Investigating the Standard Process of Incineration in Langkawi Island, Malaysia

Abstract

Development activities and increasing urbanization have direct impact on solid waste generation, especially in municipalities of the developing countries, which poses a major challenge to the authorities. Many various technologies and strategies can be used in the field of garbage procedures. Incineration is a well-organized approach and tool to decrease the volume of waste and insist for additional landfill area. One of the important benefits of using the incineration is its ability to decrease a significant amount of waste combustibles by 80 to 95%. Controlling air pollution in the process of using the incineration poses a challenge for solid waste disposal. The data utilized in this article include personal interview of the experts handling the incineration process in Langkawi and personal observation. Secondary data obtained from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government was used to investigate the external air pollution from using the incinerator in Langkawi. The results showed, through the analysis of raw data with SPSS IBM 19 and Pearson correlation analysis and identify cluster of dendrogram generated by UPGMA, an external pollution minimum (p<0.05) between sampling sites inside the incinerator. The reasons for the difference are related to untimely and inappropriate opening of the combustion chamber door, exorbitance blowing and improper use of the installed air pollution control devices. The proper treatment of solid waste is very crucial, especially in Langkawi Island which is a tourist destination. The use of incinerator can enhance solid waste treatment, but only when the standard operating procedure is observed. Without properly observing the procedure, the use of an incinerator can cause more environmental and personal health issues like air pollution and the releasing of hazardous waste and clinical waste s into the landfill. These are some of the reasons that motivated this study to investigate the use of incineration in Langkawi Island.