Selangor exco: We’ve acted against 113 illegal waste disposal factories

INTERVIEW | Plastic waste disposal is one of the most persistent environment issues dogging Malaysia.

Activists charge that whether it’s locally generated or imported, a significant amount of plastic waste in Malaysia is dealt with by unlicensed operators who often do not have a proper waste processing facility.

The waste is randomly dumped, burned or buried in a landfill. This results in air, land and water pollution, as well as related health problems for communities that live near the sites.

It is a challenge that comes under the portfolio of state executive councillors in charge of local government. Ng Sze Han is the Selangor state executive councillor in charge of Local Government, Public Transport and New Village Development - and he concedes that plastic waste dumping is an ongoing problem.

Nonetheless, Ng told Malaysiakini in an exclusive interview, that he believes his office had acted to close down a majority of the illegal plastic factories.

“I took over this office two years ago, and right after that, I received many complaints from activists and NGOs.

“For example, there were a lot of complaints about the mushrooming of illegal plastic processing factories in Jenjarom,” he said.

Ng said as he was new to the portfolio, he took a bit of time to familiarise himself with the matter.

“We spent a few months discussing the matter with different authorities. I also went to the sites, both legal and illegal plastic factories, to get to understand the situation.

“Subsequently, we took enforcement action. We started in Jenjarom where we closed down a few factories within six months.

“Following that, we extended our enforcement to other local councils, (where there were complaints) including Klang and Ulu Selangor,” said Ng, who is also DAP's Kinrara assemblyperson.

In fact, Ng said, his team took serious action against 113 factories in Selangor from 2018 to 2020. This included 37 factories that were closed down.

Another 47 factory sites had their water and electricity cut. A further 29 were initially closed, but subsequently, these complied with the requirements of the authorities and obtained their licences again.

“The complaints were from all over the state, but these few local councils face more serious problems – for example, Jenjarom is near Port Klang, the source of imported plastic wastes.

“I believe we closed down most of the illegal plastic factories. I am not saying all, of course, because being illegal operations, they open and close easily.

“The problem with these types of factories is that they are not difficult to set up. It’s a very low-cost and simple operation that they can close down in one location and set up another very easily, as they only need the burners (burning machines),” said Ng, adding that many of the factories are operated by China nationals.

Despite some successes, Ng doesn’t deny that there are still some leftover factories that remained in operation.

“There is still room for improvement, but if we compare this with the situation two years ago, it has improved a lot.

“That’s why I urge the people to lodge a report if they still see these kinds of factories in operation, and we will take action.

“They can lodge complaints through the local council website or apps (such as ACTnow) or even make a phone call,” added Ng.

Moved to other states

A downside to improving the situation in Selangor is that some of these illegal factories simply relocated to other states.

“I received such complaints from other states as well. I have got phone calls from my counterparts in Johor, Negeri Sembilan and Kedah,” said Ng.

The state exco is a native of Batu Pahat, Johor, who settled in the Klang Valley after completing his tertiary studies.

“At first, Selangor became a victim of this type of operation, simply because of the location and (the distance to) Port Klang. And logistics wise, it was very easy for them to set up the factories in Jenjarom (which is about 20km away).

“So these two areas are the first areas impacted and then (once enforcement was carried out) they moved further away. They moved to Ulu Selangor and then to other states,” Ng said.

He also pointed out that smuggling through Port Klang was the root cause of the imported plastic waste problem, which needs attention from the various agencies concerned.

"Because it comes in big containers, normal fishermen's boats will not be able to smuggle (the waste). That's why we need the authorities to help us."

"How can this type of waste enter Malaysia through Selangor? Through Selangor because of Port Klang? How can they enter Malaysia? It should not have happened in the first place," he said.

Ng said that there are limits to how directly his department can carry out enforcement activities.

“Sometimes, our hands are tied. As the state or local government, what we can do is to seal the factories. We cannot detain or arrest foreigners, and we need the Immigration Department or police to step in for that.”

Red paint

Earlier this month, Malaysiakini spoke to activist Pua Lay Peng (above), who highlighted that despite claims that many of the factories dealing with plastic waste had been shut down, many were still operating.

Residents in Jenjarom are still experiencing health issues such as headaches, respiratory problems, skin allergies and other ailments, Pua said.

One of the key charges of activists is that everything seemed to be tied-up neatly to prevent effective and permanent enforcement.

The illegal factories have legal permits to carry out unrelated businesses during the day but they operate as plastic waste burners throughout the night.

When there is an enforcement raid, the operators would be tipped off beforehand. When locals complain, they face harassment from gangsters.

Last year, Pua’s house was splattered with red paint.

There are also many different stakeholders in the matter, including the Department of Environment, Housing and Local Government Ministry, state governments, local councils, police, and very often there is an avoidance of responsibility, the activists claim.

They also allege that corrupt officials facilitate the illegal factory operations.

Ng conceded that many stakeholders are responsible and there are key elements that are not under his jurisdiction.

However, he gave his assurance that his department would not run away from the problem.

“I want to make it very clear also that we do not encourage the import of plastic waste, which has been smuggled in. I believe that we have enough plastic wastes in Malaysia. We cannot ban this kind of industry completely, but we can work to control it.

“If they want to process imported plastics, the first criteria is to get approval from the federal Housing and Local Government Ministry. If I am not mistaken, this ministry has granted over 60 approvals to operators.

“They also need to obtain an Environmental Impact Assessment report and get approval from the Department of Environment,” he said.

Ng pointed out that these are the legal factories located in industrial areas, with a big buffer zone separating them from residential neighbourhoods.

“As a state government, we have clearly stated our stance. We do not need imported plastic wastes,” he said.

Ng also drew attention to the efforts of former energy, science, technology, environment and climate change minister Yeo Bee Yin, who conducted surprise raids to expose illegally imported plastic wastes.

Incinerators versus landfills

Ultimately, one of the great dilemmas of plastic waste disposal concerns that of landfills versus waste to energy incinerators.

Both have negative impacts on the environment, but Ng feels that as far as locally-generated plastic waste is concerned, the incinerator is an unavoidable option.

“There are a few landfills in Selangor. The biggest one is in Jeram, and another one is in Tanjung Dua Belas in Jenjarom. There is another operated by the Berjaya group which is the Bukit Tagah landfill.

“I cannot comment on Bukit Tagah, but the others reached maximum capacity many years ago, and the state government needs to acquire land next to it every five to 10 years,” he said.

Ng said rubbish management is, therefore, a big challenge for a state like Selangor, Malaysia’s most developed and most densely populated state.

“In Selangor, conservatively, we produce 7,000 tonnes of rubbish daily. This is domestic waste alone, and it’s a worrying trend,” he said.

He said that the Jeram WTE incinerator announced by Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin is one key element in tackling the problem.

“Besides this incinerator, the state government is looking for other technologies. Waste-to-energy is one of the technologies which is widely used in a lot of developed countries, but we are evaluating other technologies as well.

“Selangor is actually a victim. We are the victims of this kind of imported waste and other kinds of wastes. How can they enter Malaysia in the first place? Now we have to pay a very high price to rectify this problem,” Ng added. - Mkini