Waste In Malaysia Research Articles

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.

Study on Adoption of Building Information Modelling in Reducing Construction Waste in Malaysia

This paper is study of the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM)be adopted in finding a salient solution to the long-going predicament of management and minimisation of construction wastes in Malaysia. In doing so, the focus has been on the identification of ways BIM technologies could be introduced, the proclamation of its advantages in comparison to conventional methods and systems as well as the challenges the Malaysian construction industry and its players faced in pushing forward a formalised and standardised implementation of BIM in significantly reducing the amounts of construction wastes generated by the industry. The research, in answering the aim and objectives of the study was conducted by reviewing past, relevant literatures as well as through the distribution of questionnaire survey to industry players. The questionnaire was distributed to 135 industry players located in the Klang Valley and 91 out of 135 distributed questionnaires were returned and thus, perused in conducting the research analyses. Microsoft Excel and Statistical Package Social Science (SPSS) software were utilised in analysing and presenting the collected data. The analyses of data revealed that the adoption of BIM in Malaysia is relatively stagnant and happens at a low rate. Poor waste management and minimisation plans, poor awareness on the importance of such plans coupled with lack of demand from clients are regarded as the main reasons as to why this waste reduction has become a mare’s nest. In response to that, effective planning and scheduling of activities, effortless synchronisation of project design, site and materials together with detection of errors, discrepancies and clashes were chosen as the most important BIM-based benefits that could tackle this issue down once a proper implementation is set in place.

Development of Renewable Resources Based on Biomass Waste in Malaysia

Development of Renewable Resources Based on Biomass Waste in Malaysia

Barriers and critical success factors towards sustainable hazardous waste management in electronic industries – A review

This study reviews existing literature to determine the barriers and critical success factors (CSFs) towards sustainable hazardous waste management in electronic industries. Sustainable hazardous waste management can considerably reduce the volume of wastes going to landfill sites and can therefore reduce the burden to the environment in terms of pollution prevention and greenhouse gaseous reduction. This goal is achievable through efforts, such as waste recovery, waste-to-energy technology and waste-to-raw material conversion. Hazardous waste in Malaysia mainly comes from recovery facilities, metal refinery, metal finishing and coating, cement manufacturing, petroleum refinery and chemical, electrical and electronic industry. The electrical and electronic industry is a major contributor of hazardous waste generated in Malaysia. Some hazardous wastes, such as heavy metal sludge, generated by electrical and electronic industries can be utilised as alternative fuel for cement industries. The residue produced subsequently can be utilised as raw material for cement manufacturing. Despite the economic and environmental benefits of sustainable hazardous waste management efforts amongst industries, they remain relatively weak. The identified barriers include (1) complexity of legal requirements, (2) lack of systems and tools, (3) hazardous waste quantity and quality, (4) lack of awareness about environmental and sustainability issues, (5) poor partnership/networking, (6) public resistance, (7) financial constraints, (8) lack of information and (9) insufficient environmental resources. Nevertheless, the benefits gained from adopting sustainable hazardous waste management will continuously encourage an increasing number of organisations to devote efforts onto it. The success of this initiative depends on a few critical factors, including (1) readiness of hazardous waste beneficiary, (2) economic and environmental benefits, (3) stakeholders’ pressure, (4) adoption of ISO14001, (5) effects on corporate image, (6) commitment from the top management and (7) incentives and reward.

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).

AN OVERVIEW OF SCHEDULED WASTES MANAGEMENT IN MALAYSIA

The article reviews the scheduled waste management in Malaysia. It describes the scheduled waste classifications, characteristics, the sources of scheduled wastes, the policies and regulations related to scheduled wastes, the management of scheduled wastes in Malaysia and the challenges related to scheduled waste management in Malaysia. Currently, the manufacturing industry has contributed the highest scheduled waste production in Malaysia. Under the Environmental Quality Act (EQA) 1974, the government has set up several legal provisions specifically for scheduled waste generation, storage, transportation, and disposal. The aims are to reduce the potential risks to human and the environment. The paradigm shift from cradle to grave to cradle to cradle concept is a sustainable and sound concept which is inevitable step to minimize the scheduled waste generation in Malaysia.

HEALTH CARE WASTE MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN MALAYSIA

This review paper focuses on the definition of health care waste and its management in Malaysia. This review paper also sheds the light on the legislation related to hazardous waste in Malaysia. Subsequently, it explores the relation of healthcare waste with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined by United Nation.

Valorization of Lignocellulosic Food Industry Waste in Malaysia by Accelerated Co-composting Method: Changes in Physicochemical and Microbial Community

Time and storage space are the main constraints facing by the current Malaysia composting industries which are handling lignocellulosic food industry waste such as empty fruit bunch (EFB), coffee ground (CG) and palm oil mill sludge (POMS). To develop an efficient accelerated composting method for lignocellulosic food industry waste in Malaysia, a new approach which combined two distinct technologies to achieve rapid composting; (i) co-composting with combination of different lignocellulosic materials and (ii) inoculation of the co-composting with mixture of microorganism were presented in this study. All the mixtures achieved thermophilic condition on the first week of composting, with 50% EFB + 50% CG combination recorded the highest temperature of 56 °C. The mixtures with initial C/N ratios within 25–35 showed the highest reduction in holocellulose, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin content while compost mixture with initial C/N ratio more than 50 had a minimal reduction. The C/N ratio for 50% EFB + 25% CG + 25% POMS combination was reduced to less than 20 after 4 weeks of co-composting process while the other treatments needed longer composting duration. During thermophilic phase, higher population of bacteria (107–108 CFU/g DW) was observed, followed by fungi (105–106 CFU/g DW) and actinomycetes (105–106 CFU/g DW) populations. However, higher population of actinobacteria (104–106 CFU/g DW) compared to bacterial (104–105 CFU/g DW) and fungal (103–104 CFU/g DW) was found during latter stages. By reducing both the time and space required for composting lignocellulosic food industry waste, this accelerated co-composting method may be a viable option for food industries searching for a long-term, practical solution for solid biowaste disposal issues.

Managing solid waste using chloride-based ionic liquids

ABSTRACTTotal waste generated in peninsular Malaysia was 23,000 tonnes daily in 2010 and 25,000 tonnes/day in 2012. In 2020, the expected waste to be produced has been assessing to achieve 30,000tonnes/day. The increment of waste in Malaysia will reduce the landfill capacity. Combustion is the common option to dispose all the waste, but it will release gas like carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide that harm to human and environment. Thus, the alternative approach is to use low-cost ionic liquids (ILs) particularly in dissolving solid waste. Chloride-based ILs have been introduced for this study basically derives from pyridinium and imidazolium. Solid waste sample being dissolved in three different samples to ILs ratios, which are 1:1.5, 1:3 and 1:5 in mass basis. Different particle between 1.0 and 0.5 mm was also been investigated. The best ILs in dissolving solid waste found to be 1-methylimidazolium chloride ([MIM][Cl]). [MIM][Cl] able to dissolve 6.44% of solid waste at room temperature and 11.79% of solid waste at 40°C with 1:5 mass ratio of 0.5 mm in particle size.

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.

Cleaner production and sustainability: stakeholder pressure and the adoption of pollution prevention measures of industrial hazardous waste in Malaysia

In Malaysia, related environment laws to comply is mainly Environmental Quality Act 1974. The Cradle to Cradle concept is practiced, where recycling and recovery are considered useful resources. The scheduled waste recycling companies are mostly located in Selangor, Pulau Pinang and Johor. Majority of the license issued is of the type of electronics waste. Regulated industries are expected to implement the environmental safety and health management programme to maintain their competitive edge. Hazard control actions are such as scheduled waste control and emission control. Safety management programmes must be integrated into the company daily activities. Workplace hazard is mandatory to be communicated to those who work with the risk. The employees must be trained to handle hazardous waste. Companies have to prepare emergency and crisis management against potential hazardous waste emergencies. Consequently, the benefits gained through improvement with technological investment offset are the main drivers for environmental management programme. In other words, this programme can improve the environmental aspects and performance using industrial engineering, improve natural resource efficiency, reduce energy costs as well as the costs of handling and disposing of hazardous waste, reuse alternative materials and reduce release of pollutants by recycling of waste. This study looks into the quantity of hazardous waste generated, as well as DOE court cases. The study shows the increasing trend of environmental protection expenditure especially on waste management, even though the chemical industry is generating lesser scheduled waste. DOE court cases are mainly related to licensing and water pollution. Many companies engage the services of scheduled waste facilities are located in Selangor, Johor and Pulau Pinang, though Cenviro operates the first integrated hazardous waste management centre in Malaysia. With the positive relationship between environmental performance and environmental care, the higher level of environmental performance achieved, the better will become the environmental quality. Environment performance of the manufacturing sector could be further improved by promoting environmental management programmes.

Classification of different types of metal from recyclable household waste for automatic waste separation system

Nowadays, solid waste has become a major problem in Malaysia. However, most people in Malaysia are not aware and take this problem for granted. The rising number of population and massive development in recent years indirectly generated an enormous value of household waste, making the household waste the main generator for solid waste in Malaysia. It stated that only 5 percent of an average 30,000 tons of waste have been recycled in Malaysia. The purpose of the paper is to design a system to separate the metal recyclable household waste automatically and record the data waste collected. There are total of four detectors used to separate the non-metal, steel, copper and aluminum metal waste. The average time used to complete metal separation process by using the proposed prototype is 14.5 seconds. This paper includes a mechanical part, programming part, an electronic design and also the data collected from this proposed system. The system will be programmed using Arduino Mega as a microcontroller to control all the electronic component in the system.

THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF DISPOSABLE DIAPERS WASTE AS PARTITION WALL PANEL IN BUILDING MATERIAL

In recent years, there have been an increasing of solid waste in Malaysia which gave negative effects towards the environments from various aspects such as human health, animal habitat, soil condition and space usage of landfill. This paper study the physical properties of disposable diapers waste which is one type of polymer as building materials. This waste is a fundamental property in reducing the cost effective materials, saving time and help increasing sustainability for the environment. The main objective of this study is to determine the density and porosity of the sample with the present of the disposable diapers waste. The presence of the waste as fillers in the mixture reduce the density of sample and create lightweight building materials.

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%.

Treatment of Sewage Sludge Using Anaerobic Digestion in Malaysia: Current State and Challenges

Anaerobic digestion is widely considered as an environmentally friendly technology for various organic waste including sewage sludge. Although the implementation of anaerobic digestion as an alternative treatment method for sewage sludge can be seen in many countries, its status in Malaysia is not clear. This study reviewed the current state of sewage sludge treatment in Malaysia and discussed the challenges to promote anaerobic digestion in sewage sludge treatment. Other than the common constraints faced, namely technical, political and economic, the characteristics of sewage sludge in Malaysia is considered to be a factor regarding feasibility. Anaerobic co-digestion is the simultaneous anaerobic digestion of two or more substrates which is a promising possible option to overcome the disadvantages of mono-digestion, and improve the economic viability due to higher methane production. There are a variety of biomass as co-substrate in Malaysia. However, the anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and sewage sludge might be the most feasibility method to overcome such constraints. Adding food waste as co-substrate is suggested as the possible approach to not only improve the process’s performance but also help to handle the increasing volume of food waste in Malaysia. This study aimed to highlight the potential as well as to provide a starting point for further studies regarding the treatment of sewage sludge using anaerobic digestion in Malaysia.

Human Scalp Hair (HSH) Waste as an Alternative for Reducing Invasive Activity of Wild Hog: A Preliminary Study

The weaknesses in the human hair waste management system has brought many environmental problems that are rarely taken into account. In most of rural areas, this waste is still being used by farmers to protect their plantation from wild hog attacks. However, this traditional practice is seem unpopular and has little exposure. Study in the past related to this waste in Malaysia is still far behind compared to other countries. Moreover, the past practices of this waste as repellent did not highlight the prior procedure and their effectiveness as pest controller to control invasive activity of wild hog. This study aims to briefly discuss on the conflict of human and wild hog, past mitigation practices, potential usage of hair waste as temporary repellent and to share the result of 5 days pilot study through field trial conducted in small orchard in Muar. In this study, fermented corn bait has been applied at the study area to increase the activities and probability of visitation of wild hog. Four (4) samples were placed in the private orchard namely (A) 5kg whole kernel corn; (B) 5kg whole kernel corn mixed with 20g of hair; (C) 5kg whole kernel corn mixed with 40g hair; and (D) 5kg whole kernel corn mixed with 60g hair. The result during feeding test is observed and analysed. Through this pilot study, it indicates the potential of hair waste application as a temporary wild hog repellent.

Are we ready for circular economy? Towards zero waste in construction

Over the past decade, the concept of circular economy (CE) has emerged encouraging a rethinking of the way products are designed so that they can be “made to be made again”, turning the conveyor belt of consumerism into a circle (a closed-loop supply chain) and hence eliminate waste. The construction sector, especially, is known to be one of the main contributors of material waste-to-landfill. This paper investigates (i) the causes of construction waste and (ii) the readiness of the construction sector in Malaysia to embrace CE. Based on the relative importance index (RII), the five main causes of construction waste in Malaysia identified include frequent design changes (RII = 0.853) by owner or agent during construction followed by poor site management and supervision (RII = 0.835), changes in material specification and type (RII = 0.803), rework (RII = 0.719) and lack of coordination between parties (RII = 0.680). Survey findings also show that a majority (75%) of stakeholders within the Malaysian construction industry is unfamiliar with the concept of CE while 90% of the respondents claim that they are not ready to implement such practices within the next 5 years. It is anticipated that the findings from this paper will be of interest to construction practitioners.

Performance of Sand Reinforced with White Coir Fibre

Coconut fibre or more commonly known as coir fibre is obtained from the outer shell of coconut. The production of coconut in Malaysia is the fourth important industrial crop after oil palm, rubber and paddy field. However, wastes generated by the coconut are almost fully utilised as by-products and reinforcing material for soil. In fact, the availability of the coconut waste in Malaysia makes it suitable for soil reinforcing material purposes. Problem that sometimes occurs is to dispose this big, heavy and hard coconut at landfill area. It may require more space to go through landfill method. Disposal of this waste material is vital as it can affect the environment. Therefore, by using part of the coconut component can help to overcome this problem. In this research, white coir fibre was utilized as the reinforcing material to sandy soil to suit the backfill material for earth retaining structure that is related to road infrastructure. The lengths of the white coir fibre were fixed at some length according to its orientation such as random, vertical and horizontal. Shear strength parameter were tested using Direct Shear Test. In this research, inclusion of white coir fibre in sandy soil shows enhancement of the shear strength parameter such internal friction angle of soil regardless of its orientation. However, there is no clear relationship between the effect of white coir fibres orientations to the shear strength of sandy soil.