Spotlight: What a waste of wealth

Malaysians are throwing millions into their bins. ELIZABETH JOHN rummages through five bins to unearth just what contributes to the 19,000 tonnes of waste we put out every day.

ALMOST all the solid waste we throw needn’t go to a landfill — if we do things right.

Close to 95 per cent of the waste can be recovered in some way, earning us millions and freeing up much needed space in choked landfills, says Universiti Malaya’s Professor Dr P. Agamuthu.

Composting, waste-eating bacteria and turning materials that burn into fuel pellets could take care of half Malaysia’s daily solid waste output.Add recycling and the bulk of waste can be kept out of landfills, says Agamuthu.

When the lecturer from UM’s Institute of Biological Sciences did these calculations two years ago, Malaysians were throwing away about 18,000 tonnes of solid waste daily. Today, it’s closer to 20,000 tonnes.

Turning just 20 per cent of waste into organic compost can earn us a cool RM3.6 million, says the expert who’s studied waste issues for over 20 years.

There’s even more to be made from recycling. By Agamuthu’s calculations, about 40 per cent of the daily waste received at landfills consists of things that can be recycled — paper, plastic, metals and glass.

At the top of that list is plastic at 15 per cent, followed closely by paper, metal and glass.

With proper recycling, the recovered items could yield as much as RM55,260 every day.

Combining all the methods and treating waste in an integrated manner could, at the end of the day, save us a whopping RM909 million in management costs — that’s nine times the amount recently allocated to reduce flash floods in Kuala Lumpur.

"The figures tell the story. They tell you that the alternative to dumping is so much better," says Agamuthu.

What they threw in the bin

...From a rising star to homely retirees, the New Sunday Times asked five Malaysians to surrender the day’s discards. They gave us...

The retirees:Rohani Abdullah and Mohd Damis Yusof
- Four bags
1. Many pieces of tissue paper
2. Inner cardboard of toilet paper roll
3. A stack of envelopes and old bills
4. Several empty plastic medicine packets
5. Plastic packaging from stationery, biscuits, eggs, salt, mosquito mats
6. Small plastic bag
7. Paper/cardboard packaging from food, hair dye
8. Empty milk carton
9. One soft drink can
10. One used newspaper (for wrapping)
11. Empty tissue box
12. Food waste (some vegetable, rice, grated coconut, two strips of banana leaf and a few
rambutan skins)
13. Four kitchen paper towels
14. Two mosquito mats
15. Cat litter

The story: This loving couple shares their Damansara Heights home with their daughter, maid and a dozen roly-poly cats.

They collected this waste on Sunday — big cookout day — when Rohani slaves over a hot stove preparing vats full of a killer sambal tempoyak and other delicacies for the week.

Some of the food waste fertilises the flowers but they leave the recyclable items like cans and plastic bottles for garbage collectors as they’ve noticed them picking the items out and setting it aside, presumably to be sold off later.

"A lot of the rubbish is actually kitty litter. We clear it twice a day. But I’d like to know if there’s another way to dispose of it." This is the average daily amount for this household, says Rohani, although on other days, there might be more soft drink cans or bottles in the bin.

The Idol:Daniel Lee

Half a bag
1. One large plastic mineral water bottle
2. Two envelopes
3. Three pieces of clear plastic wrappers
4. One small plastic food packaging
5. Six tissues
6. Six pieces cotton wool pad
7. Eight clothes and goods tags (paper)
8. Two clothes and goods tags (plastic)
9. One piece of twist and tie
10. One shaving stick
11. One rubber band

The story: This baby-faced Malaysian Idol who regularly sends teenaged girls into a screaming frenzy was most concerned about what wasn’t in his garbage bin that day — the many cans of hair spray he goes through in a year.

The one currently freeze-framing his hair at its fashionable best is yanked out of a bright red backpack as he asks, "What’s the best way to deal with this? I want to safely dispose of this but I don’t know how.

"He tries his best, says Daniel, refusing plastic bags when he indulges in another passion — shopping. Everything he buys goes into his backpack.

This is something he learned from his years in Taiwan where shoppers pay for their plastic bags.And though his fast selling album’s called Unavoidable, he’s managed to avoid putting a plastic CD tray in the pack. In the 25,000 copies sold in the first week of release, the disc is tucked into a glossy paper envelope, instead.

The singer, who quickly goes through tissue and cotton wool pads removing inches of make-up after performances, also wishes there was more he could do about empty cosmetic containers."If you bring back empty containers, some cosmetic companies give you a discount or a gift in exchange."I wish more companies would do that," says Daniel.

The aunts he shares a home with in Damansara send their waste paper for recycling but Daniel doesn’t know of any recycling bins near his home.Sometimes, he lugs a recyclabe item or two all the way to a supermarket."It’s mostly a lot of tissue and clothes tags that I throw but there are lots of stuff that I’m not sure can be recycled."In all, the 25-year-old empties the bin in his room once in two weeks.

Yes, it’s not just writing his own songs, signing autographs or going on tour for this rising star — he also takes out the trash himself

The green-mindedKhaw Siok Kim

- A very small corner of one bag

1. Peel from one quarter slice of papaya
2. A small stalk and leaves of a green vegetable
3. A piece of string
4. A small piece of soiled cardboard
5. Two strips of plastic wrapping
6. One foil medicine packet/strip

The story: She put out the least and it’s no surprise why — she’s a volunteer of the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia.

From the absence of a car to the spotlessly clean house bereft of a single unnecessary piece of furniture or decoration, Kim leads the ecologically friendly lifestyle others talk about. She buries the kitty litter and recycles every possible item, throwing away things she isn’t quite sure about, like the empty medicine strip.

Kim’s tried composting in a corner of her tiny garden but gave it up when the pit attracted rats."So I only buy and cook exactly what I need. This leaves me with a small bag of rubbish at the end of the week. Sometimes, it takes longer to fill up.

The homemaker Philomin Sennyah

- Two bags

1. Several broken plastic toys (lego blocks, action figures, cars and a bus)
2. Six pieces of jigsaw puzzle (cardboard)
3. 10 playing cards (paper)
4. Food packaging — two plastic and six drink cartons
5. Two toy packaging — paper/cardboard
6. Food waste – rice, fruit peels, vegetables, egg shells, bits of fish
7. One old sock
8. Several pieces of paper
9. Several plastic bags

The story: This soft spoken, gentle grandmother has her hands full, caring for her two grandsons and two daughters she shares her Subang Jaya home with.

Mornings are spent cooking and most of this waste is what ends up in the bin.The drink cartons, a favourite with her grandsons, are a common feature in the rubbish they put out.

What was unusual in that Tuesday’s pile was the broken toys that were thrown out.

The family doesn’t really recycle and hardly takes canned drinks, but they do sell old newspapers off, says Philomin. "I don’t think we throw out that much waste.

Single in the cityAngelina Ng Sook Mun

- Half a bag

1. Three plastic food wrappers
2. One plastic cup
3. One plastic yoghurt bottle
4. One plastic soft drink bottle4. Five foil food wrappers/packages (various sizes)
5. Several tissues
6. Several pieces of paper

The story: Working in the heart of the glamourous capital, in a swanky hotel, Angel doesn’t spend much time in her rented room in Jalan Imbi. At the beck and call of a host of demanding international guests, most of her meals are eaten out and then there’s the occasional bowl of maggi (instant noodles). "I know there’s a lot of things in my bag that I can recycle," she says."But it’s so hard to find those bins and I don’t see anyone coming around to collect this stuff."The place we rent is not so big lah, so there’s not much place to keep all our recycling."

The expert says ...

FROM plastic to papaya skin, so much could have been composted or recycled, says Professor Dr P. Agamuthu.

Scanning the long list of items from the five volunteers, he says almost all the paper packaging, cardboard and clothes tags could have been set aside for recycling.

When the package is part paper, part plastic, just separate the two and put them in the respective recycling bins.

Packaging that looks like foil or has a metallic looking coating inside should be put together with metals for recycling.

If you’re afraid of others getting a hold of personal details that often appear on bills, just tear them up before adding them to the paper recycling pile.

Even tissues and paper towels can be put into the paper recycling bin, if it’s just been used to wipe off water or a bit of make-up.

Just dry it before adding to the pile.But if the tissue has been used on a wound, it should be binned.The only packaging material that’s almost impossible to recycle is the brown wax paper often used to wrap chicken rice — where one side is covered in water-proof material.

Because it’s almost impossible to separate the plastic-like film from the paper, it goes straight into the bin.

The volunteers could have composted the food waste, says Agamuthu.Sure, it’s difficult but if done properly, it could reduce most of the waste that makes the rubbish bag end up stinky and soggy.

Food waste should be placed in a suitable container, air should be able to pass through and each layer of food waste covered with a bit of soil.

He does not recommend composting meat and bones as these are the items that attract most of the vermin and flies.What about the curry?Well, that should go down the kitchen sink, if it’s connected to the sewer, says Agamuthu.

Otherwise, that, too, goes into the bin. And then the kitty litter. Ideally, if there is space in the compound, the litter can be buried or composted. If that’s not possible, then the only alternative is to dispose of it the conventional way.

As for plastic mineral water bottles, do separate the caps and bottles. Though both are plastic, they’re different kinds.

Your recycler will be ever grateful.The greatest problem, says Agamuthu, is household items which are hazardous waste.

Among the five bins, there is only one — the mosquito mat.Such items include certain paints, cleaners and varnishes that now account for two per cent of all our household waste.

Even the handphone battery, the last few pills in the pack, that can of hair spray and the much loved bottle of perfume should be disposed off as hazardous waste.

"There’s no proper method of collection at the moment, so people have little choice but to throw it out with the rest of the rubbish."But you can contribute by reducing the amount you use, or finding non-hazardous alternatives."In the case of paint, donate any balance to someone who needs it or can finish it up instead of throwing it out," says Agamuthu.