Compulsory for Malaysians to separate rubbish from next year

The plan for all households to do mandatory solid waste separation at source looks set to begin in September next year.

All Malaysian households will have to separate their solid waste according to categories, the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government ministry announced today.

In a statement, its minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said that this mandatory move will see household solid waste be separated in several compositions including plastic, paper, cardboard, glass, metal, food waste, lump waste and farm waste.

"The collection of the separated waste will be implemented according to a schedule which will be determined by a concession company that will be appointed," he said.

The concept, he added, has been fully implemented in states that use Act 672 of the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act 2007, that is Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Kuantan, Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis dan Kedah from September 2014.

In 2009, Alam Flora chief executive officer Zahri Abdul Ghani had said that it would begin in June that year in Kuala Lumpur, with two rubbish bins given to each household in the federal territory to separate organic from inorganic waste.

Zahri had said that failure to separate waste into the correct bins would result in uncollected rubbish.

Then, in 2011, the then housing and local government minister Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heung said the household waste segregation system would begin the following year in stages.

It has taken some time for household waste separation at source to be implemented across the board, as local by-laws had to be streamlined.

In his statement today, Rahman also said that the National Solid Waste Management Department will launch campaigns, awareness programmes and education nationwide.

The government will also ensure that solid waste management facilities and operation centres are upgraded to ensure the success of this new initiative.

"The implementation of this new rule is part of the government's effort to reduce the amount of solid waste sent to waste disposal sites, which is becoming serious. The current sites are now inadequate following the sudden increase in waste," he said.

"The separation at source will also help reduce the amount of solid waste sent to disposal sites which will then increase the lifespan of the sites."

A study by Putrajaya last year showed that an average Malaysian produced 800 grammes of solid waste per day while those in urban areas produce 450gm of waste more than the daily average.

It said that about 30,000 to 33,000 tonnes of waste were produced each day last year last year, compared with 22,000 tonnes of solid waste produced per day in 2012. – November 15, 2014.

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