Impact of recycling on the feedstock sustainability of waste to energy plant in Kuala Lumpur

Abstract

Malaysian government proposed to construct Waste to Energy (WtE) plant to solve the waste management problem in Kuala Lumpur. Recent implementation of compulsory separation at source (SAS) program might disrupt the sustainability of the waste supply. Sufficient feed rate of waste is required to achieve the designated temperature and autothermic combustion. Results of the study showed that, the annual average daily generation rate was reduced by 105 tonnes/day or 5.5% after the implementation of separation at source program. The estimated maximum recycling rate from the program was 13.8%. The annual average daily collection of recyclable materials was only about 1.3 tonnes/day, which might be due to illegal collection by recycling vendors, poor enforcement by the authority and selling of the recyclable materials by residents directly to vendors. 3 regression models were proposed to describe the overall correlation behaviour between waste generation and population density. The waste generation rate was forecasted to be in increasing trend after 2018 and reach 3072 tonnes/day or 1.4 kg/capita/day in 2043. Thus, the waste supply was expected to be sustainable even after the program implementation.