KUALA LUMPUR: The Housing and Local Government Ministry (KPKT) is evaluating existing sanitary landfills as suitable sites to develop waste to energy (WTE) plants.
Its Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said the review is being conducted for the construction of a WTE plant in two years’ time.
“The usage of dump sites is expensive with land cost as one of the burdening factors while WTE is cleaner, more productive and more economical,” she said at the Minister’s Question Time at Dewan Rakyat today.
She was replying to Steven Choong Shiau Yoon (PH-Tebrau) who wanted to know the direction of KPKT on the rubbish disposal system in the country.
Zuraida said the transition to WTE would also generate revenue to the country from the production of renewable energy.
Meanwhile during the oral question and answer session, Zuraida said KPKT intends to centralise processing of imported plastic waste to facilitate monitoring of the companies involved.
She said the measure is aimed at eradicating operations of imported plastic by illegal factories which severely affected the environment.
“State governments should centralise all of them in a designated waste area and if it is found outside the area, it would be considered as an illegal factory,” she said.
She was replying to a supplementary question by Datuk Che Abdullah Mat (PAS-Tumpat) who wanted to know if the government intends to ban the import of plastic waste.
She added that the ministry’s enforcement with the cooperation the Customs Department could tighten surveillance at the entry points of Malaysia to stop the inflow of plastic waste. – Bernama
