KUALA LUMPUR: The efforts by the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) to encourage households to separate their waste has begun to bear fruit.
SWCorp outgoing deputy chief executive officer (technical) Dr Mohd Pauze Mohamad Taha said that over the past few years, the annual growth of waste produced by Malaysians has been less than two per cent, compared with the annual projection of four per cent.
“We projected a four per cent annual growth in waste production. However, over the past few years, the actual numbers were less than two per cent. In some areas, the number has even stagnated. This shows that how we manage our household waste has already changed and maybe because of the ongoing awareness programme and campaigns, people are more willing to separate and recycle their waste. Nonetheless, more effort must be made because we can do better,” he told the New Sunday Times.
Malaysians, said Pauze, generated 37,890 tonnes of waste daily in 2018 and 38,120 tonnes of waste per day last year.
He said the biggest component in the national waste composition was food waste with 44.5 per cent, followed by plastics (13.2 per cent), diapers (12.1 per cent), paper (8.5 per cent), garden waste (5.8 per cent), glass (3.3 per cent), textiles (3.1 per cent), metal (2.7 per cent), rubber (1.8 per cent), tetra pak (1.6 per cent), wood (1.4 per cent), household hazardous waste (1.3 per cent), others (0.5 per cent) and leather at 0.4 per cent.
Pauze said to curb food waste from going into landfills, initiatives have been undertaken by the Housing and Local Government Ministry via the National Solid Waste Management Department and SWCorp.
These include waste-to-energy, composting, anaerobic digester, reducing food waste through intervention programmes and Zero Waste Community Initiatives (ZeComm).
Pauze said ZeComm rewards participants who separated their recycleable and food waste, and sent them to a ZeComm centre.
“The programme, which was carried out in stages, began on Dec 17, 2018 with Rumah Pangsa Senawang 1 in Negri Sembilan as its first location.”
He said under the programme, residents who separated their food waste and recyclable items (500g of food waste and 1kg of recyclable waste) would be rewarded with a stamp on a special coupon.
Based on the number of stamps obtained by a participant, he could redeem them for items, such as rice and cooking oil.
ZeComm centres are located at Rumah Pangsa Senawang 1 in Negri Sembilan, People’s Housing Project (PPR) Tehel and Sungai Putat in Melaka, 5R1 Apartment in Putrajaya, PPR Melana Indah in Johor, PPR Kota Bharu in Kelantan and PPR Lembah Subang 2 in Selangor.
Pauze said from December 2018 until October last year, ZeComm centres had collected 14,515.42kg of recyclable waste, followed by 11,335.38kg of food waste and 600kg of used cooking oil.
He said SWCorp was looking at having another 14 ZeComm centres at PPR flats this year.
As for recycling, Pauze said last year it stood at 28.06 per cent, an increase of 3.46 per cent from 24.6 per cent in 2018.
“This year, the target is 30 per cent,” he said, many households had started separating their waste.
Pauze said SWCorp hoped to achieve a 35 per cent national recycling rate by 2030.