WE discard with scant regard for what will happen to that polystyrene clamshell, an old pair of pants or half can of paint. Most of the stuff we cast off does not just disappear; they lie buried in dumps, soiling the ground and rivers with noxious liquids, and fouling the air with toxic gases and heat-trapping gases. The Earth is choking under all the chemical substances which we produce and dump.
Studies reveal that 80% of what we own is useless and redundant. So, think carefully before adding to what you already own. Be waste-wise and practise the 3Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle.
Don't add to waste heaps
Separate paper, plastics, metals, glass and aseptic carton for recycling. If you cannot drop them off at recycling centres, leave them outside for the garbage collector. Recycling saves the landscape from dumps, reduces usage of energy and raw materials, and prevents emissions of methane.
Compost your kitchen and garden waste
Return the nutrients and energy found in leftover food and yard trimmings back to the soil instead of dumping them at landfills. Find out more at compost.org.uk.
Aim for zero-waste
It's possible if you recycle all your trash, and then compost the remaining organic waste.
Close the loop
There’s no point recycling rubbish if you don’t buy recycled products.
Say 'No' to plastic bags
They do not degrade, mar the landscape and clog up rivers and seas. Plastics are derived from petroleum, so producing them emits greenhouse gases, too. Decline a plastic bag if your purchase is small and easy to carry. Try not to accumulate any new plastic bags for a week; you will see that it is not that difficult.
Bring a bag
Keep cloth bags in your car so they are always at hand should you decide to go shopping or marketing.
Use them again
Those plastic bags used to pack vegetables in supermarkets can be reused. Don't try to remove the price sticker as this will tear the flimsy bags. Turn them inside out instead.
Trash-free takeaways
Those small plastic bags and polystyrene clamshells used by foodstalls cannot be recycled. So, use reusable food containers and tiffin carriers when you bungkus or ta pau. Keep the containers handy in your car.
Shop at the pasar
Produce sold at wet markets is fresher and cheaper, and does not come wrapped in cling film or polystyrene. Don’t forget to bring along reusable containers for fish and meats, and a basket for everything.
Go for fresh
Why buy fruit juices in cartons and create waste? Recycling aseptic packaging, which is made of 75% paper, 20% polyethylene and 5% aluminium foil, uses up lots of water and energy. Furthermore, current collection for recycling is poor. Juice fresh fruits instead. It will be free of sweeteners, colourings, preservatives – and trash.
Lose the packaging
Shop with a critical eye and avoid buying stuff with excess packaging. Or, choose those with reusable or recyclable packaging. Cosmetics and perfumes tend to be over-packaged. Write to your favourite brand and ask them to trim the packaging and set up a refill scheme. Demand legislations which obligate manufacturers to minimise or take back packaging for reuse or recycling.
Buy refills
Choose cleaning products and toiletries such as dishwasher soap, floor cleaners, washing liquid and shower gel in refillable packs, which results in less trash.
Buy in bulk
Avoid products packed individually or for single use, such as beverage sachets or biscuits in small packs. Those foils are not recycled, and so add to waste heaps.
Avoid aluminium foil and plastic wrap
Cover food in the fridge and microwave with a plate or use a container with lid. Repair before replacing Mend things instead of throwing them away and purchasing new ones. Buy things that are durable.
Make more use of it
Avoid one-time use products such as disposal cutlery, plates, razors and pens. Choose products that can be reused, such as paper clips and refillable pens.
Buy second-hand
No, you’re not a cheapo; you’re being ecologically responsible. You will avoid consuming all the energy needed to produce and ship a new product.
Creative wrapping
Keep ribbons and wrapping paper from presents and hampers for future use. Wrap gifts in colourful magazine pages or use a paper gift bag which can be reused.
Go paper-less
Send e-cards and emails rather than letters, memos and cards. The pulp and paper industry is the world's fifth largest industrial consumer of energy and uses more water to produce a tonne of product than any other business.
Eliminate your paper trail
Print and photocopy on both sides; circulate documents via the Intranet; don’t print out your emails; reuse envelopes; use waste paper as notepaper, and cut up old cards to make gift tags. Every tonne of paper recycled will save 17 trees, 2,080 litres of oil and 5cu m of landfill space. Recycling 1kg of paper can save 2.5kg of greenhouse gases.
Say no to flyers
Decline or return promotional pamphlets distributed at public places if you’re not interested in what’s on offer. Refuse junk mail if you don’t want to read it.
Refill water bottles
Buy bottled water only when absolutely necessary and always send the PET bottles for recycling. Recovering just one bottle can save enough energy to power a 60watt light bulb for six hours.
Mind your e-waste
Send old computers, mobile phones, CDs, batteries and other electronics to a responsible recycler.
Bag your trash
When hiking in forest trails, always take your trash back with you. No garbage truck plies that route!
Think before you throw
Before discarding something, first consider how it can be reused.
Bring your own
Keep spare cutlery in your bag so that when eating at food courts, you won't have to use the disposable ones given.
Decline needless freebies
Why take that free mug, plate, cap or pin when you have no use for it? They'll just clutter your home and eventually end up as junk.
Tool pool
Many electrical appliances and gadgets are unnecessary. Besides, they consume energy, clutter our homes, cause pollution when produced and create trash when no longer useful. Borrow or share equipment which you don't use very often, or buy them second-hand.
Old but wearable
Donate old clothes to the poor, a charity or a recycling scheme. Some companies send them to countries like Cambodia and Vietnam, where they are sold as second-hand clothes.
Reuse old T-shirts
Use them as rags or kitchen towels.
Design for the environment
Make products which can be reused and recycled, and do not end up as waste.
Practise 'Green Purchasing'
Always choose goods which produce minimal waste and cause the least damage to the environment.
Buy only what you need
Every purchase you make affects the environment at every stage of its lifecycle – the manufacturing process consumes resources, pollutes the air and uses up energy, and it becomes waste when it’s no longer useful.
Don't be a mall rat
Take a break from consumerism and the “buy till you drop” culture. Support Buy Nothing Day (buynothingday.co.uk). Better still, why not do it once a week, or monthly?
Be a green shopper
Consider the following before buying something: What is its recycled content? Can it be reused or recycled when you're done with it? Is it excessively packaged?
Let's make a swap
Put up a box in your office for stuff which you no longer need but which others might find useful, such as toys, kitchenware, books, magazines, CDs, VCDs, DVDs, decor items, novelties and souvenirs.
Live simply
Every product we use, whether it’s a paper cup, dress or car, leaves an ecological footprint. Think about living with less, so as to tread lighter on Earth.
Showing posts with label noor shazliza n nur hidayah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label noor shazliza n nur hidayah. Show all posts
Monday, August 13, 2007
It looks like Malaysians will continue using plastic bags
PETALING JAYA: Manager Lynn C. shops in bulk at hypermarkets once every two months. She uses about 10 plastic bags for the groceries and she re-uses the bags for the household rubbish.
The 10 bags are insufficient. The mother of three said she forks out another RM10 per month to buy black garbage bags. She likes packing her rubbish in plastic bags because they are clean and do not leak.
The 45-year-old career woman knows plastic bags are not exactly a friend to Mother Nature.
“What alternative is there? There are biodegradable bags or paper bags on sale, but they are very difficult to find and are not cheap,” said Lynn, a resident in Taman Gembira, Klang, for the past 17 years.
She added that saving the world was not just about stopping the use of plastic bags.
“I think to make the world greener, it has to be a concerted effort by all parties – the Government, industries and people themselves. I am sure there are other more pressing issues to address,” she said.
As for other types of plastics available in the house, such as bottles, Lynn tries to reuse them.
Lynn is one of the millions of Malaysians who reuse plastic bags from hypermarkets to pack their rubbish. At least she does not ask for extra bags from the cashiers.
There are other customers who do – for they feel that asking for an extra plastic bag would do little to to dent the hypermarkets’ profit or harm the environment.
However, in the bigger scheme of things, that “extra plastic bag or two” adds up to the use of 250 million plastic bags a year.
This figure is only the tip of the iceberg because they include only the bags dispensed by Giant, Cold Storage and Carrefour. What aboutthe other hypermarkets, retailers, markets and hawkers?
The 250 million plastic bags weigh a hefty 1,260 tonnes, equivalent to 126,000 10kg packets of rice, and most of them end up in landfills.
Selangor executive councillor in charge of environment Datuk Ch’ng Toh Eng said rubbish kept in plastic bags was common in landfills.
“In Selangor, a person throws an average of 1.5kg of rubbish daily. There are four million people here. We throw out about 6,000 tonnes of rubbish every day.
“That is a very scary figure because we do not have land to create so many landfills,” said Ch’ng.
Landfills can also cause environmental problems. Last year, leachate from the Kundang dumpsite was blamed for the smelly piped water in parts of the Klang Valley.
A similar problem at the Sungai Kembong dumpsite led to the closure of the Sungai Semenyih water treatment plant.
With scarcity of land, the controversy surrounding the construction of incinerators and the teething problems faced by the Refuse Derived Fuel “intelligent landfill” plant in Semenyih (once touted as the answer to the country’s solid waste management), recycling remains a very promising way to reduce rubbish.
“Open dumpsites can cause pollution, such as stench, leachate into rivers and open burning,” said Ch’ng.
He said the state government seriously considered banning the use of polystyrene boxes in Selangor some four years ago.
“But we could not enforce the ruling because feedback from the public was not encouraging and some polystyrene box manufacturers told us they had invested heavily to set up factories,” he said, urging the people to give recycling a shot.
“Take containers when buying take-away food and carry baskets when doing your marketing. Use biodegradable bags,” Ch’ng said.
The 10 bags are insufficient. The mother of three said she forks out another RM10 per month to buy black garbage bags. She likes packing her rubbish in plastic bags because they are clean and do not leak.
The 45-year-old career woman knows plastic bags are not exactly a friend to Mother Nature.
“What alternative is there? There are biodegradable bags or paper bags on sale, but they are very difficult to find and are not cheap,” said Lynn, a resident in Taman Gembira, Klang, for the past 17 years.
She added that saving the world was not just about stopping the use of plastic bags.
“I think to make the world greener, it has to be a concerted effort by all parties – the Government, industries and people themselves. I am sure there are other more pressing issues to address,” she said.
As for other types of plastics available in the house, such as bottles, Lynn tries to reuse them.
Lynn is one of the millions of Malaysians who reuse plastic bags from hypermarkets to pack their rubbish. At least she does not ask for extra bags from the cashiers.
There are other customers who do – for they feel that asking for an extra plastic bag would do little to to dent the hypermarkets’ profit or harm the environment.
However, in the bigger scheme of things, that “extra plastic bag or two” adds up to the use of 250 million plastic bags a year.
This figure is only the tip of the iceberg because they include only the bags dispensed by Giant, Cold Storage and Carrefour. What aboutthe other hypermarkets, retailers, markets and hawkers?
The 250 million plastic bags weigh a hefty 1,260 tonnes, equivalent to 126,000 10kg packets of rice, and most of them end up in landfills.
Selangor executive councillor in charge of environment Datuk Ch’ng Toh Eng said rubbish kept in plastic bags was common in landfills.
“In Selangor, a person throws an average of 1.5kg of rubbish daily. There are four million people here. We throw out about 6,000 tonnes of rubbish every day.
“That is a very scary figure because we do not have land to create so many landfills,” said Ch’ng.
Landfills can also cause environmental problems. Last year, leachate from the Kundang dumpsite was blamed for the smelly piped water in parts of the Klang Valley.
A similar problem at the Sungai Kembong dumpsite led to the closure of the Sungai Semenyih water treatment plant.
With scarcity of land, the controversy surrounding the construction of incinerators and the teething problems faced by the Refuse Derived Fuel “intelligent landfill” plant in Semenyih (once touted as the answer to the country’s solid waste management), recycling remains a very promising way to reduce rubbish.
“Open dumpsites can cause pollution, such as stench, leachate into rivers and open burning,” said Ch’ng.
He said the state government seriously considered banning the use of polystyrene boxes in Selangor some four years ago.
“But we could not enforce the ruling because feedback from the public was not encouraging and some polystyrene box manufacturers told us they had invested heavily to set up factories,” he said, urging the people to give recycling a shot.
“Take containers when buying take-away food and carry baskets when doing your marketing. Use biodegradable bags,” Ch’ng said.
What a waste!
THIS deluge of plastic bags surrounding GCH Retail (M) Sdn Bhd corporate affairs manager Zamri Maulan is but a fraction of the millions of bags dispensed by Giant hypermarket each year to customers. A large percentage of them will end up in landfills, where they will remain for many years because plastic takes forever to degrade.
Selangor state executive councillor Datuk Ch'ng Toh Eng warns Selangor residents about having smelly landfills as neighbours if they continue to throw out 6,000 tonnes of rubbish daily.
Landfills are getting full, and there is hardly any more suitable land left to create new ones.
Incinerators are not popular and the “intelligent” Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) landfill in Kajang is facing teething problems.
Recycling seems to be the practical way out, a view shared by the Government and even the Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association.
The association, at the risk of losing some business, has proposed collecting back plastic bags for recycling
Selangor state executive councillor Datuk Ch'ng Toh Eng warns Selangor residents about having smelly landfills as neighbours if they continue to throw out 6,000 tonnes of rubbish daily.
Landfills are getting full, and there is hardly any more suitable land left to create new ones.
Incinerators are not popular and the “intelligent” Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) landfill in Kajang is facing teething problems.
Recycling seems to be the practical way out, a view shared by the Government and even the Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association.
The association, at the risk of losing some business, has proposed collecting back plastic bags for recycling
Mounting waste problem
By LOONG MENG YEE
PETALING JAYA: Nearly one year into service, the “solution” has now become a problem.
The landfill known as the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) factory in Semenyih, about 60km from here, is stuck with 5,000 tonnes of post-process waste that it finds difficult to dispose of.
The RM130mil landfill features an integrated system to retrieve recyclable items; process solid waste into energy and reduce leftover waste into harmless inerts before being returned to the soil.
The post-processed waste was supposed to be thrown at the Sungai Kembong landfill, about 20km away.
However, that dumpsite had to close last year after it was found to be leaking leachate.
With Sungai Kembong closed, the RDF management could only send their waste to Bukit Tagar or Kuala Langat.
But since the cost is high because these landfills are located far away, the RDF management, as a temporary measure, has stored the post-processed waste in its own compound.
This has since grown into an ugly and stinking mountain of 5,000 tonnes of garbage.
People in the surrounding neighbourhoods have complained of a strong stench coming from the RDF, which is also affecting the Setia Ikhlas national service camp, barely 200m away.
Some frustrated residents have resorted to distributing pamphlets that warned parents visiting the camp that they were entering a “highly polluted zone”.
Following the public outcry, Selangor executive councillor Datuk Ch’ng Toh Eng, accompanied by officers from related departments, visited the factory yesterday to get first-hand information about the problems.
“To its credit, the factory has managed to recycle 70% of waste sent there,” he said.
“Otherwise, all the 15,000 tonnes (roughly equivalent to filling up 6,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools) will end up in landfills,” he added.
Ch’ng said the factory was working out the kinks and the RDF management had requested the state government to allow it to continue to send the post-processed waste to Sungai Kembong.
An alternative is to allow the Kajang Municipal Council to increase the tipping fee.
A third suggestion is to get the council to help transport the 5,000 tonnes of waste to Bukit Tagar or other suitable landfills.
Ch’ng said the state government disagreed with the first two suggestions because it did not want to burden the public.
The third request will be brought up at the state executive council meeting for discussion, he said.
PETALING JAYA: Nearly one year into service, the “solution” has now become a problem.
The landfill known as the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) factory in Semenyih, about 60km from here, is stuck with 5,000 tonnes of post-process waste that it finds difficult to dispose of.
The RM130mil landfill features an integrated system to retrieve recyclable items; process solid waste into energy and reduce leftover waste into harmless inerts before being returned to the soil.
The post-processed waste was supposed to be thrown at the Sungai Kembong landfill, about 20km away.
However, that dumpsite had to close last year after it was found to be leaking leachate.
With Sungai Kembong closed, the RDF management could only send their waste to Bukit Tagar or Kuala Langat.
But since the cost is high because these landfills are located far away, the RDF management, as a temporary measure, has stored the post-processed waste in its own compound.
This has since grown into an ugly and stinking mountain of 5,000 tonnes of garbage.
People in the surrounding neighbourhoods have complained of a strong stench coming from the RDF, which is also affecting the Setia Ikhlas national service camp, barely 200m away.
Some frustrated residents have resorted to distributing pamphlets that warned parents visiting the camp that they were entering a “highly polluted zone”.
Following the public outcry, Selangor executive councillor Datuk Ch’ng Toh Eng, accompanied by officers from related departments, visited the factory yesterday to get first-hand information about the problems.
“To its credit, the factory has managed to recycle 70% of waste sent there,” he said.
“Otherwise, all the 15,000 tonnes (roughly equivalent to filling up 6,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools) will end up in landfills,” he added.
Ch’ng said the factory was working out the kinks and the RDF management had requested the state government to allow it to continue to send the post-processed waste to Sungai Kembong.
An alternative is to allow the Kajang Municipal Council to increase the tipping fee.
A third suggestion is to get the council to help transport the 5,000 tonnes of waste to Bukit Tagar or other suitable landfills.
Ch’ng said the state government disagreed with the first two suggestions because it did not want to burden the public.
The third request will be brought up at the state executive council meeting for discussion, he said.
Wise indeed to scrap Broga project
THE recent confirmation by the Government to scrap the Broga incinerator is indeed a wise move. With the huge capital and operational costs associated with such thermal treatment technology, I shudder at the thought of what the Government, and ultimately the householder, would otherwise have to fork out to finance the project.
In fact, there have been many cases in developing countries of abandoned, inoperable or badly polluting incinerators. In our own country, lessons should be drawn from the failed incinerator operations in Langkawi, Labuan , and Terengganu.
Burning waste is simply transferring land pollution to the air.
When we worry about pollution caused by waste dumps (and rightly so), we should not be confused and mixed up with engineered sanitary landfills.
Uncontrolled open dumps, common in Malaysia, must be clearly differentiated from sanitary landfills. A properly engineered sanitary landfill ensures effective mitigation of all forms of environmental pollution. It is the only form of disposal that restores waste by means of natural decomposition in the ground.
Despite its simplicity in design and operation, sanitary landfills are normally the most cost-effective and environmentally acceptable means of waste disposal.
Furthermore, sanitary landfills have the virtue of being a disposal option that confers environmental improvement by restoring derelict land or improving undesirable contours. It is still very widely adopted even in developed countries and its technology has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years.
Even densely populated places like Hong Kong deal with its waste without resorting to the costly incinerators or other thermal treatment plants.
Indeed, a properly engineered landfill suitably located would be the prudent solution to the solid waste problem for a country like Malaysia that does not face space problems as acute as Hong Kong or the UK.
The wanton acclamation of certain incineration technologies may be welcome news for some profit-hungry suppliers, but I fear it can be disastrous for our nation’s coffers.
For Malaysia, where poor maintenance often condemns high-tech imported machinery to the scrapyard, and where high moisture content severely inhibits waste combustion, sanitary landfills will always be miles ahead of incineration as a cost-effective technology for dealing with our domestic solid waste.
While it may be unwise to abandon our quest for technical excellence in every endeavour, it will be equally foolish to let over-enthusiasm and desperation blind our common sense and grasp at any solution offered by foreign companies.
As a developing nation with unique social, political, economic, climatic and geographical characteristics, we must make educated and calculated decisions on the application of appropriate technologies.
PROF IR DR HASSAN BASRI,
Professor of Environmental Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
In fact, there have been many cases in developing countries of abandoned, inoperable or badly polluting incinerators. In our own country, lessons should be drawn from the failed incinerator operations in Langkawi, Labuan , and Terengganu.
Burning waste is simply transferring land pollution to the air.
When we worry about pollution caused by waste dumps (and rightly so), we should not be confused and mixed up with engineered sanitary landfills.
Uncontrolled open dumps, common in Malaysia, must be clearly differentiated from sanitary landfills. A properly engineered sanitary landfill ensures effective mitigation of all forms of environmental pollution. It is the only form of disposal that restores waste by means of natural decomposition in the ground.
Despite its simplicity in design and operation, sanitary landfills are normally the most cost-effective and environmentally acceptable means of waste disposal.
Furthermore, sanitary landfills have the virtue of being a disposal option that confers environmental improvement by restoring derelict land or improving undesirable contours. It is still very widely adopted even in developed countries and its technology has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years.
Even densely populated places like Hong Kong deal with its waste without resorting to the costly incinerators or other thermal treatment plants.
Indeed, a properly engineered landfill suitably located would be the prudent solution to the solid waste problem for a country like Malaysia that does not face space problems as acute as Hong Kong or the UK.
The wanton acclamation of certain incineration technologies may be welcome news for some profit-hungry suppliers, but I fear it can be disastrous for our nation’s coffers.
For Malaysia, where poor maintenance often condemns high-tech imported machinery to the scrapyard, and where high moisture content severely inhibits waste combustion, sanitary landfills will always be miles ahead of incineration as a cost-effective technology for dealing with our domestic solid waste.
While it may be unwise to abandon our quest for technical excellence in every endeavour, it will be equally foolish to let over-enthusiasm and desperation blind our common sense and grasp at any solution offered by foreign companies.
As a developing nation with unique social, political, economic, climatic and geographical characteristics, we must make educated and calculated decisions on the application of appropriate technologies.
PROF IR DR HASSAN BASRI,
Professor of Environmental Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
CAP: Phase out waste incineration
By NG SU-ANN
THE Government should phase out all forms of waste incineration by 2020, said Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president S.M. Mohamed Idris.
If the European Union and the Philippines could manage their waste without incineration, Malaysia with its Vision 2020 should not use this obsolete, dirty and unsafe technology, he said.
“Malaysia must make waste reduction, reuse and recycling the cornerstone of its policy on waste management and zero-waste its target,” he said at a CAP forum on incinerators recently.
His speech was read out by his vice-president Mohideen Abdul Kader.
Idris said there was suffi- cient evidence to show that no matter how innovative or ad-vanced or in whatever other guise, incinerators inevitably produced toxic emissions, ashes and residue.
“There is enough scientific evidence implicating the impact of incinerator-driven dioxin releases on human health and well-being,” he added.
He suggested municipal recycling programmes include composting garden waste and imposing “pay-as-you-throw” garbage collection fees.
An American presenter, Gree-naction for Health and Environ-mental Justice director Bradley Angel, said there were several companies which claimed that their incinerators had zero emissions, were pollution-free and could convert waste into renewable energy.
“However, when we asked them for details and evidence, they could not produce them,” he said, adding that no technology could make everything disappear.
THE Government should phase out all forms of waste incineration by 2020, said Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president S.M. Mohamed Idris.
If the European Union and the Philippines could manage their waste without incineration, Malaysia with its Vision 2020 should not use this obsolete, dirty and unsafe technology, he said.
“Malaysia must make waste reduction, reuse and recycling the cornerstone of its policy on waste management and zero-waste its target,” he said at a CAP forum on incinerators recently.
His speech was read out by his vice-president Mohideen Abdul Kader.
Idris said there was suffi- cient evidence to show that no matter how innovative or ad-vanced or in whatever other guise, incinerators inevitably produced toxic emissions, ashes and residue.
“There is enough scientific evidence implicating the impact of incinerator-driven dioxin releases on human health and well-being,” he added.
He suggested municipal recycling programmes include composting garden waste and imposing “pay-as-you-throw” garbage collection fees.
An American presenter, Gree-naction for Health and Environ-mental Justice director Bradley Angel, said there were several companies which claimed that their incinerators had zero emissions, were pollution-free and could convert waste into renewable energy.
“However, when we asked them for details and evidence, they could not produce them,” he said, adding that no technology could make everything disappear.
Malaysia looking for better solid waste management
TOKYO: Malaysia will continue to look at other viable options for good solid waste management that is also environment-friendly and affordable.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said although Malaysia was currently focused on sanitary landfills, the Government would continue to look at other options for its waste management.
“That is also why I am in Japan because I chair the Cabinet committee that makes decisions on solid waste management and will visit an incinerator plant here.”
He was asked by a Japanese businessman on the Government’s plans for solid waste management as it involved a huge sum of money.
Najib, who is on a four-day visit here, had earlier delivered an address at a business luncheon here on business opportunities in Malaysia.
He visited the Chuo incinerator plant for a first hand look at how garbage collected from around Tokyo is processed and turned into wallpaper, recycled concrete and plasterboard.
The plant has the capacity to process 600 tonnes of rubbish daily and pollutants are released within self imposed limits.
The heat generated through incineration by plant, built in July 2001 for some 30 billion yen (RM900mil), is used for power generation and heat supply. The plant is also situated near residential areas.
Also present at the briefing were Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said although Malaysia was currently focused on sanitary landfills, the Government would continue to look at other options for its waste management.
“That is also why I am in Japan because I chair the Cabinet committee that makes decisions on solid waste management and will visit an incinerator plant here.”
He was asked by a Japanese businessman on the Government’s plans for solid waste management as it involved a huge sum of money.
Najib, who is on a four-day visit here, had earlier delivered an address at a business luncheon here on business opportunities in Malaysia.
He visited the Chuo incinerator plant for a first hand look at how garbage collected from around Tokyo is processed and turned into wallpaper, recycled concrete and plasterboard.
The plant has the capacity to process 600 tonnes of rubbish daily and pollutants are released within self imposed limits.
The heat generated through incineration by plant, built in July 2001 for some 30 billion yen (RM900mil), is used for power generation and heat supply. The plant is also situated near residential areas.
Also present at the briefing were Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis.
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