reuse and
recycle (3Rs). - File pic/Wikimedia Commons, for illustration purposes only
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians have been urged to change their attitude towards waste
management.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s chair professor on environmental sustainability

Professor Datuk Seri Dr Zaini Ujang said the rapid filling up of existing landfills required
more proactive measures from Malaysians.

He added that it should start with reducing waste at the source, along with the practice
of reduce, reuse and recycle (3Rs).

“Solid waste has been a problem in developing countries, including Malaysia. “In 2016,
there were only 14 sanitary landfills, along with 147 landfills.

“With an average of 1kg produced per person daily, how are we going to manage this
problem?” said Zaini said recently.

Zaini, who is former energy, green technology and water ministry secretary-general, said
Malaysians were not practising waste separation at the source.

“Everything, including food waste, is lumped together in the same garbage bag and
subsequently sent to landfills.”

In October 2018, Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Raja Kamarul
Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad Baharuddin Shah said Malaysia generated about 38,000
tonnes of waste daily.

“From the amount, the waste separation and recycling rate was only 24 per cent, while
the remaining 76 per cent went to landfills.”

Professor Datuk Seri Dr Zaini Ujang

Raja Kamarul Bahrin said the ministry hoped to raise the waste separation and recycle
rate to 30 per cent this year.

Zaini believed people should start reducing their waste at the source, as well as practise
the 3Rs concept.

“The lackadaisical attitude towards waste management will only contribute to the
increase in domestic waste.

“If we waste less and recycle more, we can save our environment from garbage
pollution.”
Sharing his experience while at Tsukuba University, Zaini said he lived in an apartment
that required him to sort his waste into 17 bins, according to categories.

“I was surprised that there were 17 bins and they varied according to municipalities.”

On Sept 1, 2015, the government had made it mandatory for the public to separate solid
waste at source.

The implementation was pursuant to regulations under Solid Waste and Public
Cleansing Management Act 2007 (Act672) enforced in the following states and Federal
Territories: Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Johor, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Kedah, and
Perlis.

On the Eat Smart, Save Food programme, Zaini said it was conducted to find solutions
to encourage people to preserve the environment and subsequently leads to
environmental sustainability.
16 July 2020

Article by Kok Siew Ng and Eleni Iacovidou

Malaysia has much to do, say Kok Siew

Ng and Eleni Iacovidou
MALAYSIA is on track to miss its 2020 targets to divert 40% of
waste from landfill and increase recycling rates to 22%.
According to the most recent stats available, almost 90% of waste
was reportedly disposed to sanitary landfills, while only 10.5%
was recycled1. These targets were set out as far back as August
2005 in Malaysia’s National Strategic Plan (NSP) for Solid Waste
Management.

So what has gone wrong? And what needs to be done to catalyse green
progress? To gain some insight, we spoke to policy-makers and waste
management authorities in Malaysia to try to get to the bottom of the
problem.

According to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in

Malaysia, around RM430m (US$100m) has been spent on closing just
17 out of 165 existing dumpsites, and promoting the disposal of solid
waste to sanitary landfill. At present, landfill seems to be the preferred
solid waste management option for Malaysia, as waste infrastructure
is ill-developed. Local authorities responsible for the management of
solid waste are outsourcing the collection and disposal of solid waste
to private companies. The National Solid Waste Management
Department (abbreviated as JPSPN in Malay) told us that companies
contracted by the local authorities to collect and dispose of municipal
solid waste (MSW) often illegally collect commercial and industrial
waste alongside MSW in order to increase their load and trips to
landfill – to claim more money from the authorities. As a result,
government has considered increasing landfill gate fees, but the fear of
incentivising illegal dumping and fly-tipping has halted these plans.
S.O / Shutterstock.com

Pile up: Rapid urbanisation and increased consumption of goods exacerbate solid waste
management problems

Malaysia is reportedly generating an

immense amount of Municipal Solid
waste, around 33,000 t/d, which is
equivalent to 1.17 kg/person per day
Rapid urbanisation coupled with improvements in living standards
associated with increased consumption of goods2 exacerbate solid
waste management problems faced by the Malaysian Government.
Malaysia is reportedly generating an immense amount of MSW,
around 33,000 t/d, which is equivalent to 1.17 kg/person per day 3.
Added to that there is import of foreign waste – a considerable amount
of which is plastic waste. This is imported either legally (estimated
around 873 kt in 20184) or illegally (based on private conversations
with authorities this is estimated to be around 500 kt in 2018).

According to Malaysian state officials, in 2018 more than 250

shipping containers of plastic waste were imported illegally to
Malaysia from many countries, including the UK. These were
allegedly claimed to have been shipped back to their counties of
origin, but the reality is that this is challenging once the containers
have passed custom controls. This situation has alarmed the
government, which is expected to look to increase public awareness,
tighten the control of imported foreign waste, close down illegal
plastic recycling factories, and promote sustainable solid waste
management.

MUSLIHAT / Shutterstock.com

Demo: Protests against the import of plastic waste

Current practice
Setting the foreign waste aside, the overall recycling rate (for many
types of waste) in Malaysia is estimated at 10.5%,  but from our
discussions, this is mostly for construction and demolition waste. For
MSW specifically, the recycling rate remains largely unknown but
could be very low, as domestic segregation of recyclables in Malaysia
is not common practice. Despite many government recycling
campaigns over the past decades, segregation rates have remained low
and did not improve existing MSW management practices 5,6. (See
Figure 1 for comparison of recycling rates in other countries.)
Figure 1: Municipal waste recycling rates for other countries
 Generating more waste than ever
The Star

By MEI MEI CHU

 NATION
 Tuesday, 30 Jul 2019
Zeroing in on zero food waste
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians should embrace the segregation of waste at home given
that each of them generated an average of 1.17kg each day last year.
According to the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation
(SWCorp), this figure is nearly double that of 2005, when the per capita generation was
around 0.8kg per person per day.

SWCorp deputy chief executive officer (technical) Dr Mohd Pauze Mohamad Taha
revealed these figures at a forum on waste management at the Academy of Sciences
Malaysia here yesterday.

He said in 2018, Malaysians generated a whopping 38, 142 tonnes of waste per day, an
increase from 19, 000 tonnes of waste a day in 2005.

“If you compare 2005 and 2018, the amount of waste generated has increased
tremendously, ” he said, attributing it to a population boom and the inclusion of
commercial waste in the 2018 survey.

According to Dr Mohd Pauze, 44.5% of the waste collected was food waste, followed by
plastic waste (13.2%) and diapers (12.1%).

However, he said the composition of waste was changing, with the latest statistics
showing plastic making up 20% of waste.

Dr Mohd Pauze said this data for municipal solid waste did not include construction and
manufacturing waste.

“More than half of the waste generated are sent to sanitary landfills, ” Dr Mohd Pauze
said, adding that approximately 40% of waste was recyclable.

“Malaysians have a lackadaisical attitude when it comes to recycling and waste

management.”
He said the recycling rate was low, at a mere 28%, but SWCorp hoped to increase it to
30% by 2020.

He said that while the country prepares to introduce a circular economy framework by
2021, Malaysians could greatly reduce the rubbish they generate by segregating their
waste.

“Practise the 3Rs, ” he said, referring to reduce, reuse, recycle.

“Whatever that can be recycled, separate it. Plastic bottles, drink cartons, paper and so
on, separate it and send it to the recycling centre or vendor, you can even sell it, ” he
said.

“Food waste can be separated and composted, ” he said, adding that recycling and
composting could reduce waste generation by 60% to 70% if there was mass adoption.

On illegal dumping, Dr Mohd Pauze said the government spent approximately RM200,
000 a month in Kuala Lumpur alone to clear illegal dumping sites.

“Most of the illegal dumping involves construction and manufacturing waste, ” he said.

“The manufacturer may engage a waste management contractor, but the contractor
may dump the waste illegally to avoid paying tipping fees at the landfills.”

Yesterday, The Star reported that the Kedah state authorities had sealed an illegal
dump site close to Sungai Muda, just 15km upstream from Penang’s largest raw water
intake point.

A villager had charged contractors RM30 per truck to dump their waste on his 1.8ha
land in Kampung Kemumbung.

The land was filled with various kinds of waste from commercial and industrial premises,
ranging from piles of used clothing to vehicle auto parts, barrels of scheduled waste and
chemicals, and an assortment of plastic waste ranging from sheets to pellets.