The business of solid waste vs.

energy
Solid Waste Energy
Business model Subsidized basic utilities Full cost recovery

Tariff setting mechanism Political will Incentive-Based Regulation

SOLID WASTE
MANAGEMENT Regulatory framework Federal-State Federal

Part 2 Human resources 20,000 ++ 40,000 ++

Technology Proven cost-effective Cutting-edge

LECTURE WEEK 11 CAPEX funding KPKT and subsidy Financial market

Industry size >RM10billion RM100billion

Greenhouse gas emission 3% 26%

Waste Collection and Transportation

CURRENT PRACTICES FOR MALAYSIA
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ● A draft bill to transfer the executive authorities
from LAs to Federal government was drafted in
1998, but not tabled until 2006.
● Generally follows the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act (Act ○ Concessionaires had trouble securing fundings
672) 2007 from financial institutions and long term planning
● Dominant waste management approach are landfilling (82.5% as at 2021) and ○ LAs paid their services based on “open book”
recycling (recycling rate 30.67% in 2020) principle - give the amount previously funded for
SWM to concensionairs
● Incineration and composting are done in a small scope ○ Rate were not reviewed during the long interim
● Waste collections and transportation in 44 local authorities (LAs) of the 144 resulted in losses claimed by the concessionaires
LAs has been taken over by 2 concessionaires appointed by the government ○ Federal government paid LAs with income < RM5
mill/year a grant amount 3-6 months of payment in
(Southern Waste Sdn Bhd and Alam Flora Sdn Bhd.) Northern region, Sabah
default
and Sarawak privatization has failed, thus still under LAs jurisdiction (1997)
○ 2007 Cabinet decided that the interim
privatization to cease and full privatization to take
place soon after the SWPCMA 2007 come into
effect
Waste Collection and Transportation Contractor example in Penang SWM under LA
● Collections under concessionaires

● Route of waste collection

○ Most of wastes collected are sent directly to either sanitary landfill or dump site with tipping
fee set by the landfill
○ Some waste collections are send to transfer station (Kuala Lumpur and some Selangor area),
separated, compacted and send to sanitary landfill
○ Some collectors/landfills practise segregation for recyclables

Waste Collection and Transportation

WASTE TREATMENT
Solid waste management framework before and after the Act 2007 ● Waste treatment options depends on
○ Type of solid waste - MSW, construction
wastes, industrial waste, etc.
○ Cost - per capita income of the nation
○ Environmental regulations - Developed
countries generally have more strict
regulations
○ Availability of land - more and cheaper land
will tend to treat via landfill
○ Environmental sustainability - more
developed nations
● Treatment options
○ Sanitary landfill
○ Waste-to-energy - Incineration/combustion,
gasification, pyrolysis
○ Resource conservation and recovery (RC&R)
Malaysian Scenario Sanitary Landfill
○ Land disposal site employing an engineered method of disposing solid wastes on land in a manner
that minimizes environmental hazards by spreading solid wastes to the smallest practical volume,
apply and compacting cover material at the end of each day
○ Several levels of landfill depending on the level of site preparations (The technical guideline for
sanitary landfill, design, and operation. Department of Local Environment, Ministry of Housing and
Local Environment (2006)).
■ Level 1 - Primitive level: required for basic urban sanitations (waste removal from living environment)
■ Level 2 - Minimum level:maintain a healthy sanitary environment in and around the landfill at a
minimum level
■ Level 3 - Basic level: alleviate the environmental impact of leachate by collecting and circulating the
leachate and accelerate the stabilization of the landfill by maintaining a semi-aerobic state
■ Level 4 - Advanced level: Control the impact of leachate to the groundwater system by treating the
leachate and constructing a seepage control works

Sanitary Landfill Sanitary Landfill

○ Malaysian Scenario ○ Guideline for sanitary landfill Malaysia 2004
■ 138 operational landfills across Malaysia (85% of Malaysian Wastes) ■ Semi-aerobic landfill system - accelerating stabilization of landfilled waste
■ In Peninsular Malaysia only 21 sanitary landfills operational 117 are non sanitary ■ Level of sanitary landfill → KPKT requires all new landfills are of Level 4
■ Many landfills are reaching design capacity - environmental challenges in closing landfill and ■ Function of landfill site - additional of land development function on top of environmental
land to acquire in opening new ones protection function
■ 17 open landfills has been safely closed, with plan of 14 more by 2025 ■ Necessity of cover soil - Plan of acquisition of the cover soil must be done at the planning
■ Estimated cost for landfill: RM 148/ton/day includes Collection and transport (RM 106) versus stage prior to the construction of the landfill
incinerator fee of RM 356/ton/day ■ Environmental monitoring - EIA is required prior to construction and continuous monitoring is
■ Very limited treatment facilities: also required
● 1 technology-based treatment facility (integrated material recovery, biological and ■ Compartmental landfilling - reduce amount of leachate produced by fast drainage
thermal treatment) → Closed in 2015 ■ Design capacity of leachate control system
● 4 small capacity incinerator in 4 islands (Langkawi, Tioman, Pangkor) & Cameron ■ Treatment method of leachate - level 3 & 4 landfills
Highlands ■ Occupational safety and health - for workers
● KPKT plans to open 6 W2E plants towards 2025 ■ Landfill operation and maintenance control - setting up of performance indicator by the govn
 Sanitary Landfill Semi-aerobic landfill system
○ Guideline for sanitary landfill Malaysia 2004
● Definition: System that utilizes an aerobic metabolic process as much as possible to
break down solid waste at a landfill.
■ Rehabilitation of existing landfill site - safety closure of all open dumping or level 1 landfill
● Reduce landfill gas generation and faster destabilization of waste landfilled
■ Cost for landfill construction and operation - general information on costing
● Organic substance → Fatty acids and alcohol → CO2 + water + heat
■ Explanation of intermediate treatment - introduce recycling, incineration system, etc. for
effective utilization of resources
● Organic nitrogen → Ammonia → Nitrite → Nitrate → Nitrogen
● Increase quality of leachate
■ Updating data - collection of present SWM condition in Malaysia
● 2 main pipes are installed – leachate collection pipes and gas venting pipes
■ Revision of the contents - revision to be more reader friendly
○ Leachate is collected and drained to a leachate retention pond – collection pipes with properly
sized holes, laid in graded rocks
○ Outlet of main leachate collection pipes, open to air for fresh air drawn into the waste layers
○ Leachate level is low as leachate is removed quickly, low water content in waste
○ Vertical gas ventilation pipes installed at intersection of leachate main collection pipes
○ These pipes has punched holes enclosed in drums filled with graded rocks
○ Design of these 2 pipes enable hot air (due to degradation of waste) to be vented, allowing
fresh air to come in through the leachate pipes

Sanitary Landfill Sanitary Landfill

https://youtu.be/koplTfbu0Mg
● Elements for construction of sanitary landfill ● Elements for construction of sanitary landfill
○ Site selection - the most difficult obstacle to overcome ○ Site preparation
■ “Not on my backyard” attitude of the public ■ Steps include grading the site area, constructing access roads and
■ Proximity to the major roadways fences, installing signs, utilities and operating facilities

■ Speed limits ■ On-site access should be of all-weather construction and wide to

permit two-way truck travel (7.3 m). Grade should not exceed
■ Load limits on roadways
equipment limitations
■ Bridge capacity
■ All MSW landfill sites should have electric, water for drinking,
■ Underpass limitations sanitary services, fire fighting, dust control and sanitation
■ Traffic patterns and congestion
○ Equipment
■ Haul distance (time)
■ Size, type and amount of equipment depends on the size and
■ Hydrology method of operation, quantities and time of solid waste deliveries
■ Availability of cover materials ■ Common equipment include crawler or rubber-tired tractor
■ Climate (e.g. flood, mud slides) ■ Tractor is versatile and can perform variety of operations: spreading,
■ Zoning requirements compacting, trenching and even hauling the cover materials
■ Buffer areas around sites (e.g. high trees on the site parameter) ■ Other equipment used MSW landfills are scraper, water wagon,
■ Historic buildings, endangered species, wetlet, etc. dump trucks, etc.
 Sanitary Landfill Sanitary Landfill
● Elements for construction of sanitary landfill ● Elements for construction of sanitary landfill
○ Operations - 2 operation methods
■ 2 operation methods: Area and trench
methods
■ At many sites both methods are used,
simultaneously or sequentially

SW deposited on the
Used on level or surface, compacted, then
gently sloping land covered with a layer of
where water table compacted soil at the end of
is low. Trench is working day. All terrain.
first excavated Sectional view through
a MSW landfill

Sanitary Landfill Sanitary Landfill

● Leachate
○ Environmental Considerations
○ Liquid that passes through landfill, extracting
■ Vectors, water and air pollution should not be
dissolved and suspended matter from waste
a problem for level 3 and 4 sanitary landfill
■ Burning is not permitted in MSW landfill ○ Rainfall, surface drainage, groundwater and
■ Landfill gases (LFG) - methane and carbon
original liquid in and produced from the waste
dioxide developed from anaerobic degradation ○ Quantity can be estimated using hydrological
of organic wastes mass balance of the landfill
■ Control of movement of LFG is very important
○ Leachate composition different between new
to minimize risk of fire and explosion
landfill (< 2 yrs) and mature landfill (> 10 yrs)
■ Collection system can be built during the
planning and operations ○ Very high COD (3000-60,000 mg/L), TOC
■ LFG can be utilized in-situ and send to grid (1500-20,000mg/L), Alkalinity (1000-10,000)
■ Trace gas is a big problem of LFG both toxic to ○ Leachate must be allowed to be collected and
human and problem with electricity generation treated on-site
equipment
Sanitary Landfill Landfill design – Volume required
● Landfill design
○ Components include site prep, buildings, monitoring ● To estimate the volume required for a landfill
wells, size, liners, leachate collection system, final
cover and gas collection system ● Necessary to know the amount of refuse being produced and the density of the in-
○ Volume requirement must be calculated based on place, compacted refuse
refuse being produced and the density of compacted ● The volume of refuse differs markedly from one city to another because of local
refuse
conditions
○ Liner selection include synthetic membrane
PEC VSW +VC
(geomembrane) supported by a compacted soil liner VLF = where E=
(specifications depending on local regulations) Dc VSW
○ Leachate breakthrough - the time at which leachate VLF = volume of landfill, m 3
pass through the clay liner P = population
○ Leachate collection - system must be designed so E = ratio of cover (soil) to compacted fill
depth of leachate does not exceed 30 cm above
VSW = volume of solid waste, m 3
membrane liner
○ Final cover - prevent moisture from entering the
VC = volume of cover, m 3
finished landfill. Modern design consist of surface C = average mass of solid waste collected per capita per year, kg/person/yr
layer, biotic barrier, drainage layer, hydraulic barrier, DC = density of compacted fill, kg/m 3
foundation layer and gas control (0.6 m depth)

Landfill Design – compacted ratio Example 11- 4 – Landfill Design

How much landfill space does Watapitae require for 20 years of operation?
Assume that the village will use a cell height of 2.4 m and that it will follow
❖ The density of the compacted fill is somewhat
dependent on the equipment used at the landfill site normal practice and use 0.15 m of soil for daily cover; 0.3 m to complete the cell;
and the moisture content of the waste. and a final cover of 0.6 m for every stack of three cells. Assume the compaction
will be “normal”.
❖ Compacted solid waste densities vary from 300 to
700 kg/m3. Nominal values are generally in the
range of 475 to 600 kg/m3. From Example 11-1: 1,250 service stops
❖ The compaction ratios given in Table 11-10 may be
From Example 11-2: Each service stop contributes an average of 0.624 Mg per
used for estimating the density of the compacted year
fill
 Calculation Calculation
Annual mass generation
( ) ( )
PC = Mass = 1250stops ´ 0.624Mg / yr / stop = 780Mg / yr
0.15 m of soil is used for daily cover, then 0.45 m will be placed each day, thus time to complete the cell
2.4 m - 0.15 m
= 5.0 days
0.45 m/day
Mean density of uncompacted SW = 106 kg/m 3 (Exp 11-1) At this rate, a stack of 3 cells will complete every 3 weeks (15 working day)
DC = density of uncompacted SW x compaction ratio
DC = 106kg/m 3 ´ 4.18 = 443 kg/m 3 = 0.443 Mg/m 3
E=
(
VSW +VC 0.3+ 0.15 + 0.03+ 0.02
=
)
= 1.67
VSW 0.3
The daily volume of SW for a 5-day week Terms in bracket: 0.15 = daily cover; 0.15 m/week = 0.03 m/day cell cover; 0.3 m/15 days = 0.02 m/day final cover
PC 780 Mg/yr 1 1
V= = ´ ´ = 6.77m 3 /d
DC 0.443 Mg/m 3 52 week/yr 5 d/week
This is assuming we ignore the soil volume separating a stack of three cells

If this spread in a 0.3-m layer, then the area is Soil volume separating a stack of 3 cells is
6.77 m 3 0.3 m thick ´ 2.4 m high ´ 4.75 m long x 3 cells = 10.26 m 3
= 22.57 m 2 /d
0.3 m
2 sides of the cells = 10.26 m 3 x 2 = 20.52 m 3
which is equivalent to a square 4.75 m on each side - reasonable for a small community

Calculation
If the soil volume for the separating cells are included, then the soil volume per stack of 3 cells (Figure 11-15) Calculation
(3 cells/stack ) (5 lifts/cell) ( 22.57 m ) (0.15 m) = 50.78 m
2 3

Estimated volume requirement for 20 years

plus 0.15 m of additional soil to bring weekly cell cover to 0.30 m is
( PC ) E = (780 Mg/y) (1.87) ´ 20 y = 6.59 x 10
(3 cells/stack ) ( 22.57m ) (0.15 m) = 10.16 m
2 3 VLF =
Dc 0.443 Mg/m3
4
m3

plus additional 0.3 m to bring the final cover to 0.6 m

( 22.57m ) (0.3 m) = 6.77 m
2 3
Average landfill depth will be three 2.4 m cells + additional 0.3 m final cover, area will be
6.59 x 104
Total soil volume = 50.78 + 10.16 + 6.77 + 20.52 = 88.23 m 3
ALF = 8.78 x 103 m 2
(3´ 2.4) + 0.3
( )(
An area approximately 100 m x 100 m would do nicely!
)
VSW = 6.77 m 3 /d 15 d/stack = 101.55 m 3 /stack
Then value E will be
101.55 + 88.23
E= = 1.87
101.55

® Separation wall will increase the volume by 12%, a significant increment

Sanitary Landfill WASTE-TO-ENERGY
● Completed MSW Landfills
● Volume reduction to 90% and weight reduction to 75% is one of SWM strategy based on heat
○ Still require maintenance because of uneven settling
treatment
○ Consist of regrading surface to maintain good drainage, filling
in small depression to prevent ponding and possible ● Heating value of waste
subsequent groundwater pollution ○ Calorific values is the determinant of the technical and economical possibility of the treatment process
○ Completed LFs have been used as parks, playground and golf ○ Moisture is another determinant; high value requiring drying to reduce cost and sustenance of the combustion
course, parking, storage area, botanical gardens process
○ Construction of building should be avoided ○ For combustion, a minimum temperature of 700oC is required
● Conventional incineration
○ Auxiliary fuel is normally added for initial drying stages.
○ Large amount of particulate requires air pollution control device - commonly electric precipitator or scrubber
○ 90% volume reduction is commonly achieve, 10% residue will be sent to landfill
● Recovering energy from waste
○ A specially designed incinerator furnace jacketed with water-filled tubes to recover heat as steam are used
○ Electricity generated must be bought by the public utility company at special tariff
○ WTE plants can produce around 6 kWh per g of waste

WASTE-TO-ENERGY Waste-to-energy
● Refuse-derived fuel (RDF)
○ A combustible portion of solid waste that has
been separated from the incombustible portion
through processes such as shredding, screening
and air classifying
○ 12-16 MJ/kg energy content
○ RDF can also be sold to be used as supplement
to coal or other solid fuels in existing boilers
○ There are some RDF production systems
operating or starting up, they are still
developmental in terms of process, equipment
and application
○ There was only 1 RDF plant in Malaysia and
has ceased operation since 2015
 WASTE-TO-ENERGY
● Modular incinerators
○ Most modular incinerators that produce energy incorporate
controlled air principle, use unprocessed MSW, thus require
some amount of auxiliary fuel for start-up
○ Mass is burnt in limited air supply → combustible gas pass
through a secondary chamber where excess air is injected
(minimum auxiliary fuel may also be injected to maintain

RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND

proper combustion temperature)
○ Hot effluent is then pass through a waste heat boiler

○
produce steam for direct usage or electricity generation
Serious concern on emissions of dioxins due to chlorinated
RECOVERY FOR SUSTAINABILITY
plastics combustion is amongst its problem
○ Reduction of plastic in feed stream or using sophisticated air
pollution control equipment
○ Another problem is the resultant ash - bottom ash and fly
ash (from APC)
○ Fly ash contains metal adsorbed on particulates and easily
leached with water thus should be treated as hazardous
waste

RC&R - Malaysian Scenario RC&R - Malaysian Scenario

● In 2012, JPSPN target by 2020; 40% of waste Target set in 2015
to be diverted from landfill - this has yet to be
fulfilled
● 3R program has been promoted since the Act
taken into effect.
○ Section 101 explained on the reduction, reuse and
recycling of controlled waste through SWM
accordance to world practise at no extra expense to
the people
○ Section 102 enforce manufacturers to bring back the
product or merchandise after being consume by
shoppers at their own (manufacturer) cost
○ Community was not forced to segregate their solid
waste but rather educated
 ● Aim was to have
Target Focus
proper collection
Segregation at system for mixed
source and all the waste and
facilities to help recyclables
realize this aim
3R Malaysia - 2020 3R Malaysia - 2020

Collection of recyclables at source from three different states with different concessionaires
3R Malaysia - 2020 3R Malaysia - 2020