WASTE MANAGEMENT IN MALAYSIA

Malaysia, with a population of 24 million, is facing an increase of the generation and accumulation of waste. This development is causing social, economic and environmental problems at a significant level. Individuals, industries, municipals, state and federal governments are concerned because improper waste management leads to health problems for local communities. Moreover, poor visual appearance has negative impacts on official visits and tourism. These problems are particularly serious in areas where intensive urbanization and population concentration lead to an increase of solid wastes and to a decrease of available land suitable for disposal.

INTRODUCTION

What are Wastes?Waste (also known as rubbish, trash, refuse, garbage,

junk, litter, and ort) is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea and sweat.

Basel Convention Definition of Wastes“substances or objects which are disposed of or are intended to be disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the provisions of the law”

Disposal means“any operation which may lead to resource recovery, recycling, reclamation, direct re-use or alternative uses (Annex IVB of the Basel convention)”

Kinds of WastesSolid wastes: wastes in solid forms, domestic, commercial and

industrial wastes

Examples: plastics, styrofoam containers, bottles, cans, papers, scrap iron, and other trash

Liquid Wastes: wastes in liquid form

Examples: domestic washings, chemicals, oils, waste water from ponds, manufacturing industries and other sources

WASTE GENERATION IN MALAYSIAo Malaysia, like most of the developing countries, is facing an increase

of the generation of waste and of accompanying problems with the disposal of this waste

o Overall, the local communities generate 16,000 tons of domestic waste per day and the amounts per capita vary from 0.45 to 1.44 kg per day depending on the economic status of the areas concerned

o Waste is grouped into three different categories in respect of disposal –

solid waste, medical waste and hazardous waste.

o 64 % of the waste is domestic waste. The share of industrial waste stands at 15 %, followed by commercial waste and construction and institution waste.

COLLECTION AND TRANSFER

• There is both door-to-door collection and indirect collection, with containers or communal bins placed near markets, in apartment complexes, and inother appropriate locations for haulage to transfer stations and disposal sites by special waste vehicles.

• For areas where collection and transfer services are operated by private waste companies such as Alam Flora Sdn. Bhd. and Kualiti Alam Sdn. Bhd., collection and transfer are more capitalintensive and mechanized. The container sizes are standardized, as are collection vehicles and large-site containers, which may also be fitted with compactor

• private companiesare are being invited to bid for privatization- cum-concession agreements for municipal solid waste management services. Private companies are allowed to form joint venture companies with foreign waste management companies

The Waste DisposalSystem

o Presently, there are three types of waste disposal categories – solid waste disposal and incineration, medical waste incineration and hazardous waste incineration.

o the federal and state governments are now considering to build incinerator plants in major cities and towns. Incineration has the potential to solve the problem of landfilling as the original volumeand weight of wastes may be reduced up to 95 % and 75 % respectively.

o The government also introduced a new law on solid waste management where the principal processes options are being classified in a system for integrated waste management.Within this system, there is the following hierarchy: waste minimization, reuse, material recycling, energy recovery and landfill

o Beside this, the Malaysian government also launched a recycling campaign in December 2000 which sets the long term target of recycling 22 % of the waste generated by 2020

o For clinical waste, the Malaysian government has made it a national policy that all clinical waste must be incinerated

o Currently, there are 5 regional medical waste incinerators with capacities of 20 to 500 kg/hour and seven small on-site medical waste incinerators with capacities of 20 to 50 kg/hour

o All medical incinerators are built on the premises of the waste generators in order to decrease handling process and exposure of labor to clinical waste

o Organic waste is burnt in the incineration plant while acidic and basic inorganic fluids are exposed to chemical treatment that neutralize them and remove substances such as chromium and cyanide

Problems and Challenges of Waste Management inMalaysia

o The waste management in Malaysia displays an array of problems,

including low collection coverage on average due to the inaccessibility by vehicles of some areas, irregular collection services, inadequate equipment used for waste collection, crude open dumping and burning without air and water pollution control, inadequate legal provisions and resources constraints

o  Institutional constraints are among these problems. Even though several agencies such as the State Department of the Environment and municipal councils are involved in waste management, they often have no clear functions in relation to waste management and there is no single agency designated to coordinate their projects and activities

 o The lack of coordination among the relevant agencies often results in

duplication of efforts in waste management, wasting of resources, and unsustainability of overall waste management programs

 

o The lack of effective legislation for waste management is partially responsible for ill defined functions of the agencies and the lack of coordination among them

o Technical constraints are also causing a problem because there is a lack of human resources at both national and local levels with technical expertise necessary for solid waste management planning and operation

o Many government officers involved in solid waste management at the local and national level have little or no technical background nor training in engineering or management.

o there is a lack of overall plans for solid waste management at the local and national levels. As a result, a solid waste technology is often selected without due consideration to its appropriateness in the overall solid waste management system

MALAYSIA ENVIRONMENT POLICY

Malaysia’s overall environmental policy objectives, since the Third Malaysian Plan (1976-1980), have always intended to balance the goals of socio-economic development and the need to bring the benefits of development to a wide spectrum of population, keeping in mind the maintenance of sound environmental conditions.

The objectives of environmental management in Malaysia continue to be based on fundamental policy directives elucidated in the Fifth and Sixth Malaysian Plan, and as follows:

1. To maintain a clean and healthy environment2. To maintain the quality of the environment relative to the needs of the

growing population3. To minimize the impact of the growing population and human activities

relating to mineral exploration, deforestation, agriculture, urbanization, tourism and the development of other environmental resources

4. To balance the goal for socio-economic development and the need to bring the benefits of development to a wide spectrum of the population, keeping in mind the maintenance of sound environmental conditions

5. To place more emphasis on prevention through conservation rather than on the curative measure, inter alia by preserving the country’s unique and diverse cultural and natural heritage

6. To incorporate an environment dimension in project planning and implementation, inter alia by determining the implications of the proposed projects and the cost of the required environmental mitigation measures.

STRATEGIES IN ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT

Short-term measures effectively implemented the existing legislation to control discharges and emissions from existing sources.

The medium-term strategy involved the incorporation of an environmental component into the development planning process.

The long-term strategy ensures that all development contain both physical environment and quality of life aspects in their planning.

The act is the most comprehensive legislation to date for pollution prevention, abatement and control as well as for environment enhancement.

The enforcement of this act and the accompanying 16 sets of Regulations and Orders has played a significant role in the management of the environment, and in particular, with respect to pollution control.

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES Monitoring and Enforcement

- Monitoring is done on a regular basis in order to collect and compile environmental data that is required for the assessment of the state of the environment.

- The assessment is basically a prerequisite to enforcement action. The highest priority of such action is given to the most critical area and thus, the major contributing sources of pollution

Enforcement1. Control of Mobile Sources2. Control of Agro-Based Prescribed and Non-Prescribed Premises3. Schedule Waste Management

Monitoring1. Water Quality Monitoring2. Noise and Air Quality Monitoring

“By recycling almost 8 million tons of metals (which includes aluminum, steel, and mixed metals), we eliminated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions totaling more than 26 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2E). This is equivalent to removing more than 5 million cars from the road for one year.”

CONCLUSION Even though the Malaysian government has tried to reduce waste

through its own recycling programs, its policy seems to be less efficient because there is a lack of clear guidance. Many households in Malaysia have insufficient knowledge about waste separation. Beside this, funding arrangements are still under debate as it is unclear who should pay for the management of waste. Using tax money instead of fees for waste management seems not to set incentives for reducing waste. Hence, it appears that the current policy and system are more resulting from reacting to the problem of increasing waste, in particular in urban areas, and less from taking a proactive stand in respect of tackling the problem at its root. Setting clear guidelines about the objectives of waste management and adopting certain principles would allow for such a proactive stand.