The integrated solid waste management system: its implementation and impacts towards the environment

Abstract

In Malaysia, the present practice of solid waste management has affected the valuable resource wastage, the economy, the environment and the society’s health. Past decisions on waste management strategy and the structure of waste management system have relied on the waste management hierarchy. The hierarchy gives the following order of preference, i.e. waste reduction, reuse, material recycling, composting, incineration with energy recovery, incineration without energy recovery and landfilling. However, such use of a priority list for the various management options has serious limitations. Technically, the hierarchical concept is far from scientific for the reason that none of the management technology resulted in an optimal result. Due to this reason, there is a need to radically improve solid waste management practices. Recently, the Malaysian Government Policy has outlined an emphasis on the policy and the management of solid wastes in which it has to be implemented in holistic and well-planned manners. In order to implement the strategy, the concept of integrated solid waste management (ISWM) is considered in this study. The integrated waste management system starts from the point of accumulation, i.e. residential areas, commercial buildings and industrial premises, until the point of disposal, i.e. waste disposal sites. The mediatory components between the two points according to their order are the pre-sorting technology, collection, central sorting, recycling, biological treatment, thermal treatment and, finally, landfilling. The advantages of ISWM techniques are that it can reduce the effect of pollution on the environment and is able to increase country economy. The less pollutants such as CO2, CH4, CO, NH3, SO2, HCI and others escape to the environment, and the less environmental impact such as global warming, acid rain, depletion of ozone layer and climate change is created. This chapter discusses the practices of ISWM towards the environment quality enhancement. From the reviews, it reveals that the environmental impacts can be reduced if an integrated, systematic, technologically enhanced and innovative solid waste management system is created.