Municipal Solid Waste In Malaysia Research Articles

Malaysia Moving Towards a Sustainability Municipal Waste Management

The elevation of waste generation subsequent to population growth has become a severe environmental topic in Malaysia. Since most of the waste is being dumped into a landfill, the open dumpsite, or unsanitary landfills which are not constructed with proper engineering plan, severe impacts on the environment result. The energy demand in Malaysia increased with the growing population, but reliance on fossil fuels to generate electricity has created another greenhouse gas contributor. Alternatively, waste-to-energy technology solves the problem of increasing waste by converting the waste to a renewable energy source. Malaysia has moved towards landfill gas recovery system and incineration for waste energy recovery. The recovery system and refuse-derived fuel plant achieved expectation; however, the incineration plants have failed due to the opposition of the public, lack of funding and technician expertise, and other technical issues. The solid waste management practices lacking separation and recycling sources, become an obstacle for development. The government puts effort into solving the current issue by promoting recycling in the public, enforcing the legislation, and approaching new technologies for better solid waste management practice in the future. This paper aims to discuss the application of energy recovery from municipal solid waste in Malaysia.

Composting of food waste in passive aerated bioreactor with turning mode

Almost 45% of municipal solid waste in Malaysia consist of food waste. Composting is one of the sustainable ways to manage food waste compared to incineration and landfilling. This paper investigates the physicochemical and phytotoxicity characteristics during food waste composting in passive aerated bioreactor assisted with compost turning. The initial compost mixture consists of 124 kg of food waste mixed with 62 kg of dry leaves. The composting process was conducted for 40 days, and physicochemical characteristics i.e., temperature, moisture content, total organic carbon, pH and conductivity were monitored. Seed germination test was conducted with cabbage seeds (Brassica oleracea). The highest temperature and final moisture content obtained were 42 °C and 78%, respectively. The seed germination index value was 127%, indicating that the compost is suitable for plant growth.

Utilization of process network synthesis and machine learning as decision-making tools for municipal solid waste management

This paper introduces the utilization of two different optimization models as a decision-making tool for municipal solid waste management. This study aims to provide a framework of decision-making in managing municipal solid waste in Malaysia and demonstrating the function model's potential for a decision-making tool. Process network synthesis is used as a first optimization model to generate feasible pathways for municipal solid waste conversion technologies. A standard data mining technique using machine learning was applied for a simple case study of municipal solid waste management. Data were divided with a ratio of 90:10 for training and testing data and further analysis using different model functions. The model functions involved are linear regression, multilayer perceptron neural network, and sequential minimal optimization regression. The linear regression function provides a better correlation coefficient than other models, 0.5894. The correlation coefficient for testing data slightly increases. The multilayer perceptron model improved its correlation coefficient when inputting the testing dataset. The multilayer perceptron model's correlation coefficient reached 0.7169 compared to the linear regression function. Therefore, this case study used the multilayer perceptron model as a basis. Results showed that both integrations of optimization models could be successfully used as a basis in waste management decision-making tools with good performance. The decision-making tool provides a faster and efficient way for the user and stakeholder to manage municipal solid waste. Developing a decision-making tool framework for municipal solid waste management can help achieve better municipal solid waste management.

Landfill Leachate Treatment Methods and Its Potential for Ammonia Removal and Recovery - A Review

As a fast-developing country, the population, urbanization and industrialization have developed rapidly in Malaysia. The growth in population increases human activities, leading to a rise in the generation of waste. Municipal solid waste in Malaysia is currently estimated to rise from 23,000 tons/day in 2010 to 30,000 tons/day in 2020. Due to its simplicity and low costs, landfilling is the most common method in the country. However, there are various environmental drawbacks associated with landfills that have attracted social and environmental attention in recent decades. One of the key issues is the generation of leachate from the percolation of rainwater by waste disposal in a landfill. Landfill leachate contains many pollutants including ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) which is a particular concern due to its high concentration in leachate. High concentration of ammonia not only causes health and environmental problems but also affects the efficiency of leachate treatment. Therefore, a pre-treatment to remove ammonia is required before downstream treatment to prevent contamination to the surrounding ground and surface water. In general, leachate can be characterized by physico-chemical and biological parameters. Leachate characterization is essential to evaluate the leachate pollution potentials in the landfill site and to determine the treatment methods. Hence, the present review highlights the recent development of landfill leachate treatment methods and its potential for ammonia removal and recovery. Rather than releasing the extracted ammonia directly into the environment that causes air pollution, ammonia from the stripping process can be recovered and used to produce fertilizers. This review also contributes to the body of knowledge of the ammonia stripping treatment in terms of its efficiency and its application for leachate treatment.

Assessment of environmental, energy and economic prospective of anaerobic digestion of organic municipal solid waste in Malaysia

The continuous increase in population, higher living standards and economic development resulted in the inevitable increase of waste generation, energy consumption, carbon emissions and environmental degradation. The current average operating expenditure (OPEX) of a landfill is RM148/tonne/day for disposing municipal solid waste (MSW) which is an economic burden to the government. Thus, this study investigates the feasibility of biogas production from organic MSW as a renewable source of energy via anaerobic digestion. The economic and environmental benefits including the sales of electricity and fertilizer were investigated. Organic fraction municipal solid waste (OFMSW) was collected at Sahom landfill, Kampar. Waste composition was analyzed to determine the percentage of organic waste. Approximate and ultimate analysis were conducted to characterize the organic samples and to measure the calorific value. The biogas and bio-fertilizer yield were estimated. It was found that OFMSW consists 45% of the total MSW. Conversion of OFMSW to electricity and fertilizer via anaerobic digestion (AD) resulted in 3,274,812.51 m3/day of biogas which consists of 56.62% CH4 and 43.38% carbon dioxide. This can be resulted in 7,494.08 MWh/day of electrical energy and a daily yield of 13,013.73 tonnes of bio-fertilizer. This transforms the economic burden of solid waste management expenditures into an income generating movement.

Colour and COD removal from mature landfill leachate using electro-persulphate oxidation process

Landfilling is the most common method used to treat municipal solid waste in Malaysia. Landfill leachate (LL) is typically produced by infiltration of precipitation through landfill that contains potential hazards to environment. Only 9 operating landfills in Malaysia can be classified as a modern sanitary landfill. Subsequently, substantial amounts of untreated landfill leachates are regrettably discharged into the surrounding environment. There is a need to treat the generated leachate via an effective process such as electro oxidation. Electro-persulphate oxidation process is introduced to degrade complex organic pollutants exists in mature LL. In this study, the impacts of current density, contact time, S2O82− dosage were investigated and optimized using Response Surface Method (RSM). The optimum performance was obtained at current density 44.66 mA/cm2, contact time 68.3 min and S2O82− dosage of 0.88 g/L, respectively. The optimum removal efficiency was 97.30%, and 45.70% for colour and COD. The final pH was 7.12. The treated LL effluent meet the discharge standard limit of Malaysia.

Recycling Behaviour of Malaysian Urban Households and Upcycling Prospects

Households remain the main generator of municipal solid waste in Malaysia. Malaysians produce an average of 30,000 tons of waste per day and only 5 per cent of it is recycled. Malaysian urbanites throw away waste more than normal. The solid waste generated continues to be a costly affair with about two-thirds of the local councils’ total collected annual assessment fees being spent to manage waste. Yet at the same time, Malaysia’s waste recycling rate is way below the average levels. Hence the perennial question remains as to why Malaysian households are not recycling or recycling enough. This study investigates recycling behavior of urban households in a green city. Methodology utilized survey questionnaire approach to 100 households to determine residents’ willingness to participate in recycling activities. Results revealed proactive and reactive behaviors indicating two distinct recycling groups. Analysis generated factors of convenience of recycling facilities and services, environmental involvement recycling benefits and habitual recycling in the two groups. Willingness to recycle differed across the two groups. Recycling benefits and convenience to recycling facilities significantly influenced the behavior of proactive group while only habitual recycling was significant for the reactive group. Findings had implications on policy making and implementation of recycling programs. Upcycling prospects highlighted proactive roles of households to convert useless wastes into quality and marketable products to benefit the environment.

Indeks Pembangunan Lestari Alam Sekitar: Kriteria dan Cabaran Pelaksanaannya dalam Pengurusan Sisa Pepejal Perbandaran di Malaysia

The level of hygiene of a developing country represents the level of its MSW management. Apart from the various policies, acts, awareness campaigns and ongoing implementation of recycling programs which aiming to reduce the volume of municipal solid waste to the disposal area as the last location, the use of index principles, is increasingly favoured in sustainable environmental development. In Malaysia, the implementation of sustainable index principles is still low especially in managing municipal solid waste. Hence this research explores the implementation of the principles of sustainable environmental development index, recommending sustainability indicator based on national development plans and the key challenges in implementing these principles in the management of solid waste in Malaysia. Content analysis techniques were used in this study where reading materials such as journals, thesis reports, research projects, and research reports were used. The results of the analysis have identified the various criteria in existed indices that can be applied in managing municipal solid waste in Malaysia. In addition, the challenges of implementing the sustainable development index in managing municipal solid waste in Malaysia have also been discussed. The results of this study are expected to be used by policy makers and all stakeholders.

Conversion Technologies: Evaluation of Economic Performance and Environmental Impact Analysis for Municipal Solid Waste in Malaysia

The generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) is increasing globally every year, including in Malaysia. Approaching the year 2020, Malaysia still has MSW disposal issues since most waste goes to landfills rather than being utilized as energy. Process network synthesis (PNS) is a tool to optimize the conversion technologies of MSW. This study optimizes MSW conversion technologies using a PNS tool, the “process graph” (P-graph). The four highest compositions (i.e., food waste, agriculture waste, paper, and plastics) of MSW generated in Malaysia were optimized using a P-graph. Two types of conversion technologies were considered, biological conversion (anaerobic digestion) and thermal conversion (pyrolysis and incinerator), since limited data were available for use as optimization input. All these conversion technologies were compared with the standard method used: landfilling. One hundred feasible structure were generated using a P-graph. Two feasible structures were selected from nine, based on the maximum economic performance and minimal environmental impact. Feasible structure 9 was appointed as the design with the maximum economic performance (MYR 6.65 billion per annum) and feasible structure 7 as the design with the minimal environmental impact (89,600 m3/year of greenhouse gas emission).

Assessment of the Environmental, Technical and Economic Issues Associated with Energy Recovery from Municipal Solid Waste in Malaysia

Malaysia is a fast emerging economy country and its outlook on sustainable energy production are at the center of debate. Although waste to energy (WtE) technologies are well established but the disconformity of the municipal solid waste (MSW) composition, the complexity of the treatment facilities, and the pollutant emissions still express considerable issues for these technologies. Hence, this study focuses on WtE technologies in Malaysia by considering the energy potentials of the landfill sites and incineration plants as the most common effective MSW in Malaysia. The major environmental, technical and economic issues associated with WtE technologies were evaluated. An annual growth rate of 3.3% has been projected for MSW production in Malaysia. The most common used WtE technologies were incineration and controlled landfill to capture Landfill Gas (LFG). Malaysia MSW contains 60% biodegradable fraction, making landfills a potential source of LFG. Although, the potential of energy recovery from waste in Malaysia is high but the current production is less than 20 MW of electricity per day.

Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste in Malaysia for Energy Recovery

Municipal solid waste (MSW) generation that grows continuously without proper management become worrying phenomenon. Currently, Malaysia is dependent on landfills with almost 85% of waste collected ending up in dumpsites. In order to propose an alternative for solid waste management plan instead of landfill, and to develop a waste-to-energy (WtE) system, the details study of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated is crucial. This paper presents a proposal for energy recovery to produce RDF by studying the characterization of MSW generated in Malaysia; the physical and chemical properties (proximate and ultimate analysis, calorific value or energy content, and thermal analysis) of the waste components to produce a high-quality RDF. The raw MSW sample consisted of 45% organics and food waste, 13% plastics, 9% papers, and 12% diapers. For raw MSW sample, total moisture content, ash content, volatile matter, and fixed carbon were 14.60%, 7.05%, 69.35% and 9% respectively. Gross calorific value is 4538 kcal/kg and carbon content are 45%. The optimum produced RDF sample was found at operating temperature 400°C with total moisture content, ash content, volatile matter, and fixed carbon were 0.75%, 21.65%, 48.35% and 29.22% respectively. Gross calorific value is 6600.15 kcal/kg and carbon content are 64%.

Simulating a Carbon Trading Advantage from the Municipal Solid Waste Management: The Role of Waste-to Carbon in Malaysia

Management of municipal solid waste in Malaysia has proved to be efficiently, effectively, and adequate. This study has used existing literature and empirical evidences for analyzing the various issues related to carbon emission trading and solid waste management. A measurement of carbon potential value will be conduct after the municipal solid waste generation data was collected completely, and review the advantage of carbon emission trading from the municipal solid waste management in Malaysia, evaluate the benefit of carbon emission trading as an alternative investment tools and basic framework required to implement them. The article suggests that how an appropriate carbon emission trading system may give more benefit and economical value, and sustainable way of developing the future income generation in environmental sector in Malaysia. In other hand, the changing legislative environment is likely to make current practices highly non-optimal and increase pressures for a change of waste management strategy. The article will become more valuable to all those who have some interests in environmental economic and alternative investment sectors and would like to reduce the global warming and climate change effect and develop the potential value related to carbon emission trading in developing countries.

Torrefaction of Municipal Solid Waste in Malaysia

Municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal is one of the main issues towards sustainable development in Malaysia. Current practices for MSW disposal such as landfilling and incineration poses a serious problems on the environment and health. Therefore a significant efforts have been made to utilize MSW for energy source by employing gasification process. However, the MSW is characterized by its high moisture content and low high heating value (HHV) which lowering the energy efficiency. In order to overcome this problems, torrefaction can be used as pretreatment method to remove the moisture content and upgrading MSW properties. The objective of this work is to study the effects of torrefaction temperatures ranging from 240 to 330°C for residence time of 30 minutes on two types of MSW namely food waste and wood waste. The torrefied MSWs are characterized in terms of ultimate analysis, proximate analysis and HHV. The mass and energy yields are also performed for both MSW. Based on the torrefaction, it was found that both food waste and wood waste show an increment on the weight percentage of C contents and decrement on the weight percentage of H and O content which resulting into reduce O/C ratio as the temperature is increased. The HHV for both food waste and wood waste are also increased after torrefaction between 240 and 330°C. The mass yield and energy yield were found to decrease with an increase in the torrefaction temperature. This suggests that torrefaction can be used as an effective MSW pretreatment and the torrefied MSW is more suitable to be used as fuel in gasification process.

A review on the global warming potential of cleaner composting and mitigation strategies

With the rapid population growth and industrial development in the fast developing countries, there is a significant increase in the production of waste. For instance, the municipal solid waste in Malaysia is expected to exceed 9 Mt/y by 2020 based on the current production rate of 1 kg−1 person−1. Approximately 90% of the waste is channelled into the landfill that can release a significant amount of greenhouse gases, mainly the methane gas and nitrous oxide gases, due to the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter. Composting is a cleaner alternative to landfilling for managing organic waste. Its main advantage lies in its capability to recycle nutrients through compost utilisation. The life cycle assessment has been widely used as a mean of comparison for impact assessment, such as global warming potential, among different waste management technologies. The common inventories accounted for composting include transportation, operational machineries, fugitive emissions during maturation and curing as well as the end production utilisation. There is inconsistency in the methodology adopted to assess its environmental impact. This study discusses on the variations of life cycle assessment that contributed to the different global warming potential of composting. It also discusses on the mitigation strategies to reduce the global warming potential for composting. The highlight of the study is to examine the variation in the inventory analysis for composting, and its underlying mechanism and the critical inventory for a more representative assessment. The second part of the paper reviews the mitigation strategies for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. the use of the bulking agent, aeration system, chemical additives and use of the cover material. This study found that the direct greenhouse gas emissions during composting contribute more significantly to the global warming potential than other direct emissions. The use of bulking agent is desirable to reduce the global warming potential. This study concludes that the assessment of the global warming potential for composting is dependent on the system boundary and the defined functional unit. The environmental impact should be assessed based on the operational mode and the input feedstock to generate a basis with minimised discrepancies among studies. Continuous effort is needed to quantify the long-term benefits of composting on environment, health and soil to further assess its impact as a cleaner process.

The Utilization of Banana Peel in the Fermentation Liquid in Food Waste Composting

Municipal solid waste in Malaysia contains a high amount of organic matters, particularly food waste. Food waste represents almost 60% from the total municipal solid waste disposed in the landfill. Food waste can be converted into useful materials such as compost. However, source separation of food waste for recycling is not commonly practiced in Malaysia due to various constraints. These constraints include low awareness among the waste generators and low demand of the products produced from the food waste such as composts. Composting is one of the alternatives that can be used in food waste disposal from Makanan Ringan Mas. The aim of the study is to convert food waste generated from Makanan Ringan Mas which is a medium sale industry located at Parit Kuari Darat, Batu Pahat by using composting method. The parameters which include temperature, pH value, NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) values has been examined. Banana peel is being used as the fermentation liquid whilst soil and coconut husk were used as the composting medium. Based on the results during the composting process, most of the pH value in each reactor is above 5 and approximately at neutral. This shown that the microbial respiration in the well controlled composting reactor was inhibited and had approached the mature phase. On the other hand, during the period of composting, the overall temperature range from 25 °C to 47 °C which shown the active phase for composting will occoured. As for NPK content Nitrogen value range is 35325 mg/L to 78775 mg/L, Phosphorus, 195.83 mg/L to 471 mg/L and potassium is 422.3 mg/L to 2046 mg/L which is sufficient to use for agricultural purpose. The comparison was made with available organic compost in the market and only showed slightly difference. Nevertheless, in comparison with common fertilizer, the NPK value of organic compost are considerably very low.

Food Waste Composting Study from Makanan Ringan Mas

The poor management of municipal solid waste in Malaysia has worsened over the years especially on food waste. Food waste represents almost 60% of the total municipal solid waste disposed in the landfill. Composting is one of low cost alternative method to dispose the food waste. This study is conducted to compost the food waste generation in Makanan Ringan Mas, which is a medium scale industry in Parit Kuari Darat due to the lack knowledge and exposure of food waste recycling practice. The aim of this study is to identify the physical and chemical parameters of composting food waste from Makanan Ringan Mas. The physical parameters were tested for temperature and pH value and the chemical parameter are Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. In this study, backyard composting was conducted with 6 reactors. Tapioca peel was used as fermentation liquid and soil and coconut grated were used as the fermentation bed. Backyard composting was conducted with six reactors. The overall results from the study showed that the temperature of the reactors were within the range which are from 30° to 50°C. The result of this study revealed that all the reactors which contain processed food waste tend to produce pH value within the range of 5 to 6 which can be categorized as slightly acidic. Meanwhile, the reactors which contained raw food waste tend to produce pH value within the range of 7 to 8 which can be categorized as neutral. The highest NPK obtained is from Reactor B that process only raw food waste. The average value of Nitrogen is 48540 mg/L, Phosphorus is 410 mg/L and Potassium is 1550 mg/L. From the comparison with common chemical fertilizer, it shows that NPK value from the composting are much lower than NPK of the common chemical fertilizer. However, comparison with NPK of organic fertilizer shown only slightly difference value in NPK.

Time, Temperature and Amount of Distilled Water Effects on the Purity and Yield of Bis(2-hydroxyethyl) Terephthalate Purification System

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle is one of the common plastic wastes existed in the municipal solid waste in Malaysia. One alternative to solve the abundant of PET wastes is chemical recycling of the wastes to produce a value added product. This technology not only can decrease the PET wastes in landfill sites but also can produce many useful recycled PET products. Bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) obtained from glycolysis reaction of PET waste was purified using crystallization process. The hot distilled water was added to glycolysis product followed by cooling and filtration to extract BHET in white solid form from the product. The effect of three operating conditions namely crystallization time, crystallization temperatures and amount of distilled water used to the yield of crystallization process were investigated. The purity of crystallization products were analyzed using HPLC and DSC. The optimum conditions of 3 hours crystallization time, 2 °C crystallization temperature and 5:1 mass ratio of distilled water used to glycolize solid gave the highest yield and purity of the crystallization process. © 2015 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Energy potential from municipal solid waste in Malaysia

The average amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in Malaysia is 0.5–0.8 kg/person/day and has increased to 1.7 kg/person/day in major cities. This paper highlights the MSW characteristics for the city of Kuala Lumpur. Currently, the waste management approach being employed is landfill, but due to rapid development and lack of space for new landfills, big cities in Malaysia are switching to incineration. A simple evaluation was conducted to establish the amount of energy that would be recovered based on the characteristics of the MSW if it were to be incinerated. From the characterization exercise, the main components of the Malaysian MSW were found to be food, paper and plastic, which made up almost 80% of the waste by weight. The average moisture content of the MSW was about 55%, making incineration a challenging task. The calorific value of the Malaysian MSW ranged between 1500 and 2600 kcal/kg. However, the energy potential from an incineration plant operating based on 1500 ton of MSW/day with an average calorific value of 2200 kcal/kg is assessed to be at 640 kW/day.