The Star
by Tan Cheng Li

A new Bill on rubbish handling holds much promise, but still sorely needed are stricter rules to trim waste and promote recycling.

AFTER being on the drawing board for over 10 years, the highly anticipated piece of legislation dealing with rubbish finally saw the light of day. Parliament passed the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act last week.

But, sad to say, the long gestation has not resulted in anything revolutionary. In fact, the Act is a bit of a letdown, mainly because two much-hyped measures which would have drastically curbed our wanton waste dumping are missing: mandatory waste separation at source and the “pay as you throw” approach.

The government is proceeding cautiously with this new Act and has refrained from introducing any drastic measures – least of all charging households a rubbish disposal fee. It clearly does not want to repeat the Indah Water fiasco by introducing waste disposal charges, although this has been mooted right from when the Act was initiated.

Our discards get washed up onto beaches, marring pristine sites such as this island in Langkawi.

For now, things are status quo. House owners will continue paying annual dues to local authorities, and whatever the local governments spend on rubbish collection and disposal will be channelled to the new Solid Waste Management Corporation to pay for the services of waste concessionaires. The collection, of course, will not be enough, just like now. So the Federal Government will have to top up the shortfalls as well as fund capital investments, such as construction of new landfills, incinerators and transfer stations.

Many had expected the Act to include waste separation at source. This means you segregate non-recyclable from recyclable waste, before leaving it out for the garbage truck. With this omitted from the Act, there is nothing to compel people to recycle, or make it easier for recyclers to retrieve usable waste from garbage trucks and landfills.

But Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting gave this assurance: waste separation is provided for in the Act but is on hold until such a time when the whole waste management machinery runs smoothly and there is increased awareness on recycling. Similarly, rubbish fees can be charged in future if there is wider service.

Taking over

For now, the focus of the Act is to pave the way for federal take-over of solid waste management and privatisation of rubbish handling. The three concessionaires – Alam Flora, Southern Waste Management (SWM) and E-Idaman – have been put on hold for long enough and with the Act, can finally ink long-term deals with the government.

Overseeing things will be the new National Solid Waste Management Department, which will draft policies, strategies and action plans and conduct enforcement. The new Solid Waste Management Corporation will take over the role of local authorities and watch over the concessionaires. The corporation will get a RM1bil allocation and have over 2,000 employees. A Tribunal for Solid Waste Management Service will be set up to hear grouses or disputes.

The penalties for offences under the Act are harsh, and rightly so. Those caught for illegal waste dumping, storage and treatment face a fine of between RM10,000 and RM100,000 and a jail sentence of up to five years. Those who fail to pay solid waste charges (once it is imposed) face a RM5,000 fine.

Many are fearful of the privatisation plan but there seems no way out since local governments have, so far, made a mess of waste-handling, being perennially short of funds, expertise and staff.

Alam Flora and SWM have, since 1998, been signing yearly contracts with individual local authorities to collect and dispose of rubbish. The interim nature of the deals, some of which have stretched into the 10th year, prevents the companies from expanding investments and obtaining bank financing. The original third concessionaire, Northern Waste Management, had gone bust. They are paid poorly for their services and in some instances, go unpaid. Councils owe Alam Flora and SWM some RM162mil.

In interviews with StarTwo last year, officials from Alam Flora and SWM said their masterplans were all drawn up and will be put into action once the Act was passed. SWM, for instance, plans to build three engineered landfills in Johor and one each in Malacca and Negri Sembilan over the next 20 years. Alam Flora’s strategy for the Klang Valley includes two landfills, an incinerator and nine waste transfer stations. For Pahang, it is planning landfills in Kuantan, Temerloh and Bentong, and an incinerator in Cameron Highlands.

Big burden

The concessionaires will have a lot on their hands, since they will also take over public cleansing. This includes cleaning up roads, public places, public toilets, drains, markets, hawker centres, beaches and grass-cutting.

A good thing is that the Act covers solid waste from commercial centres, public sites, construction sites, households, industrial zones and institutions (such as schools and universities), as well as imported solid waste. This means rubbish from these places must now be properly disposed of. Presently, construction waste – this would include the broken concrete from the wall which you just torn down in your house – poses a major problem as it is often illegally dumped. However, something to bear in mind is, there are no landfills for inert waste in the country as yet, for proper disposal of construction waste.

The Act, however, is silent on hazardous waste generated by households and other non-industrial sites. Without a proper collection system, what are we to do with all our unwanted paints, fluorescent lights and batteries? What about organic waste or garden waste? Will the concessionaires merely collect and dump these into landfills, instead of recycling them into useful compost?

The wide-ranging clean-up work tasked to concessionaries has triggered fears of a monopoly. Will waste contractors who currently service commercial centres and factories, be out of a job?

The Act will require licensing of all companies and groups dealing with solid waste. So, not just anyone can drive a lorry around neighbourhoods to pick up recyclables. And they cannot just store these materials anywhere. It is unclear how this ruling will affect groups – such as charitable organisations and homes for the elderly, handicapped or orphaned – which now collect and sell recyclables to generate funds.

Life-cycle impact

A single Act is not going to solve our waste woes, not when the problem starts right where products are designed and manufactured. So long as goods are made without considering the “cradle to grave” approach, we will end up with heaps of trash. So what we also need are laws that encourage waste reduction and recovery.

Many countries, for instance, rely on “product take-back” rules whereby producers must take back their used products or packaging discards. This is used on troublesome waste such as batteries, electrical appliances, tyres, furniture and construction materials.

Many countries have also adopted “extended producer responsibility” laws that require companies to be responsible for disposing products they make and sell. This will induce them to assess the life-cycle impact of their products and ideally, design and produce goods which are easily recyclable and leave little waste.

The Act provides for the future drafting of such regulations, but let’s hope these will not take as many years as the mother Act to see fruition.

The Minister has said that the next two years will be a trial period for the concessionaires to improve our waste handling. Once that is achieved, other waste management strategies will come.

But we have waited over 10 years for this Bill. And now, we have to wait a few more before comprehensive steps to tackle our rubbish are in place. So it will be a while before all the mess is cleaned up.

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