Understanding Waste Flow in Malaysian Cities for Sustainable Waste Management

Abstract

Malaysian cities have undergone rapid growth over the past four decades. Cities such as Kuala Lumpur continues growing and its population have reached 1.67 million in 2015. As its population increases, a city’s metabolism process quickens, in turn, producing more waste as a by-product. The increasing rate of waste generation has become a critical issue for Malaysian cities, which generated 16,200 tons of waste per day in 2001 compared to 33,000 tons per day in 2012. Hence, managing the waste requires significantly more technological, financial, and human resources as well as land. There is now a need to understand the waste flow and to determine the key factors of sustainable waste management. This study was conducted to analyze factors such as waste generation patterns, technology, and infrastructure as well as the financial, legal, human resource, and waste management systems currently in place. The analyses conducted illustrate that these factors play an important part in controlling waste generation and flow. The findings from these analyses also provide key strategy for managing the waste flow in Malaysian cities such as Kuala Lumpur towards achieving sustainable waste management.