Original Article

Waste Management & Research

29(1) 1319

Challenges and issues in moving towards ! The Author(s) 2011

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sustainable landfilling in a transitory DOI: 10.1177/0734242X10383080
wmr.sagepub.com
country Malaysia

P Agamuthu and SH Fauziah

Abstract
Malaysia disposes of 28 500 tonnes of municipal solid waste directly into landfills daily. This fact alone necessitates sustain-
able landfills to avoid adverse impacts on the population and the environment. The aim of the present study was to elucidate
the issues and challenges faced by waste managers in moving towards sustainable landfilling in Malaysia. Various factors
influence the management of a landfill. Among them is the human factor, which includes attitude and public participation.
Although Malaysias economy is developing rapidly, public concern and awareness are not evolving in parallel and therefore
participation towards sustainable waste management through the reduce, reuse and recycle approach (3Rs) is severely
lacking. Consequently, landfill space is exhausted earlier than scheduled and this is no longer sustainable in terms of security
of disposal. Challenges also arise from the lack of funding and the increase in the price of land. Thus, most waste managers
normally aim for just enough to comply with the regulations. Investment for the establishment of landfills generally is
minimized since landfilling operations are considered uneconomical after closure. Institutional factors also hamper the
practice of sustainable landfilling in the country where 3Rs is not mandatory and waste separation is totally absent.
Although there are huge obstacles to be dealt with in moving towards sustainable landfilling in Malaysia, recent developments
in waste management policy and regulations have indicated that positive changes are possible in the near future.
Consequently, with the issues solved and challenges tackled, landfills in Malaysia can then be managed effectively in a
more sustainable manner.

Keywords
Sustainable landfill, public participation, reduce, reuse and recycle (3Rs), institutional driver, economic driver
Date received: 4 June 2010; accepted: 8 August 2010

Introduction transitory countries such as Malaysia. Although landlls

The increase in population has been one of the factors which
translate to higher generation of waste. In most developing
countries the impact is more profound due to the rapid eco-
nomic growth. As a result, the higher purchasing power
enables the community to consume various new types of
products leading to the composition of the waste generated
becoming more complex and highly heterogeneous.
In Malaysia, the increase in the complexity of waste gener-
ated is evident from the 1980s to the 2000s (Agamuthu et al.,
2009a). Although Malaysias economy makes it among the
most progressive transitory countries in the world, waste
management is in rather a poor state. Developed nations
such as Denmark, Austria, Germany and Japan have ecient
waste management systems to deal with the waste generated
by their citizens but similar scenarios are non-existent in
are contributing economical values in terms of energy and
carbon reduction potentials in developed countries, most of
the landlls in Malaysia contaminate the environment with
the free emission of landll gas and leachate (Fauziah et al.,
2007; Agamuthu et al., 2009b).
Landlling is an essential necessity for waste management
from an economic point of view regardless of the pre-treat-
ments prior to waste disposal, particularly in developing
Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Corresponding author:
P. Agamuthu, Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Malaya,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Email: agamuthu@um.edu.my

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14
nations. Malaysia, which has a daily generation of more than
30 000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW), disposes of
approximately 95% of MSW directly into landlls.
Therefore, the need for sustainable landlls is very crucial
to avoid undesirable impacts to human health and the envi-
ronment. Unfortunately, economic growth, which has been
given higher priority than the concept of sustainable waste
management, has resulted in the environment being sacriced
for the sake of economic aspirations. Thus, sustainable land-
lling is too complex for the country to achieve. Although
various strategies have been implemented over the years to
improve the waste management system in the country, the
pace of progress is too slow to cater for the ever-increasing
threats of improper management of landlls.
Furthermore, the relative humidity of more than 90% and
an annual precipitation of 18002600 mm in Malaysia means
that there are additional climatic factors to be considered
during the design and planning of landlls. The coastal
areas in Malaysia have a high water-table meaning that exca-
vation, sometimes, is not possible beyond 1 m depth in order
that landlls sited in these areas do not pose a greater risk of
groundwater contamination by leachate. These factors fur-
ther compromise the attainment of sustainability in
Malaysian landlls.
An incident in 2007 in which the water catchment area in
Klang Valley was contaminated with leachate from adjacent
landlls, exposed the seriousness of the environmental
impact from unsustainable landlls (The Star, 2007). The
immediate repercussion saw the closure of several landlls
in Malaysia, on a direct order from the Federal
Government (The Star, 2007). This paved the way for more
signicant improvement of landlls in Malaysia where open-
dumps at unsuitable locations such as those adjacent to rivers
and water catchment areas were closed in phases. In addi-
tion, currently operating open dumps would undergo
upgrading to improve the facilities to Class IV landll
(Table 1), a total ban of new open dumps was imposed,
Table 1. Classification of disposal site in Malaysia
Landfill class Criteria/facilities available
Class I Minimum facilities fencing and perimeter
drains
Class II Additional facilities from Class 1 gas
removal system, separate unloading and
working area, daily cover and enclosing
bund, elimination of scavenging activities
and environmental protection facilities
Class III Additional facilities from Class 2 leachate
recirculation system allowing the collec-
tion, recirculation and monitoring of
landfill leachate
Class IV Additional facilities from Class 3 leachate
treatment system
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Waste Management & Research 29(1)
and the construction of more sanitary landlls were high-
lighted (Agamuthu et al., 2008). To full Class IV regula-
tions, it is compulsory that a landll has a proper leachate
treatment system in addition to a gas removal system, a sep-
arate unloading and working area, daily cover and enclosing
bund, elimination of scavenging activities and environmental
protection facilities. Although the urgent need calls for the
immediate action towards a sustainable landlling system,
the target is yet to be achieved. This is due to the fact that
there are numerous obstacles to sustainable landlling in the
country. The objective of the present study was to elucidate
the challenges and issues faced by waste managers in making
landlls in Malaysia sustainable. Various factors that tackle
the challenges will be analysed via waste management issues
that exist in the country, in order to identify possibilities for
improving the landlling system in Malaysia.
Background
In Malaysia, during the early 1970s with low population den-
sity the need for a centralized waste management system did
not seem important. Aside from the fact that the waste was
composed of organic materials, the quantity produced was so
low that individual waste generators or municipalities han-
dled the waste themselves. Among the methods utilized then
were burning or burying waste within the compound of the
waste generators or utilizing it as animal feed. As most dwell-
ings were located on large pieces of land, space was available
for burning or burying waste, or rearing domestic animals.
However, the late 1970s saw the initiation of the development
of centralized residential areas where government ocers
were given quarters during the period of their service, and
the private sector purchased private houses in newly con-
structed housing schemes. The development of housing
schemes throughout the country particularly in urban areas
required the local government and municipal authorities to
ensure that good sanitary and health conditions were pro-
vided for the area.
This initiated some rudimentary waste collection systems,
which involved MSW being hauled from residential areas for
disposal at dumping grounds owned by the municipalities.
The disposal sites were mainly located in unwanted areas
and acted as mere open dumps. As the generation per capita
was less than 0.5 kg day1 and consisted of highly putrescible
waste materials, natural degradation minimized the pollution
intensity to the surroundings.
The open dumps were usually small to cater for the need
of a single municipality with population less than 10 000
people. The MSW volume in Kuala Lumpur was only 99
tonnes day1 in the 1970s and so this minimal waste man-
agement system was sucient to deal with the disposal
(Agamuthu, 2001). At that time MSW in the country,
which included commercial, residential and non-hazardous
industrial waste, was collected by the municipalities for
Agamuthu and Fauziah 15

disposal. It excluded hazardous waste materials such as
toxic waste generated by industries, which was managed sep-
arately by Kualiti Alam Pvt. Ltd. Waste generation has since
increased with population expansion. Table 2 depicts the
generation of waste by individual states in Malaysia from
1996 to 2009.
Current state of MSW management
The traditional waste management system practised by local
government and the municipalities began to be inecient and
very unsustainable when Malaysian waste generation per
capita increased from 0.5 kg day1 in late 1980s to more
than 1.3 kg day1 of waste in 2009 (Agamuthu et al.,
2009b). In certain cities, such as Kuala Lumpur and
Petaling Jaya, the generation increased to 1.52.5 kg capita1
day1 (EPU, 2006; Agamuthu et al., 2009b). To date, annual
waste generation in Malaysia has reached 11 millon tonnes
with more complex compositions mainly with putrescible
waste (55%), paper (13%) and plastic (19%) (Fauziah
et al., 2009). The remaining portion of the waste contains
rubber and textile, wood, metal, glass, and miscellaneous
items with the contributions of 4, 1, 3, 2 and 3%, respectively
(The Star, 2002; Fauziah et al., 2004). To date, approxi-
mately 95% of the waste collected (which is 75% of waste
generated) is landlled (Agamuthu et al., 2009b). Figure 1
illustrates the typical composition of MSW in Malaysia.
The World Bank (1999) reported that waste management
is one of the three major environmental problems faced by
most municipalities, including those in Malaysia, which is
closely related to unsustainable landlling practices.
In 1998 alone, 228 licensed dumping sites were reported to
the Ministry of Science Technology and Environment of
Malaysia, and these caused contamination to the surround-
ing areas (Haznews, 1998). This is due to the fact that project
developers and local authorities failed to adhere to the guide-
lines stipulated for the development of a disposal site.
Various factors inuence the management of a landll.
Among these is the human factor which includes attitude
and public participation.
Human factor
The human factor plays an important role in establishing an
appropriate management of a landll. This is due to the fact
that human activities are the main generators of waste which
requires a proper treatment system. In more environmentally
concerned nations, positive attitude leads to high public par-
ticipation in matters concerning the environment. Therefore,
implementing strategies that involved the public, such as
source separation, can be achieved in due course. As a
result, waste materials are managed eciently and landlls
are more sustainable, with longer life-span and operating
period.
Although Malaysia is a country with rapid economic
development, public participation in environmental issues is
very low. Despite the running of various campaigns, such as
recycling adverts, to instil awareness among Malaysians,

Table 2. Generation of MSW in Malaysia according to states (19962009)

States Solid waste generated (tonnes day1)

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004* 2006* 2008* 2009*

Johor 1613 1786 1915 2093 2255 2430 2578 2655

Kedah 1114 1215 1324 1447 1559 1680 1782 1835
Kelantan 871 950 1034 1131 1213 1302 1382 1423
Melaka 433 480 515 563 605 650 690 711
Negeri Sembilan 637 695 757 828 890 957 1015 1046
Pahang 806 879 957 1046 1125 1210 1284 1322
Perak 1286 1402 1527 1669 1795 1930 2048 2109
Perlis 165 180 196 214 230 247 262 270
Pulau Pinang 916 999 1088 1189 1278 1375 1458 1502
Selangor 2380 2595 2827 3090 3322 3573 3790 3904
Terengganu 743 811 883 965 1038 1116 1184 1219
Kuala Lumpur 2105 2305 2520 2755 3025 3323 3525 3631
WP Labuan NA NA 46 70 74.3 81.2 86.1 88.7
Sabah NA NA NA 2490 2642 2887 3062 3154.3
Sarawak NA NA NA 1905 2021 2208 2343 2413
Total 13 070 14 589 15 587 21 452 23 073 24 969 26 489 27 284
NA, not available.
*Extrapolated figures. (MHLG, 2003; Agamuthu et al., 2009).

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16
2%
1% 3%
4%
19%
13%
Organic waste Paper
Wood Metal
Figure 1. Typical municipal solid waste composition in Malaysia (Fauziah and Agamuthu, 2009).
there has been a failure to motivate the community to
respond positively. Concern and awareness among the
public in Malaysia have not evolved in parallel with the
living standards and therefore participation towards sustain-
able waste management through the reduce, reuse, recycle
approach (3Rs) is severely lacking. Currently, recycling is
only at 5%. Although studies indicated that more than
70% of Malaysians are aware of the recycling concept, less
than 25% are actually participating (Irra, 1999; Fauziah
et al., 2009). More than 70% of Malaysians stated that
they refuse to recycle because the recycling facilities provided
are insucient and 65% indicated that recycling is an incon-
venient practice for them (Fauziah et al., 2009). As a result,
more than 80% of the recyclables in the waste stream are
disposed of into landlls. This causes the volume of MSW to
increase at 3% per year rather than decrease with ecient
recycling practices.
In addition, illegal dumping has become a serious matter
to be tackled by waste managers (Suite101.com, 2003).
In 2003, 500 drums of paint sludge and glue were dumped
illegally at a ravine in an isolated disused area and more than
RM12 million (US$3.4 million) were spent for the clean-up
(The Star, 2002). In the Klang Valley alone, more than 52
illegal dump sites or hotspots were reported to accumulate
more than 933 tonnes of waste (Bernama, 2010). The waste
materials cleared from these illegal dumping sites are sent
into landlls resulting in the landll space being exhausted
earlier than anticipated. As a result, it hinders the practice of
sustainable landlling as the waste materials collected did not
undergo any pre-treatment prior to disposal. This unplanned
activity will increase the management cost of the landlls,
making the existing practice no-longer sustainable. The
occurrence of illegal dumping is generally due to the not
bothered attitude among the waste collectors whose main
concern is to prot from their illegal action.
Also, the NIMBY (not in my backyard), LULU (locally
unacceptable land use) and NOTE (not over there either)
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Waste Management & Research 29(1)
3%
55%
Plastic Textile/ rubber
Glass Others
syndromes are very prevalent among Malaysians and so
the establishment of landlls on appropriate sites becomes
extremely dicult. Similarly with the construction of pre-
treatment facilities such as compactor and transfer stations,
the siting is always sturdily opposed by the public and non-
governmental agencies (NGOs) (Agamuthu et al., 2009a).
The strong resistance from the public towards new waste
management or disposal facilities has caused the location
of a new landll to be moved further away from the city
centre, that developing the area incurred higher costs for
the construction of the new infrastructure.
Economic factor
Even though Malaysia is a developing country with a pro-
gressive economy, economic constraints are among the issues
to be tackled in establishing sustainable landlling practices.
From the economic point of view, the challenges arise from a
lack of funding and the increase in the price of land.
The lack of nancial assistance from the government for
waste management in Malaysia, means that only well estab-
lished and multinational companies can aord to tender to
provide waste treatment and disposal facilities. As a result,
sanitary landlls in Malaysia are only owned by private con-
cessionaires that belong to well-established companies.
To make matters worse, the existing national policy on
waste management in the country discourages nancial insti-
tutions such as banks from investing in waste management
projects. Therefore, waste managers with small amounts of
capital are impeded from improving their disposal sites.
Loans from banks are unavailable, resulting in smaller
waste management companies having little or no opportunity
to venture into the establishment of sustainable landlls. As a
result, most waste managers normally aim for just enough
to comply with the regulations instead of self-sustained land-
lls. In addition, the increase in the price of land has resulted
in new landlls being located in areas with very minimal
Agamuthu and Fauziah
Table 3. Number of operating disposal facilities in Malaysia
throughout 1990s and up to 2009
Year 1990 1998 2003
Total 230 177 144
infrastructure, or none at all, in order to minimize the capital
cost of the landll. Table 3 shows the uctuation of the
number of operating disposal facilities in Malaysia within
the last 20 years.
The fact that landlls are seen as a mere burden and not
as a commodity in Malaysia is another aspect that impedes
the establishment of sustainable landlls. This is because
landlls are mere disposal sites for waste and once a landll
is closed, it retains no further economical value. Typically
this results from the fact that the revenue from tipping fees
is no longer available for the landll owners and landll
operators once the landll ceased its operation. The absence
of a gas-harvesting system resulted in landlls not being able
to generate revenues from methane conversion. Collection of
landll gas to be converted into electricity is not feasible and
uneconomical as most landlls in Malaysia are only a few
hectares in size and the capacity of waste received is insu-
cient to generate an adequate volume of gas which is viable
for extraction. In addition, most of the landlls in Malaysia
are non-sanitary ones that rely mainly on natural clay lining
as the landll liners and have no infrastructure for the col-
lection of landll gas and leachate. The establishment of
these disposal sites were mainly based on the traditional con-
cern of getting rid of waste. These landlls are not designed
with the intention of generating resources such as methane to
prot the landll owners and landll operators. Therefore,
existing non-sanitary landlls in Malaysia only practice pas-
sive release of landll gas where the installation of gas pipes
are done as the waste cells are receiving waste.
Only the newly established landlls are designed with
appropriate landll liners to prevent leachate migration to
the groundwater system and a suitable gas collection system
to harvest the gas. Air Hitam Sanitary Landll, the rst san-
itary landll in Malaysia, produces 2 MW of electricity from
the conversion of methane. Similarly, newer sanitary landlls
are capturing landll gas for the purpose of energy conver-
sion. However, the national policy on energy that is practised
by the country fails to enhance this green approach. This is
due to the low price of electricity in the country the electricity
tari for Malaysia ranges from RM0.22 (US$0.06) to RM0.45
(US$0.13) per kWh (Ministry of Energy, Green Technology
and Water, 2009). It is at this low level due to government
subsidies. As a result, the electricity tari reduces the market
potential of electricity produced via the conversion of landll
gas. In addition, with the high annual precipitation (1800
2600 mm), the capping of landlls is necessary to minimize
the leachate volume. As a consequence, capping means addi-
tional costs for landll management.
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17
Disposal fees or the tipping fees in a landll are highly
regulated by local government due to the fact that the gov-
2009 ernment are paying concessionaires for their waste manage-
ment services. Hence, landll owners and landll operators
190 are not able to charge a rate that is sucient to generate
additional income for future improvement of their landlls.
As a result of the economic factors, investment in landlls is
generally at the minimum as it is considered uneconomic
once the landll has been closed. This hinders improvement
towards sustainable landlling practices in the country.
Institutional factor
Aside from the economy, the existing policies in the country
also make sustainable landlling dicult to achieve. This
institutional factor also becomes a major issue of concern.
The institutional factor hampers the practice of sustain-
able landlling in the country due to the lack of proper waste
management policy. The absence of an appropriate policy
hinders the implementation of an integrated waste manage-
ment system in Malaysia. As a result, 3Rs is not mandatory
and waste separation is totally absent. Although the MSW
stream contains signicant amounts of recoverable materials,
the non-existence of source segregation makes resource
recovery very costly. In addition, the waste disposed into
landlls in Malaysia is highly commingled with wet and
putrescible components. The moisture content of the waste
can reach 70 to 80%. The warm climate of the country (27
34 C throughout the year) enhances rapid degradation of the
putrescible components; landll gas generation begins early
in tropical conditions and becomes an important factor to be
considered in landll management. This indiscriminate prac-
tice of non-separated MSW disposal into landll is highly
unsustainable. It translates into the loss of valuable resources
such as metal components, paper and plastics, and the deg-
radation of the environment with increased environmental
pollution from leachate and landll gas. Aside from that,
this unsustainable practice also results in the shortening of
the landll life-span where waste cells which can be optimized
with only garbage also cater for the recyclable items. As a
result, a sustainable landlling practice is not achievable.
In addition to the lack of appropriate policy, waste man-
agement is also highly political and competitions among the
ruling parties in the countries are jeopardizing the waste
management system. As waste management is a very sensi-
tive issue, it is usually used to solicit votes among the people
during an election. Moreover, with the indierent attitude
among the public towards environmental concerns including
issues on appropriate waste management, it is impossible to
achieve improvement. Even the newly passed Solid Waste
and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 is ridiculed by
opposition parties with the claim that the Act deprives the
public of their rights. This has led to the federal government
playing safe in making statements regarding this issue so as
18
to avoid loss of votes in the coming election in 2012. This is
seen as a lack of political will in the ruling government with
regard to improving the current waste management system.
Thus, no voluntary eort has been taken by most waste man-
agers to improve the current state of their landlls. As a
result, 90% of disposal sites in Malaysia remain as non-sani-
tary landlls, which lack pollution prevention features such
as bottom lining, leachate treatment and gas collection sys-
tems. As in most developing countries, more than 15% of 187
million tonnes of Malaysian carbon emissions were contrib-
uted to by landll gas emissions.
The lack of institutional factors is very much due to the
absence of an appropriate policy to roll out regulation as to
the proper approaches that should be taken by waste man-
agers in ensuring a sustainable waste management system and
sustainable landll practice in the country. The Solid Waste
and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 were passed in
July 2007, by the parliament in the hope to improve the cur-
rent waste management practice in Malaysia. The implemen-
tation of the Act will pave the way for federalization of waste
management in the country by shifting the responsibility from
the State Governments to the Federal Government. However,
the Act is yet to be implemented (although it is 3 years since it
was gazetted) and the potential benets from the implemen-
tation of the Act are still uncertain.
The Solid Waste and Public Cleansing
Management Act 2007
The main objective of the Act is to improve and ensure high
quality services in solid waste management. The Act was
adapted from best management practices in solid waste man-
agement from Japan, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and
the United States of America, and focused mainly on the
management of public cleanliness. The main strategies are
to implement ecient solid waste treatment, interim treat-
ment and nal disposal of solid waste particularly landlls.
The Act also introduced strategies such as 3Rs, a mandatory
commitment on waste segregation and severe penalties for
non-compliance with the regulations stipulated within the
Act. With the implementation of the Act, it is hoped that
attaining sustainable landlls is achievable although no
clear directive has been issued with regards to the benchmark
dates of the implementation. To date, the federal government
is still in the preparatory phase in formulating and gazetting
subsidiary regulations. However, several challenges need to
be tackled to ensure the sustainable waste management and
landlling practices are sustainable in the long run.
Overcoming challenges to sustainable
landfilling in Malaysia
The most critical challenge is the change of attitude among
the public. Although Malaysians are aware of issues relating
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Waste Management & Research 29(1)
to the environment, their concerns for the actual environ-
mental impacts are generally low. Therefore, it is important
that more campaigns and workshops should be organized by
appropriate parties such as the government agencies includ-
ing Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Ministry of
Education, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
and the Economic Planning Unit. An integrated approach
from these various agencies may contribute a concensus to
formulate and deliver a more appropriate and eective cam-
paign and workshops to the general public and relevant
stakeholders. Waste management campaigns must begin
with the dissemination of information to secure the publics
agreement or co-operation. The public must be clearly
informed of their direct contribution towards waste genera-
tion and the direct consequences resulting from their action.
Earlier campaigns to introduce recycling in the country were
able to improve the recycling rate from 0.5% in 1990 to 3%
in 2000, and to 5% to date (Agamuthu and Fauziah, 2010).
The campaigns involved various media including the mass
media and distribution of posters. The small success in
improving the recycling rate could be magnied with more
intense campaigns and more organized workshops. The
increase in the recycling rate can be translated to a more
sustainable landlling practice since the life-span of the land-
ll can be lengthened and revenue can be earned from the
recyclables collected.
Economic factors play crucial roles in pushing the general
public and the relevant stakeholders towards a positive
response on waste management issues. A more eective
response normally can be obtained when it involves mone-
tary benet. A rewarding system and/or a ne system based
on the carrot and stick concept should be implemented.
This will not only result in a higher positive response, but
in the long run it may instil a positive attitude among
Malaysians once it becomes their natural habit. Source sep-
aration for example can promote 3Rs since the waste gener-
ators deal with the actual waste separation at their premises.
Involvement in recycling activities can be expected to
increase signicantly. In addition to that, more facilities for
recycling need to be provided by the relevant authorities.
This is because convenience should come in parallel with
awareness to participate in recycling activities. This is to
ensure that recycling practice will be completely participated
by the waste generator. The rewarding system can also
reduce the negative syndrome of NIMBY, LULU and
NOTE. This can be accomplished by introducing appropri-
ate strategies such as the exemption of waste management
fees scheme and provision of free power supply to residential
areas that are near neighbours of the landlls. This approach
has been proven to obtain a positive response from the recip-
ients as reported in Spittelau in Austria and Osaka in Japan
(Best Practice UN-Habitat, 2002). A direct consequence of
this eect would be fewer objections among the public on
issues related to the locations of new landlls in the country.
Agamuthu and Fauziah
The expected high positive attitude among the general
public can also assist in tackling the illegal dumping issue
in the country. The problem arises from the lack of capacity
for enforcement. Aside from the involvement of the public in
general, the perception of landlls owners and landll oper-
ators also needs to be changed. The concept of landlling as
a protable and sustainable business should be embedded
into the landlls owner. This can be achieved through appro-
priate, enforceable policy whereby landlls are seen as con-
tinuous prot-making facilities through the revenue from
3Rs activities, and power-generating opportunities. Among
the policies which need to be reviewed are the source sepa-
ration practice, energy potential from the waste management
sector and the appropriate nancial assistance.
In addition to the above-mentioned factors, climatic con-
ditions in Malaysia also complicate the challenge towards
sustainable landlling. This is due to the high rainfall (at
3000 mm per year), which increases the moisture content of
exposed MSW prior to waste collection. The high rainfall
and the high groundwater level make the management of
sustainable landlling more dicult, with the generation of
a high volume of leachate. Anaerobic degradation (at least
40%) of organic and putrescible waste prior to waste collec-
tion is also possible due to the high moisture content
(approximately 60%) and the conducive temperature (30
32 C) in the tropical climate. Therefore, very delicate plan-
ning and landll designing is required in order to remove
these problems.
Conclusions
Even though there are huge obstacles to be overcome in
moving towards sustainable landlling in Malaysia, recent
changes in the waste management regulations and policy
has given some hope. The Solid Waste Management and
Public Cleansing Act in 2007 oers a new way towards
improved waste management systems in the
country. Hopefully, with the issues solved and challenges
tackled or at least minimized, landlls in Malaysia can be
managed eectively in a more sustainable way in the near
future.
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19
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