Solid Waste Minimization in Malaysia

Malaysia has taken initiative in enforcing the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act 2007 (Act 672) since 2011 to ensure the uniformity of law relating to the solid waste management and public cleansing. Despite the alarming issues on the increasing of solid waste generation, Malaysian government has made solid waste separation at source as mandatory starting 1st September 2015 at eight states. Solid waste separation at source has been seen as the best practice of solid waste minimization where it eliminates and reduces the amount of solid waste produced by the society. The government has taken seriously in solid waste separation at source as the lifespan of disposal site has been decreased and limited space for the new disposal site due to the increasing cost of solid waste management. Hence, to overcome the increasing of solid waste generation, an integrated solid waste minimization through recycling should be implemented as it is involved in minimizing resource and offers the best outcome for the environment. Thus, this paper discussed the overview of solid waste minimization in Malaysia and the stakeholder’s role and their obstacles in solid waste minimization to attract the public participate in reducing the solid waste generation as an efficient solid waste management. A proper solid waste management ensures a sustainable development of Malaysia in terms of health, socio-economy and environment respectively towards Malaysian Vision of 2020

Solid waste minimization in Malaysia

Malaysia has taken initiative in enforcing the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act 2007 (Act 672) since 2011 to ensure the uniformity of law relating to the solid waste management and public cleansing. Despite the alarming issues on the increasing of solid waste generation, Malaysian government has made solid waste separation at source as mandatory starting 1st September 2015 at eight states. Solid waste separation at source has been seen as the best practice of solid waste minimization where it eliminates and reduces the amount of solid waste produced by the society. The government has taken seriously in solid waste separation at source as the lifespan of disposal site has been decreased and limited space for the new disposal site due to the increasing cost of solid waste management. Hence, to overcome the increasing of solid waste generation, an integrated solid waste minimization through recycling should be implemented as it is involved in minimizing resource and offers the best outcome for the environment. Thus, this paper discussed the overview of solid waste minimization in Malaysia and the stakeholder’s role and their obstacles in solid waste minimization to attract the public participate in reducing the solid waste generation as an efficient solid waste management. A proper solid waste management ensures a sustainable development of Malaysia in terms of health, socio-economy and environment respectively towards Malaysian Vision of 2020

Evaluation of municipal solid waste generation in selected water villages in Sabah, Malaysia

Life in the estuary and the beach is a unique settlement patterns in the history of Malaysia. Sabah is well known for its water village settlement that built on very high wooden pillars in estuarine and coastal water area. However, nowadays solid waste has become a serious problem especially in water village where the solid waste has stranded at the surrounding of the village area. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate municipal solid waste generation in the selected water villages in Sabah. The solid waste evaluation conducted at three different water villages which are Kampung Tanjung Batu Laut, Tawau; Kampung Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu and Kampung Sim-Sim, Sandakan. There are about 150 households involved in solid waste generation and composition study while total of 242 respondents were involves in the survey study. Total solid waste generation was 1519.30 kg which the solid waste generation rate per household was 0.29 kg/person/day respectively. Almost 48% of respondents have discharge directly their waste into the sea. This is because by using a severity index the average of respondent knowledge is 77% but only 48% of respondent aware on the proper way in handling the solid waste. Furthermore, the results from the linear model revealed that attitude have significant relationship which influence the solid waste generation. Hence, the water villages should have an effective solid waste management in order to reduce bad impact to the environment and public health

Effectiveness of implementing waste bank operation on solid waste minimization in Kundasang, Sabah, Malaysia

Modernization and urbanization has changing the ways how Malaysian live, think and act. With the rapid changing culture, Malaysians produce more waste than before. Nowadays, 38,000 tonnes of waste was produce per day in Malaysia which reached 12.8 million tonnes of waste generated per year. These striking figure has become a major problem to the country due to the latest figure has exceeded the government’s projected waste production in year 2020 which is 30,000 tonnes per day. Therefore, the government attempts to increase the national recycling rates from the current 17.5% to at least 22% by year 2020. However, the contributions of household were crucial in minimizing solid waste generation effectively by recycling practices. Thus, this study investigated the effectiveness of solid waste minimization through the implementation of waste bank operation in Kundasang, Sabah. Waste bank were operated to engage and empowering the communities in recycling practices and creating a sense of citizen role in environmental awareness. Hence, a pre and post survey was conducted before and after the implementation of waste bank operation. Results from the pre survey, revealed about 41% of respondents dispose their waste by burning due to none solid waste collection services by local authority which resulting the respondents dispose their waste improperly, thus contributing to the solid waste problem in Kundasang. Subsequently, about 65.7% of respondents didn’t separate their waste because of no time (35.7%), no recycling facilities (21.7%), do not know how to separate (4.7%) and feel laziness (3.7%) in practicing solid waste separation at household. Additionally, due to higher tourism activities at Kundasang have worsened the scenario. As recycling practices effective in minimizing the solid waste generation, thus waste bank operation were proposed to be implemented at Kundasang town. However, about 61% of respondents willing to participate in the waste bank operation where almost all range age from 19 years below until 60 years old were interested. Besides that, the pre survey revealed about 63% of respondents was willing to participate in the waste bank because of incentives provided. Nonetheless, incentives were provided as the supporting factor to motivate the community participate in the waste bank operation. Thus, during the 6 months of waste bank operation, there are about 53 participants were registered as the waste bank member where the members brings their recyclables waste to be sort, weight and recorded. About 2501.30 kg recyclables waste were collected in two-phase which are in phase 1 operated in July until October 2016 and phase 2 from January until March 2017. The highest recyclables waste collection were dominance by 1114.50 kg of paper, then followed with 672.20 kg of box/cardboard, 258.30 kg of plastic, 102.45 kg of aluminum cans, 231.40 kg of metal and 122.45 kg of glass with total waste bank revenue has achieved RM 599.44. The waste bank has been successfully operated as the results from the post survey shows the positive changes in respondent’s awareness as an increasing in solid waste separation (47.3% respondents). Moreover, positive changes in respondent’s attitude occurred in the reduction of 18% from the pre-survey results in solid waste disposal which only 23% of respondents dispose their waste improperly. On the other hand, although 66% of the respondents know the waste bank operation, but only 17.7% were took action by participate in the waste bank. The main reason were due to do not get any information (16.3 %), less publicity (12.7%), location of the waste bank (4.7%), and others (0.3%) do not collect recyclables which had influenced the number of participation in the waste bank. Although the recycling rate for the respondents was still low as 0.26 kg/person/day but the implementation of waste bank has create a positive impacts to the Kundasang community which enhancing the potential of waste bank as the accessible and convenience recyclables collection at the community level and the opportunity in generating additional income. Furthermore, the implementation of waste bank operation has revealed its effectiveness as the net benefits were highly positive as calculated RM 14,583.28 which overweighs the costs of waste bank operation. The benefits and costs also indicate that the waste bank operation was a feasibility project where the collection effectiveness reached 17.7% with potential diversion rate was 17.7%. In the nutshell, the implementation of the waste bank operation brought benefits to the community by empower and engage the local community into the planning and management of solid waste minimization especially in recycling practices within their own neighborhood where the intention was to encourage and increase the awareness among the community especially in the rural and small communities

Enhancing the potential of solid waste minimization through waste bank programme: experience from higher education institutions in Malaysia

A voluntary approach for recycling programme can be enhanced by the establishment of waste bank in institutions of higher education. Hence, a waste bank programme was implemented in a “close loop” system at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia (FPAS, UPM). This aims to promote collection of recyclable materials and raise awareness among UPM students on the importance of recycling. Throughout the five (5) phases of operation, about 500 students were registered as waste bank members with the amount of total collected recyclables reaching 14,817.46 kg. The direct measurement method was applied in the waste bank operation procedure to weigh the recyclable materials received twice a week. The most frequent type of recyclable material collected was paper, including black/white paper, newspaper, and mix paper. The waste bank programme has enhanced the potential of solid waste minimisation by shifting the amount of waste disposed at the landfill site. Moreover, it enables recyclable materials to be seen as valuable resources as monetary rewards were given to encourage recycling practices among students based on the total weight for each collection of recyclable materials. Therefore, the implementation of the waste bank programme in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in Malaysia creates an opportunity to be a medium of a sustainable solid waste minimisation system in promoting sustainable green campuses at the university

Solid waste generation and composition at water villages in Sabah, Malaysia

Life in an estuary and at the beach are unique settlement patterns in the history of Malaysia. Sabah is well known for its water village settlements that are built on wooden pillars and which can be found along Sabah coastal water. However, a lot of problems have occurred at the Sabah water villages. Thus, the aim of this study is to measure the solid waste generation and composition in 150 households at select water villages in Sabah, Malaysia. The study was conducted at three major towns in Sabah, namely Kampung Tanjung Batu Laut, Tawau water village, Kampung Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu water village and Kampung Sim-sim, Sandakan water village. Based on the results, the total waste generation is 1519.30 kg and the average solid waste generation rate per household is 0.29 kg/person/day. The main component of solid waste is food waste, which comprises 37% of the total waste generated, followed by plastic waste at 31%, paper waste 14.7%, glass 7.2%, and metal 6.3%. The remainder (3.8%) includes bulky waste, furniture, wood, etc. Although the solid waste generation rate is comparatively low, it will create a negative impact on the environment and public health if proper management of solid waste is not practiced

Knowledge and attitude of water villagers towards solid waste management

Water village is one of the unique residential areas which can be found along the coastal area in Sabah, Malaysia. However, solid waste is a serious problem in this area due to improper solid waste management system. This paper accesses water villagers’ perspective on solid waste management on the aspects of knowledge and attitude. The study was conducted at three selected water village which located in three major towns in Sabah. There are Tanjung Batu Laut water village in Tawau, Tanjung Aru water village in Kota Kinabalu, and Sim-Sim water village in Sandakan. A structured questionnaire survey has been conducted involving 242 respondents. From the results, 48% of the water villagers throw their solid waste directly into the sea. Therefore, water village areas should have a proper solid waste management system due to their location was closed to the main resource of human needs. By throwing their solid waste into the sea, their attitude had cause lot of environmental problem such as water quality problem, disease outbreak and decrease of aesthetic value. It is important to overcome the solid waste management issue in order to provide a better quality of life to the community in water village area and protect the environment as well

Enhancing the knowledge and economic of community through establishment of waste bank in Kundasang, Sabah

Aware with eco-tourism interest, Kundasang community has set up Kelab Kebersihan dan Keindahan Kundasang (KBI) in order to preserve the cleanliness and beauty of Kundasang. Prior to the establishment of KBI, the local community volunteered to do cleaning activities around the town and the main roads in Kundasang. However, the lack of storage barrels, illegally sanitary disposal of wastes, improper solid waste management and the attitude of the community is a major obstacle that can affect the image of Kundasang in the eyes of tourists whose numbers are growing every single day. Thus, the aim of this project is to improve the waste management and increase the awareness towards recycling practice of community in Kundasang, Sabah. This project is at the first stage of transformation, which is more focused on the development and establishment of an operational for Waste Bank in Kundasang, Sabah. Graduate intern and the academia are responsible in developing a training module for members in KBI. It focuses on increasing the awareness towards cleanliness through training. This project aims to increase the knowledge of Kundasang community towards waste separation and improve the solid waste management in this area. It brings a positive feedback from the community as well as providing an economic benefit especially for individual, homestay entrepreneur, children and hawkers