Academician calls for stricter security at landfills, ports against hazardous wastes

Suhairul: The authorities must ensure there is proper security at landfills to prevent people from dumping hazardous wastes there.

STRICTER enforcement — both at the landfill sites and ports — are needed to tackle the illegal dumping of waste in Malaysia, a health and environment expert opines.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s (UTM) Associate Professor Dr Suhairul Hashim, who is UTM occupational safety, health and environment office deputy director for biosafety and radiation, said Malaysians had to face the reality that there were those taking advantage of our country, as a developing nation, to dump their hazardous wastes here.

“Since the authorities are already aware of such activities occurring, perhaps it is time to beef up security and ensure that there are no false declarations of cargo containers entering our waters.

“Besides that, ensuring that the cargo scanning equipment at our ports are functional and up-to-date is also vital in curbing such activities, ” he added.

Suhairul, who is based in Johor Baru, said that although Johor had designated landfill sites for a more systematic waste management, the authorities must ensure that there was proper security to prevent people from accessing the sites and dumping hazardous materials there.

He encouraged the public to be proactive and report to the authorities if they saw anyone dumping waste illegally.

The dumping of hazardous materials and plastic wastes in landfills not only harmed the environment but also posed adverse effects on the people’s health, he added.

Suhairul said the waste at landfills could even increase the level of radioactivity in the environment.

“Materials such as plastics will react with the radiation that is already present in the environment and contribute to radon exposure among the people.

“Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that comes from the soil and also our surroundings in the built environment, ” he said.

As plastic was non-biodegradable material with only less than 10% of plastics being recyclable, he said many chose to burn them to get rid of the discarded items.

He said those in the high-risk groups, such as people with asthma, could face acute problems like breathing difficulties and irritated eyes when exposed to the harmful gases emitted from the burning waste.

Meanwhile, state health and environment committee chairman R. Vidyananthan said there were several incidents where hazardous wastes and plastics were illegally unloaded in Malaysia at the ports in Johor in 2019 and 2020.

“Some of the wastes have been returned to the countries of origin while some are still in the process of being sent back, ” he said, adding that the Customs Department and the Environment Department were working together against such activities.

In The Star’s front page on April 4, it was reported that plastic waste importers must pay a levy of RM20 for every tonne of scrap brought into Malaysia for recycling starting June.

This is a move by the government to regulate the recycling industry and better manage the problem of plastic pollution from the recycling industry.

The report also highlighted that there was a furore in 2018 when factories processing plastic waste caused a major pollution in Kuala Langat, Selangor.