Reduce, reuse waste, Shah Alam folk urged

SHAH Alam City Council (MBSA) is aiming to have 100,000 households, particularly in landed properties, for participation in its recycling initiatives by next year.

Its Solid Waste Management and Public Cleaning Department director Mohd Azmi Amer Khan said at the moment, the figure stood at over 60,000 households, including landed residential units, apartments and village areas.

“We also hope to meet the Federal Government’s target of a 40% national recycling rate by 2025. As of this year, Shah Alam’s recycling rate stands at 31%. We hope to increase that to 35% next year and hopefully meet the 40% national target by 2025.”

Selangor local government and tourism committee chairman Ng Suee Lim said the state hoped to expand waste separation and recycling programmes such as those practised in MBSA to other local authorities in Selangor next year.

“I urge more local authorities to carry out this programme so there will be more sustainable ways to manage waste,” he said.

“At the moment, about 7,000 tonnes of waste are generated daily in Selangor while about 2,500 tonnes are generated in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

“This means that collectively, about 10,000 tonnes of waste are sent to landfills daily.”

By practising recycling, Ng said Selangor could collectively reduce at least 10% of the amount of waste sent to landfills.

“These recyclable items can still be used to generate some form of income. For local councils, the money saved from waste management could be used for other infrastructure or services to benefit the people,” he said.

Schoolchildren looking at replicas of various Shah alam landmarks made from recycled materials at theMOU signing ceremony and mobile app launch event yesterday. — Photos: aZLiNa abdULLaH/the Star

Shah Alam deputy mayor Cheremi Tarman said MBSA spent about RM80mil per year on waste management and if 10% of that amount could be saved, it could be used to improve roads or to build a community hall.

The trio were speaking to reporters after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for community recycling initiatives between MBSA, Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd and KPT Recycle Sdn Bhd.

The deal marked the continued expansion of three ongoing programmes to cover more households in Shah Alam.

They comprise the Strata Recycling Programme established in 2021 for apartments as well as Door-to-Door Collection and Recycling Programme involving some 55,000 landed houses and Kitar Recycling Initiative for village areas established in 2022.

The ceremony held at MBSA Convention Centre also saw the introduction of a 3R Family App developed by KPT Recycle to support and digitalise the ongoing programmes.

The mobile app contains various features to promote and support better recycling habits, including a recycling collection schedule, real-time tracking of the recycling lorry’s route, guide for items that are accepted and non-accepted for recycling as well as pickup request for participating households in Shah Alam.

“Collectively, our recycling programmes have now reached almost 50% of landed housing and 26% of total households (strata, landed and village) in Shah Alam,” said Nestle (Malaysia) Berhad chief executive officer Juan Aranols in his speech.

“The over 60,000 households in Shah Alam make up some 170,000 families across Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (that are participating in recycling programmes by Nestle and KPT Recycle).

“We expect total collection to reach 12,000 tonnes of dry mixed recyclables by end of 2023, of which 7,000 tonnes comprises plastic.”

Also present were Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd Group Corporate Affairs executive director Datuk Adnan Pawanteh, KPT Recycle Sdn Bhd director Lee Chay Chen and MBSA councillor Muhammad Shakir Ameer Mohideen.