Abstract
A detailed composition analysis of household waste, with emphasis on waste avoidance and recycling, was carried out in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia, which is a typical suburb of Kuala Lumpur. Four survey neighbourhoods were selected, based on housing types (bungalow, terraced, and flats). In total, 1005kg of waste from 282 households were sorted into 120 categories. At the same time a questionnaire survey was conducted to gather information on household size, recycling activities, cooking habits etc.
The results indicated a clear difference in waste generation between the housing types. The average composition showed that the percentage of packaging waste in waste is less then that of Japan or Europe, both in terms of weight and volume. It was also shown that the percentage of plastic packaging added at the retail stage was much greater than that in Japan or Europe. It could be pointed out that "unused food" and "disposable diapers" are the largest items that consumers could reduce. The average recycling rate of household waste was 6.5%. Potentially, about 23% of waste could be recycled. Old newspaper is thoroughly collected for recycling, but some kind of government intervention is desired to promote the recycling of other items.
