Malaysia Moving Towards a Sustainability Municipal Waste Management

Abstract

The elevation of waste generation subsequent to population growth has become a severe environmental topic in Malaysia. Since most of the waste is being dumped into a landfill, the open dumpsite, or unsanitary landfills which are not constructed with proper engineering plan, severe impacts on the environment result. The energy demand in Malaysia increased with the growing population, but reliance on fossil fuels to generate electricity has created another greenhouse gas contributor. Alternatively, waste-to-energy technology solves the problem of increasing waste by converting the waste to a renewable energy source. Malaysia has moved towards landfill gas recovery system and incineration for waste energy recovery. The recovery system and refuse-derived fuel plant achieved expectation; however, the incineration plants have failed due to the opposition of the public, lack of funding and technician expertise, and other technical issues. The solid waste management practices lacking separation and recycling sources, become an obstacle for development. The government puts effort into solving the current issue by promoting recycling in the public, enforcing the legislation, and approaching new technologies for better solid waste management practice in the future. This paper aims to discuss the application of energy recovery from municipal solid waste in Malaysia.

Methane Biogas Production in Malaysia: Challenge and Future Plan

“…Malaysia is a developing country in Southeast Asia's core region, with a total size of 329,847 km 2 . roughout the year, Malaysia's population grows at a rate of 2.4% annually, or around 600.000 people every year [39].…”

“…Apart from that, MSW is abundantly generated from papers, plastics, and food, accounting for up to 80% of total weight, owing mostly to Malaysia's growing industrialization and urbanization [40]. Malaysian MSW has increased by 91% during the last decade, ranging between 0.5 and 2.5 kg per capita per day [39]. In fact, in 2020, 29,472 metric tons of wastes are generated by Malaysians and these wastes are mostly emphasized on food waste and it is expected that by 2030, MSW that is generated in Malaysia will be 49,670 tonnes [41].…”

Medical Waste during COVID-19 Pandemic: Its Types, Abundance, Impacts and Implications

“…It is noteworthy that the protective equipment and medical supplies for COVID-19 come with packaging materials that constitute the ancillary waste stream. While these packaging materials may not be classified as medical waste, hence not treated the same way as medical waste, they are likely to strain the municipal waste management system due to the large amount generated [27][28][29]. In fact, studies have warned of the changes in the composition of medical and municipal wastes during COVID-19, which could impact waste collection and disposal systems.…”

Levels of Heavy Metals in the Soil of Illegal Open Dumpsites in Malaysia

“…Anthropogenic activities, particularly agriculture and waste disposal, are reported to be two of the main causes of soil contamination with heavy metals [4]. Soil contamination with heavy metals is more severe in developing countries where the efficiency of municipal solid waste (MSW) management, the coverage of MSW collection, and the recycling rates of MSW are relatively low [5]. In developing countries, a lack of recycling technology for MSW results in higher recycling costs and a proclivity to landfill MSW [6].…”