Article: Rules not in place

Tuesday June 2, 2009

With waste laws still not enforced, a lot of our discards simply cannot be collected for recycling.

TAKE a look around your house. What do you see that can be recycled, apart from the usual newspapers, plastics, aluminium and glass? Loads of stuff, for sure.

One would be that old couch that doesn't match your spanking new IKEA furniture set. There is also that stack of scratched CDs and pirated DVDs. And that box of broken light bulbs. What about that old TV that has no sound? While we're on the subject of electronics, how about that drawer full of used batteries?

Almost all our waste can be reused or recycled in one way or another. The question is, where can we send them to? With common items like glass, plastics, paper and aluminium, the answer is simple enough. There are quite a number of buy-back centres around the Klang Valley and other cities that accept these items. There are also all those old newspaper trucks that go around residential areas.

However, plenty of other items in each household still end up in landfills, simply because we do not know whether they can be recycled, or do not know where to send them.

For some of these things, the solution is simple enough. For instance, old furniture can be sent to charitable organisations that will either reuse or send them to the proper recyclers. Waste concessionaires like Alam Flora have buyback centres that accept not only plastic, paper, glass and aluminium, but also CDs, electronics and Tetrapaks cartons. Old mobile phones can be dropped into the Nokia Integrated Kiosk for recycling.

However, there is a problem with certain items. While searching for places to recycle items like light bulbs, pens, batteries and so on, I found that there just isn't any convenient way to recycle them in Malaysia, short of collecting massive amounts of the stuff and hauling them to a recycling factory yourself.

We would have to wait until the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 is in place (possibly in 2010) before Malaysia will finally have a system that will make it easier for the public to recycle their waste.

"Right now there is no mechanism for segregating at source, so everything goes into the landfills. Many people also don't know where to bring their recyclables after they have collected them," said Dr Nadzri Yahaya, director general of the National Solid Waste Management Department under the Housing and Local Government Ministry. "But once the regulation is enforced, it will be much easier for people to start recycling and for us to determine what goes into the landfills and what is sent for recycling."

He clarifies that a recent story in StarMetro had mistakenly reported that the mandatory waste separation will kick off this month. He says although the Act has been passed, the regulation to enforce provisions in the Act is not in place yet.

The department will also be building drop-off centres for the public to bring their recyclables to. The first such centre, to be completed by year-end, will be in Subang Jaya followed by another in Puchong.

"The operator will store the recyclables and send them to the respective recyclers when there are sufficient amounts," said Nadzri, adding that the centres will complement the mandatory sorting at home. "People can choose to leave their recyclables by the trash can to be collected by the waste concessionaires or bring them to the recycling centres."

But will this approach ensure that everything that is collected will be recycled? Will unusual items like pens, light bulbs, batteries and so on be accepted as well?

Nadzri said it would be difficult to ensure that everything is recycled because the lack of a constant supply of certain items like batteries, light bulbs and so on means it would not be economically viable for recyclers to recycle them.

"That's what we have the recycling centres for. When enough people send these items there, we can generate enough supply to convince recyclers that these items are worth recycling," he said. "Collecting these items is easy, but ensuring that they go to the correct industry player is another matter. There is no point collecting the items and then not knowing where to bring them. In the end, if an item can't be recycled, it is either sent to the landfill or to an incinerator."

Plans are also afoot to implement a take-back system akin to that in Europe that forces companies to be responsible for the eventual disposal of their products. While the Act does provide for this possibility, the actual implementation may take another three to four years, if not more.

In the meantime, there really seems to be no solution for recycling certain items in your home. But the Act offers hope that we might eventually be able to recycle everything, no matter how small or insignificant they might seem.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Go Green Live Green 2 June 2009