PETALING JAYA: Landfills around the country will be upgraded into sanitary locations with the addition of materials recovery facilities (MRFs), says Nga Kor Ming.
The Housing and Local Government Minister said Malaysians produced up to 39,000 tonnes of solid waste daily, leading to growing concerns of overflowing landfills.
The introduction of MRFs is part of the ministry's goal to transform waste into energy via 17 potential new waste-to-energy (WTE) plants.
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Nga said this objective was part of the government’s newly-launched Circular Economy Blueprint for Solid Waste in Malaysia (2025-2035) which aims to help reach the national target of 70% of renewable energy generation in the power mix by 2050.
“In China alone, there are 700 WTE plants, and even our neighbour Singapore has five, while we currently only have one in Port Dickson.
“According to our findings and statistics... Malaysia can operate up to 18 WTE plants which are financially viable and environmentally sustainable,” he told a press conference after his ministry’s Circular Economy Conference 2024 here on Tuesday (Aug 6).
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He noted that the ministry would continue to hold comparative studies of existing WTE models around the world, from Japan to Europe to China, to find the one best suited for Malaysia.
“Rest assured that we will adopt only models... that have already been proven safe in other countries,” he added.
He said converting unsanitary landfills into MRF hubs would be the best way forward both environmentally and financially, given the high cost to permanently shut down a landfill.
“Closing a single landfill can cost up to RM20mil due to the need to treat surrounding areas as well," he said.
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In his speech at the conference, Nga revealed that each Malaysian is estimated to produce up to 1.17kg of waste daily according to the National Solid Waste Management Department.
He noted that food waste remains the largest component, making up 44.5% of household waste, followed by plastic waste (13.2%), disposable diapers (12.1%), and paper (8.5%), with most of it ending up in landfills.
On a positive note, Nga said the national recycling rate more than doubled in the past decade, reaching 35.38% last year compared to 15.7% in 2015.
