INGENIEUR
Do You
Know?
Waste
Management
By Pang Soo Mooi
Malaysia’s local authority started as
sanitary board
The formation of local authority in Malaysia has
its origin as a solid waste and night soil service
agency. When Malaya was still under the British
administration, the British Resident of Selangor,
WE Maxwell set up the Sanitary Board of Kuala
Lumpur (SBKL) in 1890. The population of Kuala
Lumpur then was only 19,000.
The system of sanitary board for waste
management and control was primarily aimed at
regulating public health. It was later introduced to
other towns and villages, starting from the bigger
townships such as Ipoh, Penang, Taiping and
Seremban. The villagers then were not familiar
with the pronunciation of sanitary board and they
used to call it sanitabung.
As the townships expanded, the scope of
sanitary boards also expanded to include services
such as water supply, street lighting other than
sewerage and solid waste disposal.
With these added scopes, the sanitary board
was later renamed as Town Board for Kuala
Lumpur, and town councils for other townships
in 1945. It was renamed as Municipal Council
in 1948. The KL Municipal Council subsequently
became known as Dewan Bandaraya Kuala
Lumpur.
UN Environment Programme (UNEP)
has a centre supporting solid waste
management
The increasing volume and complexity of waste
associated with the modern economy is posing
a serious risk to ecosystems and human health.
Every year, an estimated 11.2 billion tonnes
of solid waste is collected worldwide and the
decay of the organic proportion of solid waste
is contributing about 5% of global greenhouse
gas emissions. Yearly, an estimated 11.2 billion
tonnes of solid waste are collected worldwide.
Of all the waste streams, waste from electrical
and electronic equipment containing new and
complex hazardous substances presents the
fastest-growing challenge in both developed and
developing countries.
Poor waste management ranging from nonexisting
collection systems to ineffective disposal
causes air pollution, water and soil contamination.
Open and unsanitary landfills contribute to
contamination of drinking water and can cause
infection and transmit diseases. The dispersal
of debris pollutes ecosystems and dangerous
substances from electronic waste or industrial
garbage put a strain on the health of urban
dwellers and the environment.
The solution, in the first place, is the
minimisation of waste. Where waste cannot be
avoided, recovery of materials and energy from
waste as well as remanufacturing and recycling
waste into usable products should be the second
option. Recycling leads to substantial resource
savings. For example, for every tonne of paper
recycled, 17 trees and 50% of water can be saved.
Moreover, recycling creates jobs: the sector
employs 12 million people in Brazil, China and
United States alone.
The UNEP’s International Environmental
Technology Centre (IETC) in Japan supports
the implementation of integrated solid waste
management systems. Its work also focuses
on the proper treatment of special wastes
(electronics, agricultural biomass, plastics) in
developing countries. The IETC aims to optimise
the management of solid waste by involving all
stakeholders in the process through pilot projects
at local level.
76 VOL 82 APRIL-JUNE 2020