From trash to cash

Staff of Alam Flora, Mohd Hisham,29, lifting rubbish from damaged by floods in temporary site collection rubbish to send at landfills in Temerloh. FAIHAN GHANI/The Star.

MALAYSIA is losing hundreds of millions of ringgit every year simply because recycling habits are not keenly practised. According to a report, it is estimated that RM291mil went to waste in 2023 when high value recyclable resources were neglected. The national recycling rate is a mere 33.17% – still shy of the 40% target set for 2025.

Waste Management Association of Malaysia (WMAM) executive committee technical chairman Zamri Abdul Rahman says one of the biggest problems Malaysia is encountering in waste management is the lack of separation at source – especially for municipal waste.