Wednesday April 29, 2009

Separate your waste from June 1

By BAVANI M

STARTING June 1, each household in Kuala Lumpur will be provided with two rubbish bins — one for organic waste and the other for inorganic stuff.

Waste collection concessionaire Alam Flora will provide each household the two bins for them to throw the two categories of waste separately.

It will be compulsory for the people to throw their rubbish correctly into the properly designated bins. Failure to do show will result in their rubbish being left uncollected.

A must: KL households are now required to display two garbage bins. One is for organic and the other for inorganic waste.

The new ruling is part of the steps taken by the federal government to have a more orderly and effective management of waste and to encourage people to recycle.

With the passing of the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007, the local by-laws on garbage collection are being streamlined.

While the by-laws are apparently silent regarding the penalty aspect, it is still mandatory for the people to sort out their rubbish into the two categories.

“We have the right not to pick up the garbage when people don’t separate their waste, but we are not out to punish but to educate them,’’ Alam Flora chief executive officer Zahri Abdul Ghani said.

“If we find the people still not changing their attitude and habit, we will take it to the next level,’’ he said.

While Zahri did not explain and elaborate on what the next level is, it is certainly clear that the authorities are not just issuing empty warnings but is serious about going all out to resolve one of the city’s perennial woes.

According to Zahri, educating the people to separate their waste at source is the key to proper waste management.

Zahri said the government had been pushing for the privatisation of waste since last year and with the enforcement of the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act, the rule on the compulsory separation of household waste at the source could be implemented.

“Alam Flora will provide each household with two bins. One for their organic waste, which is kitchen and garden waste, and the other for the inorganic items, which are materials like plastic, paper, bottles, batteries – anything that can be recycled,’’ he said.

The waste separation scheme also requires the draining out of liquid from waste before placing them into the bin.

An average household waste is composed of 40% organic waste, 14% paper, 15% plastic, and 31% others (glass, metal, Styrofoam, rubber and diaper,).

All organic waste will be sent to a centre for decomposition to be turned into fertiliser, whereas the inorganic waste would be sent to a recycling centre.

“If the waste is not separated at the source, it would be very difficult to implement the 3R scheme of reduce, reuse, recycle,’’ Zahri said.

He said once the waste separation was successfully carried out, the current 5% recycling rate in the city could easily go up to 50%.

Zahri pointed out that everyone had the duty and responsibility to maintain a clean and healthy environment.

“A large part of pollution is caused by the things people throw and the way they throw them. We can’t turn back the clock on global warming or the thinning of our ozone, or even the contamination of our rivers, but we can slow it down by adopting a more environment friendly way of life by starting with saving our landfills,’’ he said.

Zahri said the scheme had already been implemented in Putrajaya last year and that was why the recycling rate in Putrajaya is much higher compared with Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Ahmad Fuad Ismail welcomed the separation scheme, saying that such an integrated system was needed to manage waste properly.

Fuad said there were plans to set up recycling centres in the city to encourage people to recycle.

Environmental Protection Society Malaysia (EPSM) president Nithi Nesadurai endorsed the separation scheme wholeheartedly, saying that this was the right way to move ahead.

He said, however, that the challenge was in the implementation of the scheme.

“The implementation must come with a penalty only than will people change their attitude,’’ he said.

Nithi said the government must come up with a strong public awareness campaign with all the stakeholders, residents association, management bodies and business to make the system work.

Anthony Tan of the Centre for Environment Technology & Development Malaysia (Cetdem) also commended the move as a good one but suggested that Alam Flora and the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) go a step further by helping city residents start their own composting projects.

Tan said the Cetdem and the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) had started their own composting project last year, involving 50 households learning to make compost from their household waste, hence reducing kitchen and garden waste.

Under the provisions of the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act, solid waste management, including the collection of garbage, road cleaning, grass cutting, and drain sweeping will be under the jurisdiction of the National Solid Waste Management Department of the Housing and Local Government Ministry.

The department is set take on an executive as well as management role from 103 local authorities in the peninsula, including the DBKL, in June.

In Kuala Lumpur, the solid waste management responsibilities such as providing the mechanics like garbage collection from household to transfer station to landfill have been privatised to Alam Flora, while the DBKL will handle the enforcement aspect.

Alam Flora serves 8.7 million people in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor, and Pahang.

Inorganic waste

Styrofoam food containers

Plastic bottle

Disposable diaper

Aluminium tin

Steel

Leather shoes

Stocking

Clothes

Newspaper

Organic waste