KUALA LUMPUR: In the midst of a discussion on plastic waste, Federal Territories Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) director Ummi Kalthum Shuib whips out her phone to show her TikTok video.
Middle-aged with a friendly demeanor and an infectious lopsided grin, she is no aspiring influencer except in the cause of waste reduction.
The circular economy is supposed to keep materials, products and services in circulation for as long as possible, thereby reducing the amount of trash in the ecosystem. Plastic waste gets recycled and turned into resin, which is sold and used to turn into other plastic products. Recycling is a billion-dollar industry.
While recycling has a place in the green economy, too much emphasis has been put on getting people to recycle and not enough on reusing and reducing waste. The disenchantment with recycling has been long in the making. By the nature of the product, plastic is not an easy substance to recycle. "When you send to recyclers, they have to think of a way to wash it. Hot wash or whatsoever. And the cost will increase,” he said.
"It’s a population issue. Every single resident in Peninsular Malaysia has to finish 1.5l bottles of soft drink every single day and give the bottles to the factories, and only then will they get enough 1,000 tonnes of recycled plastic bottles,” he said. The most notable victim of this was the small town of Jenjarum in Kuala Langat, Selangor, where illegal recyclers dumped 17,000 metric tonnes of imported mixed plastic waste.
"The 3Rs were reduce, reuse and recycle but we, the Malaysian government actually, have been putting more emphasis on recycling. Now, we are looking more into reducing and also have to add refilling, rethink,” she said.
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