KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 — The government has seen an increase in the country’s recycling rate, which is on track to achieving 22 per cent recycling rate by 2020.
Deputy Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Halimah Mohamed Sadique said this year’s recycling rate stood at 17.49 per cent.
The recycling rate in 2012 was 10.5 per cent.
Halimah said the government managed to save RM7,119,900 on solid waste disposal since the enforcement of solid waste separation this June.
“The ministry has seen a reduction of solid waste by 13.1 per cent or 237,230 tonnes,” she said.
“The estimated cost is based on the current rate to manage landfills, which is RM30 per tonne.”
She said the total solid waste collected was 1,558,370 tonnes in the last four months, compared to 1,795,548 in the same number of months before solid waste separation was enforced.
“The enforcement has managed to gather 1,724 tonnes of recycled materials,” she said.
The Tenggara MP said a total of 85 notices were issued to individuals or premises that did not separate waste at source from June 1 to 30.
“From that, 11 were compounded,” she said.
Halimah said the enforcement had contributed to many benefits, including the prevention of disposal of materials that can be recycled and used as a new product.
She was replying to a question from Datuk Rozman Isli (BN-Labuan) who asked the ministry to state the outcome of enforcement of solid waste separation and the total cost saved in managing and cleaning waste.
“We are also able to reduce solid waste sent to landfills, which increases their lifespan and reduce the funds needed to process and manage the disposal of solid waste,” she said.
