Beginning June, 1st 2009 the Kuala Lumpur City Hall will make it mandatory for all households in Kuala Lumpur to have 2 garbage bins. One for organic and the other for inorganic materials. This is very interesting. As my house in just a few metres away from the City Hall boundaries, it does not come under City Hall's purview. Thus, I am not directly affected.
I am happy to note that Alam Flora, the Solid Waste Management Company, will provide the 2 bins. It only needs a little initiative for you to separate your garbage. Failure to do so will result in your garbage being left uncollected. As Alam Flora only collects your garbage, it is up to City Hall to enforce the ruling. I can only imagine the wrath of the people when they discover that their garbage is not being collected and dogs and cats having a field day foraging through them.
In the meantime, it is up to City Hall to send fliers to educate City folks on the new ruling.
For those who are still in the dark on how to identify between organic and inorganic waste; here's some tips:
Organic wastes are those that rots and turns bad very fast naturally. In a normal household, it include kitchen wastes from food preparations:
- vegetable scraps; stalks and leaves
- fruit peelings (banana skins, potato skins, etc)
- onion peelings,
- egg shells
Inorganic Wastes are:
- styrofoam containers
- plastic materials
- disposable diapers
- aluminium tins
- steel cans
- leather shoes
- stockings
- clothes
- newspapers
Once the new ruling sets in full swing, most of the garbage problem in Kuala Lumpur can be solved with every one's cooperation. Some cities in the US have made it compulsory for its citizens to separate their garbage. It is now up to the Kuala Lumpur City Hall to lead the way in Malaysia so that other cities will follow soon.
For Kuala Lumpur, the scarcity of land for landfill within its borders is a serious problem. It cannot continue to rely on neighbouring States to provide land for it to dispose the garbage discarded by KLites.
City Hall already has a composting facility. Thus, the organic wastes from homes together with the city's garden wastes can be used as raw material feedstock for this facility. This is short of getting the city dwellers to make their own compost themselves.
I can hardly wait for Alam Flora to get the Selangor local government authorities to follow City Hall's initiative. Complying the separation of garbage ruling is no problem for me, as I am already selling my inorganics to Alam Flora and composting my organics. In fact, the local authority should give me a rebate for not contributing so much garbage to their landfill.
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