Malaysian’s Attitude towards

Waste Segregation
ULAB 2122: Advanced Academic English Skills
Section 37

Prepared by:
Naziff Ya’akob B16KM0007
Muhammad Rushydi Ahmad Labib A16KM0506

Under supervision of Mrs. Siti Khadijah Binti Abdul Wahab, ULAB 2122
Coordinator, UTM Skudai, Johor.
 Malaysian’s Attitude towards Waste
Segregation
Naziff Ya’akob, Muhammad Rushydi Ahmad Labib

Abstract

Effective on 1st June 2016 all municipal solid waste generated in Malaysia should be segregated
and whoever failed to do so will face a mandatory fine of RM 500. However, Malaysian were given exactly
10 month period to practice waste segregation at source which started on 1 st September 2015 before it
become mandatory on 1st June 2016. With the full implementation of the Act 672, the amount of solid
waste disposed to landfill facilities around Malaysia can be reduced. However, the perception and
participation of the public in taking part practicing waste segregation seem to be undefined which further
distorted the government efforts to lengthen the lifespan of landfill facility. Landfill facilities in Malaysia are
in dire situation as the amount of solid waste generated per day kept increasing year by year[ CITATION
Zai17 \l 1033 ]. With the new proposed landfill facilities to be open in 2018, does Malaysians still unaware
of their responsibility as a citizen to practice waste segregation or is it just that the government’s
campaign failed to reach its targeted audiences? Continuous dedication or sharing beyond the
government, personal sector, and public is essential to obtain Malaysia’s targeted recycling quantity about
22% at the end of 2020, with higher development toward a zero waste nation. This paper provides an
overview on how Malaysians awareness and attitude to practice waste segregation and how effective the
campaign done by the government to encourage Malaysians to segregate their household solid waste.

Introduction

Waste segregation is the process of separating solid waste at source involves separating solid
waste according to waste composition such as recyclable waste, residual waste and bulky/garden
waste[ CITATION Ban11 \l 1033 ]. Waste management continues to be a major issue in developing
country including Malaysia[ CITATION PAg \l 1033 ]. Effective on September 2015, Malaysian government
has implemented the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (Act 672) where all
household solid wastes are meant to be segregated at source[ CITATION Zai17 \l 1033 ]. However, as of
now has the waste segregation practices been successfully implemented to minimize the use of landfill
space which will soon run out. For example, Dengkil Inert Waste Landfill located in Dengkil, Selangor is
predicted to reach its maximum capacity by year 2020 [ CITATION Mal17 \l 1033 ]. As much as 300 solid

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disposal landfilling facilities were identified in Malaysia at which 130 landfill facilities were closed due to
the facility itself has reached its maximum capacity while others are still in operation and waiting to be
closed due to the same reason[ CITATION Sin16 \l 1033 ]. Landfill seem to be the best option for
managing municipal solid waste in countries that are currently in developing status as less cost is needed
to dispose the solid waste rather than other alternatives such as solid waste incineration[ CITATION
SOL \l 1033 ].

After probation period of 10 months were given to Malaysian in the implementation of the Act, as much as
59,336 warning letters have been issued to household that failed to practice waste segregation at source
in Pahang [ CITATION Awa16 \l 1033 ]. Effective 1 June 2016 and onwards, any household which does
not comply with solid waste segregation will be fined. The amount of notices being issued to the
household during the probation period of the Act 672 showed that Malaysian are still being ignorant to
segregate their household solid waste even though massive campaigns have been raised by the
government to urge the public take part in waste segregation at source. As an example, the Malaysian
government with the partnership of Solid Waste Management (SWM) Corporation have provided free
waste bins giveaway to all household throughout the states in Malaysia[ CITATION Yii17 \l 1033 ]. With
this collaboration, SWM Corporation has established the schedule for collecting recyclable waste at least
one time per week and for other solid wastes such as organic and food wastes will be collected two times
a week. The private sector and government have shown their effort to effectively reduce the amount of
solid waste being generated and increase the lifespan of landfills in Malaysia but without huge
participation from public in a large scale waste segregation practice, their efforts seem to be a vain
attempt.

Landfilling in Malaysia

Sanitary landfill facilities continue to be the first option by any developing country in the world to
manage municipal solid waste generated in their country. The same option is used by the Malaysian
government to manage solid waste in Malaysia due to its highly cost effective method of disposing solid
waste and less effort is needed to maintain the whole facility in operation compared to other solid waste
disposal methods[ CITATION Sin16 \l 1033 ]. The government through Ministry of Urban Wellbeing,
Housing and Local Government has proposed 8 new sanitary landfill facilities which expected to be in
operation in 2018. The establishment of these new sanitary landfill facilities were done by taking several
considerations into account; environmental friendly, publicly acceptable and the least cost in managing
solid wastes[ CITATION Sin16 \l 1033 ].

Statistics showed that the amount of solid waste generated per day in Malaysia continue to show
an increase year by year with an estimation of 30 000 tons solid waste to be generated per day by 2020.

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With the increased amount of solid waste generated in Malaysia, the possibilities of maximizing and
enhancing the solid waste landfill facilities and opening of new landfill facility is to be considered.
Landfilling has been given the top priority in Malaysia as a solid waste disposal alternative. However, as
stated earlier, will the landfill facility be able to provide enough space for Malaysian to dump all of their
solid wastes in that facility? Studies that were made in 2013 stated that Malaysians produced over 33,000
tons of solid waste daily in 2012, which exceeded the projected production of 30,000 tons in
2020[ CITATION Sye \l 1033 ]. This excessive amount of solid waste production in Malaysia have given
the government no option but to start revising the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act
2007 (Act 672) which later implemented in September 2015 and start to search for any new suitable land
space for the new landfill facility to be build.

As of now, 300 solid waste disposal landfill facilities are identified in all states throughout
Malaysia with 170 facilities are still operating while the other 130 facilities are closed due to the maximum
capacity of the facilities has been reached. However, among the 170 operating facilities, only 13 facilities
can be identified as sanitary landfill facilities while other facilities remains to be non-sanitary or open air
landfill facilities[ CITATION Yii17 \l 1033 ]. To make it worst, most of the operating facilities are predicted to
reach its maximum capacity by year 2020. As complicated as it seen, new landfill facilities were expected
to start its operation by the year 2018 to accommodate the increasing amount of solid waste generated in
Malaysia. The proposed location of new landfill facilities can be seen in the table below:

No
State Site’s Name District
.
1 Perak TPS Teluk Mengkudu Manjung
2 Perlis TPS Rimba Mas Kangar
3 Terengganu TPS Kg. Tertak Batu Marang
4 Melaka TPS Sg. Udang Melaka Tengah
5 Pahang TPS Belengu Temerloh
6 Johor TPS Jorak Muar
7 Johor TPS Bukit Payong Batu Pahat
8 Johor TPS Pekan Nenas Pontian
Table 1: New landfill facilities expected to be in operation by 2018

A collaboration and participation between government, local authorities, public and private
institutions and academic communities are primarily essential in order to help expand the lifespan of the
landfill facilities. Without the whole participation from all of them, the sustainability in operation of landfill
facilities can be in a danger position. However, with the implementation of the Act 672 by the government,
will the amount of solid waste generated and disposed to these landfill facilities can be reduced? By facts,
waste segregation do help in reducing solid waste disposed to the landfill facilities which can be seen the
implementation being done in Japan. But in Malaysian’s perspectives, will they relentlessly change their
normal behaviour and attitude to start practicing waste segregation and taking part in the government
campaign to help maximising the lifespan of landfill facilities in Malaysia.

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Malaysian Awareness to Practice Waste Segregation

The level of awareness to practice waste segregation in Malaysians are high, with majority of the
Malaysian already knew what they need to do to help reducing the amount of solid waste generated
which later on increasing the lifespan of landfill facility. However, for some reasons, large participation
from the public cannot be achieved which at the end provide larger impact in reducing solid waste being
disposed at the landfill facility. The main reason for this occurrence is that Malaysians own negative
perceptions and wisdoms in practicing waste segregation.

From the research done by Shey Way Choon in 2016, almost all of the people (total
respondents), 94% noted, has already knew and able to give correct facts about the waste segregation at
source program and other government's waste management program. However, from a large number of
those respondents, only 14% of the total respondents have already segregated their household solid
waste while others keep on giving accused for not having enough time to segregate waste, waste
segregation should be done by the governing bodies associated in waste treatment facility and waste
segregation is hard to be practiced by their own.

A recent study involving Malaysian attitudes toward waste segregation by Shey Way Choon in
2016 indicates that, the majority of the respondents do not segregate their household waste as their daily
practice in minimizing household solid waste. It is quite interesting when only 30 % of residents separate
their food wastes in the waste segregation practice while others give the excuses of “do not have time”
and “lazy to change” in accordance to their ignorance behavior towards waste segregation. However,
exactly half of the respondents do not know how to practice waste segregation at source even though
large scale campaigns have been done by government in the recent years.

In a simple survey conducted among Malaysians by Moh Yiing Chee and Latifah Abd. Manaf in
2017, with a staggering number of 542 households randomly, selected were asked whether they are
aware of household waste separation strategy starting from September 1st, 2015. It is surprisingly that
half of them are not aware but it is encouraging to note that only 36.46% have heard of it and they are
totally supporting this. It is highly possible that this is the group of households who recycle frequently and
possibly committed to source separation and recycling. Attitude remains the main challenge that
significantly influences an action of separating waste for recycling.

In both of the researches done, it can be seen that a majority number of Malaysian are really not
quite aware of the government’s campaign to segregate waste and some of them never heard about it as
well. Which means, there are some sort of flaws in the campaign and execution of the Act 672 by
government that may leads to low-level awareness of Malaysian to practice waste segregation or is it just
that Malaysian are being too ignorant and stubborn to follow the new mandatory rule by their own leaders.

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Malaysian Participation in Waste Segregation

With the intriguing amount of solid waste generated in Malaysia which will soon fill up the landfill
space, does Malaysian really doing their part in segregating solid waste? In the previous paragraph, it has
been shown that majority of Malaysian do aware about the government campaign to segregate waste at
source and after 2 years implementation of the Act 672 takes place in Malaysia, are there any changes in
public habits to segregate waste which later on reducing the amount of solid waste being disposed in
landfill facility and help increasing the lifespan of the facility itself.

The amount of the solid waste generated in Malaysia continues to increase even after the
implementation of Act 672. In 2016, it is estimated that around 13.5 million tons of solid waste were
generated throughout that year (Utusan Online, 2017). Taking that number into consideration, it can be
calculated that on daily basis, around 37 000 tons of solid waste were generated throughout all states in
Malaysia. That amount of solid waste generated has exceeded the projected amount of solid waste
generated for 2020. At the end of year 2016, an outstanding 85 155 notices were issued to the household
in Putrajaya and another 59 336 notices were issued to the household in Pahang regarding their apathetic
behavior in practicing solid waste segregation at source[ CITATION Awa16 \l 1033 ].

Hence, with low level of awareness from the majority of Malaysians and poor campaign
executions by the government, Malaysian participation in waste segregation are at the lowest which
continues to capacitate the landfill facility with more and more solid waste. They are not able to relate the
benefits of source separation and recycling as well as consequences of not recycling to their daily routine.
This explains why recycling is uncommon among Malaysians even though ‘effective and efficient’
awareness campaign for solid waste segregation at source were implemented by the government.

Recently, the National Solid Waste Management (NSWM) agency has recognized and found this
issue but the solution for this issue is still being discussed between the agency and government. The
current campaign for the implementation of Act 672 is still ongoing but with no strict regulation and
implementation of that act, the government campaigns towards zero waste nation in 2020 can be stunted.
The government should start issuing fines for those whom ignored their exclamation to practice waste
segregation as of now, there were no personnel being fined due to their stubbornness in practicing waste
segregation at source. If the amount solid waste generated in 2016 were taken into consideration, half of
that amount solid waste was recyclable waste[ CITATION Chu16 \l 1033 ] and there is a possibility of
huge amount of personnel being fined due to this act. However there is no specific statistic in regarding to
this action of issuing fines by the local authorities or the government. The government need to start
issuing the fines so that the public can take this problem more seriously and start practicing waste
segregation immediately.

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Conclusion

The government implementation of the Act 672 to minimize solid waste generated and to expand
the life span of landfill facilities in Malaysia seems to be failed due to the ‘effectiveness’ of waste
segregation campaign by the government and Malaysians attitude towards a new approach in changing
their normal behavior of treating household solid waste are prone to be immiscible due to their ignorance
in practicing waste segregations. However, it is not too late for the Malaysians themselves to start
changing their habits to practice waste segregation and the government should also be no-nonsense in
implementing the Act 672. As of now, there were no compounds or fines issued by the government and
local authorities to the household that failed to segregate their waste, only notices were issued after one
year implementation of the Act 672. This could be the main reason to why Malaysians are still being
ignorant to the government policies and did not take part in the waste segregation program. If only the
government could be more unbending in implementing the Act 672 and start to fine any of the Malaysians
that are still violating this act will the life span of landfill facilities in Malaysia can be lengthen due to low
amount of solid waste generated being disposed in it.

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