One of the main reasons that I am here is to learn and write about environmental issues in Malaysia. So far I have concentrated on learning more about the ecology and organisms that live here, but I also need to learn about the practical environmental issues facing Malaysia. The front page article in yesterday's (November 1, 2010) Star newspaper was about waste disposal in Malaysia, so I thought I would tell you a little bit about that issue.
Waste disposal is an issue that I noticed during my trip to Lumut and Pangkor Island last weekend. While driving or walking through the country and small towns it was not unusual to see areas along the road where there was a lot of garbage piling up. According to my admittedly not scientific observations, the best way to get Malaysians to throw trash somewhere is to post a sign saying "500 ringgit ($156) fine for dumping trash here". Thus, it seems that waste disposal is a serious issue in Malaysia.
Each day Malaysians produce about 19,000 tonnes of garbage (2,100 tonnes in KL). All of that waste has to go somewhere! Right now the trash is disposed of in 176 garbage dumps (over here they use the British term "garbage tips"). However, "illegal dumping" is common. Of these active dumps, only 8 are "sanitary landfills" that have been designed with modern pollution control features. The rest are open dumpsites whose locations were not chosen for environmental reasons, but rather because they were convenient places to dump trash. In addition, there are over 100 closed dumpsites, most of which were not properly designed for pollution control so they are potentially sites for the production of flamable gasses or pollutants that can leach into the water supply.
According to Dr. Abu Bakar Jaafar, the chairman of the Association of Environmental Consultants and Contractors of Malaysia, the waste managment situation in Malaysia has not been improving over time. According to Dr. Abu Bakar "a waste management report submitted to by Malaysia to the United Nations in 1971 bore close resemblance to the current situation". Part of the problem is that Malaysia currently does not have appropriate laws and that management of waste and enforcement of waste manamement laws required involvement of at least 11 different governmental ministries.
The government has identified 16 waste dumps located near rivers or the sea where the leaching of pollutants from the site could be especially harmful. All of these sites have been closed and are under various phases of "rehabilitation". Recently, leaching of pollutants from an abandoned dump fouled a water treatment plant and cut off the local water supply, so this is still an important issue to be dealt with here.
An alternative to storing waste in landfills, is to incinerate wastes, which carries its own set of environmental issues. There are currently several waste incinerators being built in Malaysia. Not surprisingly, many of these are being built on islands where the space for landfills is limited.
So Do You Know About What Happens to Your Garbage?
"Out of sight, out of mind" is the phrase that probably best describes our interest in solid waste management. We make it, the garbage man takes it away, and then we don't care what happens to it. So what does happen to it? I imagine that not all of you are lucky enough to be friends with the person in charge of solid waste management in your town like I am. I have visited the Lubbock Sanitary Landfill as part of a field trip for an environmental science class that I taught. It was a very interesting place to visit. I suggest that you all learn more about what happens to your trash, how much waste disposal is costing you, and what are the potential problems with the form of waste management that your town currently uses.
To learn more about solid waste management check out:
http://www.eoearth.org/article/AP_Environmental_Science_Chapter_17-_Solid_Waste
Photo of the Jeram Sanitary Landfill taken from Green Environment For Future Life, http://zakiuddinjanuri.blogspot.com.
Also, you can check this GarbageDisposerReviews.com as well.
ReplyDelete