PETALING JAYA: The government will hold an open tender exercise for companies interested in developing a waste-to-energy (WTE) management system for safer waste disposal.
Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin said the government is working out the tender details which will be ready in three months.
“After that, we will launch a request for proposal,” she told Bernama after opening the Pharmacy Renaissance Summit by the Malaysian Community Pharmacy Guild (MCPG) today.
Yeo said the time had come for Malaysia to modernise its waste management system and shift from landfills to a better disposal solution.
Earlier, during her address, she said the chemical pollution of Sungai Kim Kim in Pasir Gudang should serve as a lesson on how every kind of waste, particularly scheduled waste, must be managed with caution.
“Malaysia needs a paradigm shift in terms of how we monitor our disposal of scheduled waste as well as clinical waste.
“Malaysians need to be more responsible and, as a government, we need better enforcement,” she said.
Yeo praised MCPG’s Green Pharmacy pilot project, which began in 2017 and is aimed at empowering pharmacists in educating the public on disposal of sharps waste (biomedical waste that includes hypodermic needles).
MCPG organising chairman and president Lovy Beh said the initiative started with 30 community pharmacists in Penang, with the support of the state government.
She said many people did not know how and where to dispose of sharps waste and unwanted or expired medicine, and would often throw them out with household waste or flush them down the toilet.
This is dangerous because diseases can be easily transmitted and it causes pollution, she said.
