Regionalization of Solid Waste Management in Malaysia

—Case of Selangor and Penang—

Abstract

Solid waste management (SWM) is to treat and dispose municipal waste properly for a sanitary urban environment. Historically, the responsibility of SWM is taken by local governments as an administrative service.

In Malaysia, proper disposal of waste is becoming harder since 1970's with rapid urbanization in densely populated cities. Regionalization of solid waste disposal, namely sharing of resources with neighboring cities, was proposed as a safe, efficient and economical solution in these cities, due to their poor financial capacity of local governments and difficulty in obtaining land for landfill.

Presently, most studies about SWM in developing countries are conducted in each local authority area. New study, however, is in urgent need to analyze the trend of regionalization.

In this paper, structures of stakeholders regarding SWM system in the state of Penang and Selangor are examined. Stakeholders mean a variety of interest groups such as public sector, private sector and community groups in each state. Both of the two states have highly urbanized cities in their territories and both state governments were planning regionalization of waste disposal. By analysis, it was revealed that regionalization of solid waste management cannot be made only by the strong state-led policy, but it necessarily required making co-operation and building partnership among local groups.