Alternative Solid Waste Management for Putrajaya Malaysia towards Low-Carbon Society

()Siti Norbaizura MD. REJAB, () Tomohito HAMADA, () Takeshi FUJIWARA

Graduate School of Environmental Science, Okayama University
Introduction
Global warming, resources shortage and ecosystem crisis are some of the most discussed environmental issues in the 21
century. All these problems are directly related to waste management and our lifestyle pattern. Thus it is not only important to
improve waste management system in order to mitigate the problem but also to alter our expenditure and consumption pattern.
Malaysia as a massively developing country is also facing these challenges. Some of the most challenging issues regarding its solid
waste management are sole depending on final landfill treatment and failing to improve Reduce, Reuse and Recycle approach even
after 10 years of introduction.
Study background
Putrajaya is Malaysia newly develop central government city that take over
the role previously hold by Kuala Lumpur city. It is a city of 5,000 hectares develops
with city in the Garden concept. 40% of the land use is dedicated to open space and
62% of office building is for government use.
In 2010, it was selected to be a showcase city for Pioneer Township in
Green Technology. A preliminary study consisted of three sub-sections being Lowcarbon Putrajaya, Cooler Putrajaya and 3R Putrajaya were carried out to fulfil the
target of building a Low-Carbon Society by 2025. This paper focus on 3R Putrajaya
study that set two targets towards development of sound material-cycle that meets the
building of low-carbon society. The two targets were to reduce final waste sent to
landfill site to half of generated waste in 2025 and reduction of GHG emission from
waste management process to half of conventional method. 2007 was set as the base
year where all generated waste is sent to landfill site for final disposal without any pretreatment measure. In the target year of 2025, besides waste reduction at source, one
integrated solid waste recycling facility (ISWRF) will be located within Putrajaya to
handle pre-treatment of generated waste before waste are sent to landfill site for final
disposal. Figure 1 is the city overview in 2025.

Figure1 City overview in 2025

Method
Backcasting method was applied in this study, where first the final year targets were set and then path towards achieving
the target were figured out. For 3R Putrajaya, combination of waste recovery and treatment in order to reduce volume of final
disposal were proposed. In this study not only solid waste from household and business sector were considered but also sludge from
sewage treatment, green waste from garden and park, and construction waste from construction sector. Figure2 shows the entire
study flow.
The whole processes of waste
management were first divided into two
stages namely waste reduction at source
and waste treatment. Six actions listed
under waste reduction are Reduce,
Reuse,
Plastic
Restriction,
Industrialized Business System (IBS)
implementation,
Community
collection and Separate collection. In
waste treatment selection, four main
combinations were Business as Usual
(BaU), Separate collection, Thermal
treatment without separate collection
and Separate collection with thermal
treatment. Included in the four waste
treatment actions were three types of
self-treatment and selection of methane
gas fermentation for organic waste. All
the actions are summarized in Table 1.
One of the main issues of
solid waste management in developing
countries is data shortage. Thus, before
carrying out scenario projection, we first
have to estimate waste generation in
Figure2 Study flow
both base and target years. The waste
generation estimation were carried out

___________________________________________________________________________________________
Contact: 700-8530 1-1-3 Siti Norbaizura MD. REJAB
Tel/Fax: 086-251-8994 e-mail: gev421308@s.okayama-u.ac.jp
[Keyword] solid waste management, waste reduction at source, sound material-cycle society, low-carbon society, Putrajaya Malaysia

using total waste generation amount documented by Putrajaya local authority, national waste composition acquired from The Study
on National Waste Minimisation in Malaysia, and both day and night time population. In order to estimate waste reduction from
Reduce and Reuse actions, volume of product and packaging waste were necessary. Therefore, using national Input-Output table
and industrial statistics data, generation of product and packaging waste were estimated. Besides food, paper, plastic, metal and glass
waste, amount of used cooking oil generated were also projected.
Waste generation amount of green waste were projected using generation rate per hectare green and park area obtained
from study in Chiba City, Japan and total green and park area in Putrajaya. Using average construction floor area within the 18 years
in the area, waste generation rate were projected and total generation were calculated. Putrajaya local authority targeted by 2025,
70% of its building will be build using IBS system compare to only 35% in 2007.
GHG emission and reduction were estimated at all level of solid waste management including waste reduction at source,
community collection, separate calculation, self-treatment, pre-treatment and final landfill. GHG from waste transportation were
calculated from waste collection at waste generation source, waste transportation from source to ISWRF and finally from ISWRF to
landfill site.
Table 1 Summary of waste reduction and waste treatment scenarios
Scenario
Reduce
Reuse
Plastic restriction
IBS implementation
Community collection
Separate collection

Waste type
Product and packaging waste
Product waste
Plastic packaging waste
Construction waste
Product - Paper
Packaging - Paper, Plastic, Glass, Metal
Product - Paper and Plastic
Packaging - Paper, Plastic, Glass, Metal

BaU
Separate collection without
thermal treatment
Thermal treatment without
separate collection

Comingle
Separated waste

Separate collection with thermal

treatment

Separated waste

Comingle

Assumption
70% product are recyclable
100% packaging are recyclable
13% of plastic packaging
70% building with IBS system
All waste sent to landfill
After source reduction, recyclable materials
are collected and treated separately
After source reduction, comingle waste are
sent for thermal treatment
After source reduction, recyclable materials
are collected and sent for thermal treatment
and recycle

Result and discussion

325 ton/day of waste will be generated in BaU case in the target year
2025. From that amount, 46% and 22% were from household and business
sector, respectively. Reduction at source, community collection and separate
collection, each reduced 2.5%, 3% and 31%. Waste treatment scenarios of
Separate collection, Thermal treatment without separate collection and
Separate collection with thermal treatment each reduce 80% of waste and
67% of GHG, 78% of waste and 62% of GHG, and 72% of waste and 54% of
GHG, respectively. Even though GHG emission and reduction from
transportation sector acutely small compare to treatment and landfill sector, the
value varies largely between scenario selections.
The results in Figure3 show that at all scenario selections, both the
target is achievable. The task is for the authority to choose the combination that
meets their desire either to encourage public to change their consumption style
and generate less waste or to spend more sources on recyclable materials
recovery and high-technology waste treatment.
Conclusion
From all counter measures introduced,

Both waste and GHG reduction target are achievable at all combinations
with highest reduction through combination of separate collection and
thermal treatment scenario.

All the targets were achievable with calculation conditions of public

participation rate and waste segregation efficiency at 70% and high level
of law implementation.

Figure3 Waste reduction by scenarios

References
Siti Norbaizura MD REJAB, T. Fujiwara and T. Hamada (2011): Alternative Solid Waste Management for Malaysia New Region
towards Low-Carbon Society
T. Hamada, T. Fujiwara and Siti Norbaizura (2011): Planning of Municipal Solid Waste Transport and Treatment with Low-carbon
Emission in Urban City of Asia