Waste-to-energy (WTE) options must be deployed solely as a final resort to handle Malaysia’s strong waste points. Efforts ought to as an alternative be centered on getting folks to cut back their consumption and the waste they generate, stated a consultant from Penang Inexperienced Council.
This month, Penang’s state authorities will begin implementing a reintroduced coverage for the segregation of waste at its supply, whereas working with the council to supply marketing campaign supplies to coach Penang residents about how waste must be accurately separated and recycled. First launched in 2016, the coverage goals to cut back waste and lengthen the lifespan of the Pulau Burung landfill, Penang’s solely sanitary landfill. Residents might want to separate recyclable waste akin to paper, plastics and glass from common waste akin to meals waste.
Talking at a panel dialogue following the inaugural screening of Eco-Enterprise’s documentary Wasted in Kuala Kumpur, Josephine Tan, common supervisor of Penang Inexperienced Council, prompt for incineration and WTE options to be handled solely as a final useful resource, each for the Penang state in addition to for Malaysia. WTE vegetation require a minimal quantity of waste – large-scale incinerators want about 100,000 tonnes of municipal strong waste a yr – to function and generate a return on funding, and therefore creates a dependency on waste, she stated.
“For now, Penang doesn’t have any incineration plant…In reality, whether or not it’s in my private view or the council’s perspective, as an alternative of WTE options, we’d moderately educate the locals to cut back waste first,” she stated, including that meals waste, which makes up 40 per cent of complete waste generated by Penang residents, is the primary downside the state must sort out.
There are therefore different extra applicable options for the Penang state to undertake for higher waste administration, akin to waste decomposition utilizing black soldier flies, prompt Tan. Meals waste may also be transformed into biogas, a sort of pure gasoline.
In recent times, the Malaysian authorities has adopted the event of strong WTE vegetation as its new path to handle strong waste disposal, which it says will use superior know-how confirmed profitable in Europe, Japan and China. In Might this yr, the ministry of housing stated it had recognized 18 places to construct these vegetation.
The nation has plans to construct at the very least seven new WTE amenities, regardless of protests and criticism from some residents and non-governmental organisations, who say the vegetation delay a transition to a round economic system and creates extra air pollution.
Chong Kok Wai (left) and Sunita Rajakumar talking within the panel dialogue following the inaugural Malaysian screening of “Wasted” at Aurum Theatre at TRX Mall. Picture: Vincent Tan / Eco-Enterprise.
The hour-long personal screening of the award-winning documentary Wasted at TRX Mall noticed almost 150 company attending from Malaysia’s company sector. The movie calls out the present gaps in waste administration throughout Asia, and highlights options that pressingly have to be adopted by policymakers and companies.
On the panel, Local weather Governance Malaysia founder Sunita Rajakumar additionally expressed assist for higher shopper schooling, noting that the proper pricing of power utilization and its emissions might power a reconsideration of energy-driven options to waste administration.
“If we have been to cost power precisely, together with the emissions and the shadow pricing of emissions or value of carbon, which is nearly US$100 per tonne within the European Union and the UK, I feel folks will assume twice earlier than they attempt to throw an energy-driven resolution to waste,” she stated.
Local weather Governance Malaysia is the nation chapter of the World Financial Discussion board’s initiative on local weather governance by impartial administrators. The panel was moderated by Eco-Enterprise founder and managing director Jessica Cheam.
Penang Inexperienced Council common supervisor Josephine Tan stated incinerators and waste-to-energy vegetation to get rid of waste must be a final resort, with focus given to schooling and consciousness on consumption and waste discount first. Picture: Vincent Tan / Eco-Enterprise
Except for imposing prolonged producer duty (EPR) guidelines on producers and companies, Rajakumar stated if shoppers needed to make extra knowledgeable selections by paying for waste assortment, mirroring current programs in different nations the place solely sure, dearer baggage of waste have been collected, this could assist drive down waste generated.
EPR is an environmental coverage that locations duty on producers to handle the disposal and recycling of their post-consumer merchandise, to encourage extra sustainable product design and scale back waste.
Nonetheless, Rajakumar stated managing waste required a raft of insurance policies with no easy fast repair, and it was essential to grasp the size of the waste downside first.
Beforehand, proposals to construct waste incinerators or WTE vegetation have been met by vociferous opposition from residents. Earlier this yr, residents within the Selangor city of Rawang staged protests towards the deliberate development of an RM4.5 billion (US$963 million) plant, fearing well being points from the proposed plant’s emissions.
Nonetheless, Malaysia additionally faces a waste disposal problem the place its landfills are anticipated to finish fill-up by 2050.
Chong Kok Wai, group head of authorized, compliance and sustainability for cost programs supplier GHL Programs, stated incentivising companies and producers to behave responsibly relating to waste administration additionally trusted the particular sector.
“We all know that digital waste is the primary downside in Malaysia, ” Chong famous, including that Malaysia’s Environmental High quality Act 1974 had not too long ago been amended to extend the superb for unlawful import of e-waste into Malaysia to a most of RM10 million (US$2.1 million).
Nonetheless, even with the elevated penalties, companies akin to e-waste recyclers and importers would nonetheless be motivated to hold on their actions, because the fines can be dwarfed by the sum of money saved by illegally disposing the waste, and spotty enforcement. Even with the elevated penalty, Chong believes that issues with unlawful disposal of e-waste in addition to spotty enforcement wouldn’t utterly disappear. The federal government might want to work with companies to resolve the difficulty, he prompt.
The Malaysian authorities has stated an EPR plan for plastic merchandise can be carried out in phases between 2023 and 2025 earlier than getting into a compulsory part in 2026, in response to the Malaysia Plastics Sustainability Roadmap. No updates have to this point been supplied on the progress on this initiative.
