KUALA LUMPUR: Households in the country keep a total of 2.1 million kilogrammes of recyclable items at home.
Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Deputy Minister Datuk Halimah Mohd Sadique said on the average, each Malaysian kept about 0.07 kg of recyclable items per day.
“If recycling is done, each family or each person will produce 21.69 kg or 0.76 kg of recycled materials respectively per day.
“The recyclable items kept by housewives include the washing machine bought by their husband when they got married. Although they have bought a new washing machines, the old, disused machine is still kept at the back of the house.” Halimah said this in the Dewan Negara yesterday in reply to Senator Rohani Abdullah, who asked about the effectiveness of the ‘entry point’ project to boost the 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) programme and raise the recycling rate to 40 per cent, that is, at three per cent each year.
Halimah said a solid waste composition study undertaken by the ministry in 2012 found that the recycling rate among households had risen from five per cent in 2005 to 9.7 per cent in 2011.
She said the ministry was confident that the targeted rate of 22 per cent by 2020 could be met.
“This requires continued commitment from all parties including the local authorities, private sector and the community in managing solid waste or domestic garbage disposal.”
Halimah said the ministry found that 95 to 97 per cent of solid waste collected in Peninsular Malaysia were disposed of at the disposal sites and the small remainder processed by the recycling plants.
She said the solid waste disposed of at the disposal sites comprised left-over food and other organic stuff (47 per cent), paper (15 per cent), plastics (14 per cent), metals (4 per cent), glass (three per cent), and other items including textile, wood and rubber.
“The recycling industry is a rapidly developing industry, using the ‘Waste to Wealth’ approach, and was worth RM476 million in 2005 and over RM600 million in 2011,” she said. — Bernama