‘Waste being dumped across borders to avoid detection’

FT SWCorp enforcement officers at an illegal dumping site. There are some 30 such hotspots in Kuala Lumpur.

CROSS-BORDER waste dumpers are finding isolated spots along jurisdictional boundaries to carry out their illegal activities.

These culprits resort to dumping their waste across state and municipal boundaries in the hopes of avoiding detection.

Federal Territories Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) director Ummi Kalthum Shuib said the agency was carrying out more aggressive investigation and enforcement against such culprits.

“It is common with contractors, especially smaller businesses, who do not want to pay the tipping fees and so they dump their waste in these hard-to-find spots.

“They also do not want to travel to designated landfills which tend to be a distance away from the main project sites.”

She said illegal dumping would usually happen in the wee hours of the morning and that a lot of building contractors who had projects in Selangor tend to dump their construction debris in Kuala Lumpur and near riverbanks.

She noted that even with the authorities’ efforts to clamp down on illegal dumping, there were still 30 hotspots in Kuala Lumpur.

“Last year, we carried out 139 operations related to illegal dumping.

“We also took legal action against six perpetrators,” she told StarMetro.

Ummi Kalthum said that most times, the culprit would pay on the spot when caught and fined.

“They would rather pay the fine as it is cheaper than travelling to the Sungai Kertas landfill in Gombak and paying the tipping fees,” she said.

She cited the example of a one-tonne lorry that would have to pay about RM500 per trip to the landfill, depending on the type of waste that was to be discarded.

“Factoring in the multiple trips to and from the landfill plus the time, they find it cheaper to pay the fine if caught,” she explained.

Under Section 71 (1) of the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (Act 672), those caught for illegal dumping can be fined a minimum of RM10,000 and a maximum RM100,000 or jailed six months to five years or both.

“I urge residents and businesses who engage contractors to check that their waste is discarded responsibly.

“We all must be responsible as the repercussions would be felt by everyone.

“For example, rubbish that is discarded near riverbanks ends up in the rivers, contributing to floods,” said Ummi Kalthum.

Similarly, Ampang Jaya is seeing more incidents where waste contractors are crossing the municipal boundary to dump the rubbish.

There are currently 15 dumping hotspots within the municipality, with an estimated 300 tonnes of waste left to be cleared.

Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) president Mohd Fauzi Mohd Yatim said they were able to identify some of the culprits by the waste that was discarded.

“They leave behind documents and bills in the garbage that can be used to trace the owner.

“Most times, it is the contractors that they had engaged who had illegally dumped the rubbish.

“We have noticed a trend where the contractors carrying out works in Kuala Lumpur or neighbouring jurisdictions dump their waste in Ampang Jaya,” said Mohd Fauzi.

He added that MPAJ was currently taking legal action against two offenders who were caught for illegal dumping last year.