Ingenieur Vol.82 April-June2020 | Page 11

economic instruments to close the gap of costs required for proper treatment and disposal of these wastes. We are in 2020 now and moving towards developed nation status. We cannot afford to continue putting all these problems under the carpet without an effective solution. What We Need in Future The first thing that needs to be strengthened is a sense of responsibility on waste from all levels of people in Malaysia as well as the Government, business entities and households. Mainstreaming of waste management is important, and the Government should emphasise that “waste is a responsibility” and introduce a more stringent stick approach to control the waste generators. Awareness is important but attitude change is more vital among the Malaysians who always take things for granted. When the sense of responsibility and mainstreaming of waste management are in place, setting of priority and increase of the willingness to pay for proper waste management should be enhanced. This could only be achieved with much needed Government intervention to impose more economic instruments such as the product packaging law, levy and Extended Producers’ Responsibilities (EPR) regulations on waste management, to ensure that waste management is a shared responsibility among all parties. The Government should strictly follow Waste Management Hierarchy the waste management hierarchy in decision making to put waste disposal through landfilling as the lowest priority among all other strategies, which unfortunately is the other way round at the moment in the country. A summary of the key issues and way forward on future waste management in Malaysia is presented in Table 3. Other than the above issues summarised, there are certainly many other challenges faced with regards to waste management in Malaysia, including a fundamental confusion about the ministries dealing with waste, plastic waste or plastic products. Which Ministry has the mandate to ban a plastic product still remains as a myth for many people because the Environmental Quality Act only stipulates control on scheduled Table 3 Attitude Setting of Priority Willingness to Pay Key Issues Awareness of Malaysians is not low, it is an attitude problem Low priority in decision making; hidden problems Low willingness to pay for waste management Attitude change Early education Mainstreaming of waste management Get the focus right, not WtW but waste as a responsibility Way Forward Stick approach is needed instead of always carrot approach Continuous awareness creation Waste management hierarchy should be followed Shared responsibilities by all parties Legal instrument – EPR regulations, packaging law and levy etc. 9