Industrial Waste

Industrial waste is the greatest environmental dilemma affecting Japanese companies and all those conducting industrial activities in Malaysia. Until 1997 Malaysia still had no approved final disposal facilities, as prescribed in the legislation, for dealing with the scheduled wastes defined in the set of regulations and orders enacted in 1989. For nearly a decade, Japanese companies had to go to great lengths, storing scheduled wastes on-site, for example, if they wanted to deal with their wastes in compliance with the law. Scheduled wastes cover a wide range of industrial wastes. They include not only hazardous and dangerous substances but also sludge generated by general manufacturing processes and wastewater treatment. The volume of scheduled wastes generated in Malaysia is increasing every year as industrial activity booms.

According to the Department of Environment (DOE) statistics, the volume rose from about 420,000 tons in 1994 to 630,000 tons in 1996. In 1997, the volume of scheduled wastes fell to 280,000 tons, partly because of changes in statistical techniques, but also because of the advent of the currency and economic crisis. The volume is predicted to rise again, however, when the economy rebounds. According to 1997 figures, the chemical, textile, and metal working industries generated a large amount of scheduled wastes, and various types of sludge and acid wastes accounted for more than half of the generated wastes. However, because Malaysia still has only one final disposal facility and the disposal costs are relatively high even in comparison with Japan, illegal dumping is an ongoing problem and incidents of illegal dumping make major news stories from time to time in the newspapers and other media.

Scheduled wastes are given high priority in Malaysia's environmental programs and penalties for illegal dumping are quite strictly enforced. There are frequent court cases about illegal dumping, and the waste disposal issue will likely be a headache in future years for Japanese companies and for other foreign companies operating in Malaysia. In the past, foreign companies and other enterprises that were unable to store their scheduled wastes onsite sometimes exported them for resource recovery or reuse. However, in 1993 Malaysia ratified the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes, and since then the government has taken an increasingly strict approach to the export of scheduled wastes. In 1997 there were 58 applications to export scheduled wastes, including 18 outstanding cases, but only 12 were approved within the year, and waste export is no longer allowed unless for resource recovery under the strictest criteria.

In 1996 Malaysia drew up guidelines on transboundary waste movements with its nearest neighbor, Singapore, a country closely involved with Malaysia in regard to the flow of goods and materials. Wastes other than scheduled wastes are treated and disposed of by private recycling and treatment companies under contract with the industrial or commercial concern that generated the waste. However, the wastes that remain after salvaging materials of value – plastics, cardboard and metal, for example – mostly goes to landfills. Local authorities used to be responsible for collecting, treating, and disposing of municipal wastes, but in recent years there have been concerted moves to transfer the operation to privatized companies in which the state government and private sector both have a stake. The country has been divided into four regions, each with a private waste management operator already established. Municipal wastes are disposed of by landfill without any intermediate treatment, and most of the landfill is carried out by open dumping.