Solid Waste Management in Malaysia

“SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN MALAYSIA”

PREPARED BY:

SITI AZRYNNA BINTI MOHD AZANI

Question 1
What is solid waste management? Solid waste management is another term for garbage management. Solid waste management is a system which handles any garbage, refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded materials including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material, resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community activities, but does not include solid or dissolved materials in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges.
In the beginning solid waste management consisted of digging pits and throwing garbage into them. This created a record of the kinds of lives that people lived, showing things like what people ate, the materials used to make eating utensils, and other interesting glimpses into historic daily life. When human cities began to be more concentrated, however, solid waste management became a serious issue. Houses that did not have room to bury their garbage would throw it into the streets, making a stroll to the corner store an unpleasant prospect. In response, many cities started to set up municipal garbage collection, in the form of rag and bone men who would buy useful garbage from people and recycle it, or waste collection teams which would dispose of unusable garbage. For most industrialized nations today, solid waste management is a multibillion dollar business which is also crucial to survival. Garbage collection agencies remove tons of garbage yearly and sort it for recycling or ultimate disposal. Most cities require citizens to pay for waste collection, while rural areas have dumps and recycling facilities for citizens to bring their garbage to. Solid waste management also is focused on developing environmentally sound methods of handling garbage for example, solid waste is no longer dumped into oceans or unlined pits.
There are a number of types of solid waste which need to be dealt with. The first is recyclable waste, waste that are useful, but no longer wanted. Solid waste that can be recycle includes scrap metal, glass, cans, paper, plastics, wood, and similar materials. Another category is toxic waste, waste which could potentially contaminate the environment, meaning that it needs to be handled with care. This category includes electronic waste, a growing problem in many industrialized nations. Next is green waste such as compost and yard clippings. People with land can compost their own green waste, and many cities collect it separately from true garbage, the final category, so that the green waste can be composted and returned to the earth.

Question 2
Is there any international convention or treaty on this issue? There is one international convention named Basel Convention on the Control of Tran boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal also known as the Basel Convention. It’s an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries (LDCs). It does not address the movement of radioactive waste. The Convention is also intended to minimize the amount and toxicity of wastes generated, to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation and to assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate. The Convention was opened for signature on 22 March 1989, and entered into force on 5 May 1992. A list of parties to the Convention, and their ratification status, can be found on the Basel Secretariat 's web page for example Malaysia, Paraguay, Bahamas, Nigeria and many more. Of the 172 parties to the Convention, Afghanistan, Haiti, and the United States have signed the Convention but have not yet ratified it.

Question 3
What is technology and system that Malaysia used for solid waste management? In Malaysia the system that used to dispose solid waste management are “incinerator” like that used in Langkawi. Incinerator is the process of burning solid waste under controlled conditions to reduce its weight and volume, and often to produce energy. An “incinerator” can dispose up to 1,200 tons of garbage daily. Another method is “sanitary garbage disposal” which is disposing of solid waste on land, in a manner that meets most of the standard specifications, including sound silting, extensive site preparation, proper leachate and gas management and monitoring, compaction, daily and final cover, complete access control, and record-keeping.

Question 4
Is the law and policy in Malaysia effective in controlling waste from residential and industrial area?
Malaysia possesses strict environmental rules and regulations. Currently it has more than 43 environment-related legislations. The core environmental legislation is the Environmental Quality Act of 1974 that provides the legal framework for laws to regulate the activities deemed to affect the environment. Rules and regulations that have been passed under the powers of this act include the Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations of 1978, the Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities/Environmental Impact Assessment) Order of 1987, and the First Schedule of the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Waste) Regulations of 1989. The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment is responsible for the environment in the country; the Department of Environment works under the Ministry. In addition, every state has its separate Department of Environment. The Environmental Quality Council assists the ministers about environmental policies and in the decision-making process. Malaysia has signed and ratified all the international protocols related to the protection of the environment. For example, it is a signatory for the implementation of Agenda 21 (Declarations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, 1992).
Using the provisions of the government act, all local authorities have passed sanitation related by-laws that provide them with the power to regulate solid-waste disposal in their jurisdictions. In addition to general sanitation by-laws, there are other by-laws with waste disposal regulations. For example in the hawkers’ by-laws, there are provisions on how waste generated through their business is to be stored and disposed of. It is important to note that although there is some similarity in the sanitation by-laws among the local authorities in Malaysia, there are also differences.

Even though there is law and policy that have been implement but it is not effective as Malaysia generates more solid waste than the amount that can be collected. Which resulted, some of the waste is not collected or legally dispose. Therefore, the law that been applied is not effective to curb the problem of solid waste materials.

Question 5
What are the challenges faced by the government agencies in conserving the environment in the country? 1. Landfills are used beyond their capacities: Few landfills were commissioned in 2002–04 and more than 120 landfills or at least 2/3 of the total landfills are now used beyond their capacities. For example Jelutong Landfill in Penang was closed in 2002 due to a lack of space, but it is still used for the disposal of bulk and garden waste. 2. Overflowing of landfill sites due to poor management

3. No facility for venting gas: This has resulted into the self-ignition of dumpsites, causing visible environmental pollution, and is common at many places. For example, a fire broke out at Taman Beringin Landfill on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in 2004 and it required 90 firemen and volunteers to put out the blaze and two to three additional weeks to completely extinguish the fire beneath the garbage heap.

4. Leachate treatment: Only one landfill site has a leachate-collection mechanism. It consists of aeration in the leachate ponds and recirculation of the effluents into the landfill.

5. Location of landfill sites: Many landfills are located in coastal areas or near rivers, resulting into leachate pollution and health hazards. For example, the landfill in Beranang is located near the Beranang River, which in turn is a tributary of the Semenyih River and supplies water to Selangor. The leachate from the landfill resulted in the pollution of Semenyih River. Due to the contaminated water, the water supply to millions of residents in Putrajaya had to be disconnected. This resulted in closure of the landfill site by the Selangor state environmental committee.

Question 6
Your suggestion and recommendation regarding legal protection of the environment with reference to the issues discussed in the forum or seminar. The environmental protection legislation must focus on conservation of natural resources rather than merely focusing on corrective measures. This law must include prevention of environmental damage by development activities, for planning environmental policies. It must include amongst others, the development planning process to focus on features of land and natural resources, environmental impact assessment to prevent negative impacts of production activities and construction works, and the management plans for protected areas.
The government must be prepared to promote active public participation to assure successful implementation of environmental policies and legislation. Most countries realize the importance of public participation in development planning since this will instil a sense of belonging and ensure adherence by the general public. The law can only be effective if there is concurrence at all the strategic level of the government i.e. the local, state and federal government in prevention of pollution and restoration of the environment. The Federal government must be given more powers in dealing with environmental problems rather than leaving it to the discretion of the states in order not to encroach the powers of the powers in dealing with land and natural resources as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
The aspect related to overlapping of powers between the environmental protection agencies can be resolved by establishing one-stop center at the Federal government level to implement environmental protection measures as well as enforcing of regulations. There must be a clearly defined environmental policy that is enforced not only by legal mechanisms, but also through adoption of different mechanisms, that operate as part of the economic performance of the nation as well as part of a code for social responsibility.

REFERENCES

Articles

1. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, “Basel Convention”, < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Convention > (08/03/2010)

2. Department of Environmental Conservation, “What is Solid Waste”, <http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8732.html> (08/03/2010)

3. Wisegeek, “What is Solid Waste Management?”, <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-solid-waste-management.htm> (08/03/2010)

4. Department of Environment, <http://www.doe.gov.my/> (08/03/2010)

5. Perbadanan Pengurusan Sisa Pepejal & Pembersihan Awam, <http://www.sisa.my/> (08/03/2010)

Forum

1. Environmental Law Seminar Series IX/2010: “The Trees Are Dying: Heal It, Use It Wisely (Waste Not, Why Not)”
Statutes

1. Environmental Quality Act of 1974

2. Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations of 1978

3. Environmental Quality (Prescribed Activities/Environmental Impact Assessment) Order of 1987

4. First Schedule of the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Waste) Regulations of 1989

5. Solid Waste And Public Cleansing Management Corporation Act 2007

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. Department of Environmental Conservation, “What is Solid Waste”, http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8732.html
[ 2 ]. “What is Solid Waste Management?”, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-solid-waste-management.htm
[ 3 ]. Ibid
[ 4 ]. Ibid
[ 5 ]. Wikipedia, “Basel Convention”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Convention
[ 6 ]. Ibid
[ 7 ]. Environmental Law Seminar Series IX/2010: “The Trees Are Dying: Heal It, Use It Wisely (Waste Not, Why Not)”
[ 8 ]. Ibid
[ 9 ]. Department of Environment, http://www.doe.gov.my/
[ 10 ]. Ibid
[ 11 ]. Ibid
[ 12 ]. Environmental Law Seminar Series IX/2010: “The Trees Are Dying: Heal It, Use It Wisely (Waste Not, Why Not)”
[ 13 ]. Ibid
[ 14 ]. Ibid
[ 15 ]. Ibid
[ 16 ]. Ibid

References: 2. Department of Environmental Conservation, “What is Solid Waste”, &lt;http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8732.html&gt; (08/03/2010) 3 4. Department of Environment, &lt;http://www.doe.gov.my/&gt; (08/03/2010) 5