Organic waste diversion project in UM campus

VeeCYCLE is embarking in an organic waste diversion project in 2010. The project aims to recover organic waste of food waste, yard waste and wooden bulky waste. The are two phases: first phase is diversion of food waste and wooden bulky waste; while the second phase is the diversion of yard waste.

For the food waste diversion, which is the primary concern, a "green bag scheme" will be introduced. In this scheme, all the cafe operators in UM campus have to dispose of the food waste from the eatery areas in the green bags. The green bags will then be collected by JPPHB (the department that manage the waste collection) and be transferred to the UM central waste disposal site. At the disposal site, the green bags will be unloaded in the designated RORO bin, to be hauled by the appointed waste contractor to a mass scale composting plant. The food waste will be turned into natural fertilizer.

For the wooden bulky waste diversion, this type of waste will be transferred to a biogas recovery plant to be converted into energy. While the yard waste diversion is in the planning stage now.

Yesterday, we had a project round table discussion and meeting with UM TNC (Development) Datuk Dr. Khaw Lake Tee, the strategic partners and relevant parties. They are Mr. Sooria (Chairman of DBKL LA21 SWM Committee and LA21 manager of Alam Flora sdn bhd), Prof. Sumiani (the project adviser), Dr. Gan from Rapat Nusantara sdn bhd, En. Abdullah and En. Zam from JPPHB, Dr. Zeeda and Rani from UM Cares and my team members, Mr. Ng (President of VeeCYCLE), Terence and Phoebe.

The outcome is positive with the TNC had given us the green light to implement the project. However, we are at the early stage of the project, with a long way to go.

Before the day, we had a strategic discussion with Dato' Dr. Abu Bakar Jaafar, a well-known environment figure in our country and he had given us some brilliant advices.

Hopefully, the project can commence in this year!

For the d

Biodegradable or non-biodegradable - cont'd

Food waste disposal was never a problem until the last 5o years.

In ancient time, food waste was used for various purposes such as animal feed, soil fertilizer, etc.
Everything was back to the nature.

Until in the 1960s onward, with the rapid development and urbanization, and the surging of human population; the solid waste disposal had became an issue. Thus, solid waste disposal had to be a "management". Then, we were moving to an integrated solid waste management in the 1990s.

Because of urbanization, our waste, especially food waste can't go back to the ground (soil) in a immediate manner. We need a collection and transportation process to bring the waste to a waste disposal area; commonly known as landfill. In landfill, the food waste, which is a biodegradable waste, decompose. However, due to the anaerobic condition in the landfill (or lack of oxygen); the decomposition of food waste produces landfill gases like methane gas, carbon dioxide gas, etc.

These gases will be produced even in aerobic condition; but in anaerobic condition, the production is much higher. These gases are the greenhouse gases which are contribute to the global warming (climate change). Especially methane gas, which is known to has 21 times the warming effect if compared with carbon dioxide gas.

Besides, food waste is the "wet waste" that is very high in moisture content. It is the waste that contribute to the generation of leachate in a landfill (beside the "rain"). Leachate is highly polluting, especially if contaminated with hazardous waste like battery and paint. It has a very high BOD and COD (~15000 - 20000 ppm).

Talk about landfill. For a sanitary engineered landfill, the landfill gases will be captured as a fuel for power generation; while the leachate will be collected to undergo proper treatment. However, in our country, out of the ~170 landfills, there are only 6-7 level 4 sanitary landfills. Most of our landfills are level 0 and level 1 "open dump" kinds of landfills.

The river and groundwater pollution problem in our country is partly caused by landfill leachate. Furthermore, landfill can lead to land issue. It is like a "cemetery" problem. When human die, we are either landfilled or incinerated. But the landfilled or cemetery type always cause land issue, especially in small country like Singapore. This is same with solid waste. But we must understand, solid waste is not human!! (I am trying to make a "comparison" here, and that "land" is a very important environmental component)

Therefore, human has to be smart enough to think, think and think. Is our solid waste should goes to our land 0r somewhere else??

Back to the degradable topic, because the current waste disposal situation is different from the past; we have to understand that biodegradable doesn't necessary is a good thing. It is instead, and in fact, a bad thing for the current situation.

Therefore, VeeCYCLE is currently embarking in an Organic Waste Diversion Project in UM campus. We hope that it can be a first step toward a "zero landfilling" (idealistic) concept.

To be con't...

Biodegradable or non-biodegradable

In our country, "Biodegradable" is always a positive / good word in environmental related issues. People tend to think and perceive that biodegradable materials are good for the environment.

But is biodegradable stuffs really "good" to the environment?

This is a complex issue, yet I will share my opinions here.

First, if we look at the materials we used. In the ancient, the materials used are typically of metals, wood, soil and perhaps glass, ceramic, etc... Most of the materials used or constructed could lasted a long time (many ancient buildings exist until now and many items / artifacts exist until now).

Then human found oil (petroleum), and subsequently invented plastic materials. This new-found material has bring a lots of benefits to human development. Besides, we had created a lots more new materials since the last century.

Let's talk about plastic, a so-called non-biodegradable material. Is plastic a "bad" material in the context of environment?

No, definitely. Plastic is light, inert, water-resistant, cheap, requires less resource and energy to produce, easier to recycled, etc. Here are some facts:

Resource and energy

ENERGY TO PRODUCE BAG ORIGINALLY (BTUs)
Safeway Plastic Bags: 594 BTUs
Safeway Paper Bags: 2511 BTUs
(Source: 1989 Plastic Recycling Directory, Society of Plastics Industry.)

Pollution

POLLUTANTS PAPER V.S. PLASTIC
Paper sacks generate 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.
Source: "Comparison of the Effects on the Environment of Polyethylene and Paper Carrier Bags," Federal Office of the Environment, August 1988

Recycling

ENERGY TO RECYCLE PACKAGE ONCE (BTUs)
Safeway Plastic Bags: 17 BTUs
Safeway Paper Bags: 1444 BTUs
Source: 1989 Plastic Recycling Directory, Society of Plastics Industry.

Please refers the following links. Thanks.

http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id=7

http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/1268.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18538484/


Well, I am not here to promote the use of plastic. However, plastic is definitely a better material if compared with paper (which the tree has to chopped down to produce paper). If we compare the "recyclability" of both materials, they are of "open-loop, down recycling"; which means these materials can't be recycled to become the same material/product like 'aluminum tin', or the quality of the recycled material will be lowered and subsequently will reach a point where it can't be recycled anymore.

When we produce paper, tree as the most important carbon sink, have to be used as the raw material. Besides, the production of paper requires huge amount of water and churn out huge amount of wastewater and consequently causes pollution.

However, plastic is currently having a bad reputation in term of environmental perception of most people. This is primarily because of the "Disposal" or management of the use of plastic.

For example, littering, illegal dumping to land or water bodies; etc. However, this has to be the problem of human knowledge and awareness of the importance of the proper disposal of plastic. And not merely by impose laws on the banning of the use of plastic bags, etc.


While for the biodegradable waste; which mostly refers to food waste, yard waste, paper, cardboard, wood, rubber, textile, leather, etc...

Let's talk about food waste... to be cont'd

MRF (material recovery facility)

Worldwide landfills sdn bhd (WLSB), the company that operated the first ever sanitary landfill (Ayer Hitam Sanitary Landfill in Puchong, 1995-2006) in our country had proposed to build a MRF (material recovery facility) at somewhere in Selangor.

http://www.whb.com.my/html/whbnews/30-31/worldwide_propose.pdf

It will be the first MRF in our country.

Generally, there are two types of MRF: dirty MRF and clean MRF.

Dirty MRF is designed for the mixed normal solid waste. While clean MRF is designed to handle the source-seperated / diverted "dry recyclables such as paper, plastic, glass, metal, etc.

In our country, where kerbside recyclable collection is not practiced; a dirty MRF is the only choice. (kerbside recyclable collection is the collection of separated dry recyclables by the waste collectors)

In my opinion, a dirty MRF in Malaysia is not a good suggestion. As our waste contains a majority of organic fraction (60-80%), the dirty MRF will suffers a reject rate.

Besides, as the high contain of biodegradable organic waste (food waste, yard waste, etc), our waste moisture contain is rather high (55-60%), Sivapalan K. et al. A high moisture content will hinder the MRF operation (leachate problem, etc). Besides, it cause odor and nuisance.

Furthermore, to recover recyclable from mixed waste is always not effective because of "contamination". Contamination by especially food waste cause the recyclable to lost it value (for example, a paper contaminated by food waste is difficult to be recycled.



Therefore, dirty MRF is not suitable in our country unless kerbside recyclable program is introduced, where the dry recyclables will be diverted either by single and dual commingled or kerbside sort collection. The dry recyclables will then be sent to a clean MRF instead, to be transformed physically (sort, shred, bale, compress, etc).

I believe it is not that difficult to introduce kerbside recyclable collection here, as we are actually practice it for the old newspaper collection. We just need to streamline the effort by include more recyclables such as plastic, metal, all kinds of paper and cardboard, and perhaps e-waste.

The efforts will depend on the local authorities or perhaps the federal government, as the solid waste management is now federalized under the flagship of JPSPN (Jabatan Pengurusan Sisa Pepejal Negara) or National Solid Waste Management Department and PPSPPA (Perbadanan Pengurusan Sisa Pepejal dan Pembersihan Awam).

As for the organic fraction, green technology is required, such as all kinds of composting approaches, anaerobic digestion, bioreactor landfill, biogas recovery, etc.

Various factors have to be weighed before a decision is made in any waste management system.

Collection should be the focus of the study as it deals with wide ranges of stakeholders with public participation usually as the prime factor. Therefore, socio-economic characteristic of an area covered is very important to be considered.

Back to the topic of MRF, I suggest kerbside recyclable collection to be established along with the build of a clean MRF. If not, it will be better to introduce a RDF resource recovery plant such as the one in Semenyih, Kajang, operated by Core Competencies sdn bhd; as the roles make no difference.














Official recyclable collection effort, especially the kerbside collection for residential area has to be introduced. As the 3 colored recycling bins was declared as a failure, recycling efforts have to be intensified so as to create a 3Rs driven society to reduce the solid waste to landfill.

As the recycling rate for MSW (municipal solid waste) currently stands at 5%, we have to buck up and strive toward an ISWM (Integrated Solid Waste Management) system in our country.

However, it is not easy to implement an ISWM system in a developing country like Malaysia.

To be cont'd...

1st blog

For many, especially the older generation, solid waste (rubbish, garbage, trash, etc) is something dirty and useless.

With the rapid industrial development, solid waste is getting more and more complicated because of the diverse materials used in products and packaging.

Hence instead of "disposal" of solid waste, "management" is a more appropriate word.

Therefore, solid waste management is becoming interesting, especially in developing country like Malaysia.

For under-developed country, solid waste management is not a big deal, as most of the waste is really a "waste". As the country uses all the resource efficiently until it become a waste. This is also the reason why solid waste disposal is not an issue in the ancient time from human civilization until perhaps 1400s when the "black death" happened in Europe. In other corners of the world, waste is never a problem until the last 100 years. Urbanization is one of the factors.

As human becomes more "developed" as we claimed, we use all the natural resources in a "more than enough" manner in the name of development. Especially non-renewable resource such as all kinds of minerals.

Therefore, until today, in this stage, we began to realize the problem and the concept of "sustainable development" had introduced.

However, sustainable development is a tremendously complex concept. It includes all the aspects of human civilization such as politic, economy, social and environment.

Rich countries had used most of the resources (as you can see from the ecological/carbon footprint). Poor countries uses resources sustainably. While, newly industrialized countries (developing countries) uses resources in a fast pace (China, Malaysia, Brazil, etc).


Natural resources used = pollution + waste


Pollution happens whenever we use resources during mining, production, manufacturing, construction, packaging, marketing; to using and disposal.

Everything becomes waste in the end (except gold and diamond, perhaps)

So, globally an unbalanced uses of natural resources is happening. It is a complex to discuss this issue as it concerns with world security and development. From human history we can see.

Well, I will focus my topic on resource and waste.

To be continued...