Synopsis of the Seminar: SCHEDULED WASTE MANAGEMENT IN MALAYSIA

Scheduled Wastes Management in Malaysia was formally launched in 1989 when the Scheduled Wastes Regulation 1989 under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 was enacted. The enactment of these regulations has laid down solid foundation for the Government to manage scheduled wastes based on ‘cradle to grave’ principle. Since then, remarkable achievements have been chalked up with great programmes been successfully implemented. The establishment of a fully integrated system for scheduled wastes management which include collection, transport, treatment and disposal of scheduled wastes by a consortium registered company called Kualiti Alam Sdn Bhd (KASB) in 1998, marked a major milestone in the quest to promote systematic and environmentally sound management (ESM) of toxic and hazardous wastes in Malaysia. Today, Malaysia is proud to be ranked among the few developing countries that have a well-established wastes management programmes with a fully integrated treatment and disposal facility for toxic and hazardous wastes.

In February 1998, Malaysia hosted the Fourth Meeting of the Conference of Parties to Basel Convention on The Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal 1989, in Kuching, Sarawak.  Malaysia also became the President of Parties for the duration of two years. This was regarded as an international recognition of many years of effort by Malaysia to manage hazardous wastes efficiently and effectively.

After 15 years of implementation, the Scheduled Wastes Regulations 1989 was subsequently repealed and replaced by the Scheduled Wastes Regulations 2005 which were enacted and came into force on 15 August 2005. The Scheduled Wastes Regulations 2005 addressed several shortcomings in the Scheduled Wastes Regulations 1989. New provisions were also introduced to address current needs and emerging issues on the toxic and hazardous wastes management. As the country continues to develop, new challenges will continue to emerge in managing schedule wastes. Technological development, changing of lifestyles, industrialisation, urbanisation, scarcity of land and resources, addition of new and emerging streams of waste are among the factors that will continue to pose new challenges to the Malaysia in schedule wastes management. As the management of scheduled wastes is an ongoing journey, the Department has to stay alert and ahead of these challenges to ensure that the public health and our environment are protected.

Synopsis of the Seminar: “WASTE AS BUSINESS”

MR .S.PERRY
The focus of this talk is to demonstrate a holistic and integrated approach that can be used by all industries to contribute towards the nation commitment on Carbon Foot print reduction and managing waste as business. Several analysis will be presented to demonstrate this point. Our goal is to recycle industrial waste, maximise the conservation of our natural resources within our abilities and find ways to reuse industrial waste that do not do long term damage to the planet or its people.  Looking to more specific issues, as we manage the impact of our activities on the environment, we are driven by an aspiration to transcend trade-off between industrial waste recycling improvements in living standards and environmental degradation.