KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — The Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT), through the National Solid Waste Management Department, plans to close the existing open landfills in the states that adopt the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (Act 672).
Its minister, Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican, said the landfills would be replaced with transfer stations that serve as waste collection centres in strategic areas.
“Solid waste will be sent there before being disposed of to a central sanitary landfill, which is equipped with leachate treatment plants, liners and so on, to ensure environmental sustainability.
“Apart from that, the ministry also plans to build a waste to energy (WtE) treatment plant in states that are signees of Act 672, to overcome the issue of lack of suitable sites to build sanitary landfills,” he said during a question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said this in his reply to a question from Wan Hassan Mohd Ramli (PAS-Dungun), on KPKT’s plans to reduce the use of open solid waste disposal sites in order to minimise the negative impact on the environment.
Reezal Merican said that although Terengganu has yet to adopt the law, KPKT was committed to introducing a WtE plant in the state to assist in solid waste management.
According to him, the WtE plant project is not limited to incinerator technology, instead, it can use other technologies such as Anaerobic Digestor (AD), pyrolysis, gasification and so on.
In his reply to a supplementary question from Cha Kee Chin (PH-Rasah) on the number of solid waste disposal sites according to type in Negri Sembilan, and the technology used for the WtE plant, Reezal Merican said that the WtE plant in Tanah Merah, Port Dickson is expected to be operational this year.
“Negri Sembilan is one of the first states to have the WtE plant, and this plant is the first to operate for testing and commissioning this year.
“If other technologies can contribute to reducing waste to landfills, KPKT is ready and open to considering them,” he said.
Meanwhile, he also acknowledged that the level of concern for solid waste separation at source (SAS) among the community is very low, despite the 3+1 solid waste clean-up initiative, namely three days of regular waste and one day of recycled waste collection, was being implemented.
However, KPKT is committed to redoubling its efforts to increase public awareness to practice SAS, he said, in response to a question from Nor Azrina Surip (PH-Merbok) on KPKT’s efforts to increase awareness level on SAS. — Bernama
