All in high-rise fined if one fails to separate waste, warns minister
He said this could happen as it was a challenge to identify tenants who fail to abide by the new regulation on waste separation, which was fully enforced yesterday.
He said the building’s management played an important role in educating their residents and ensuring they separated their waste.
“The management committees have to be strong and they need to tell them (residents) when we issue compounds, everyone will get it,” he said when kicking off the enforcement at Kampung Limau PPR flats.
Asked how the ministry would issue compounds to the occupants of a multi-storey building, he replied: “The building management is responsible for its tenants.”
Abdul Rahman’s ministry had introduced waste separation last September under the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007.
The law makes it compulsory for residents to separate their solid waste into “paper”, “plastics” and “others” when discarding them, or face fines from RM50 to RM1,000.
Compound issued to landed property residents who do not separate their waste is RM50 for the first offence, RM100 for the second and RM500 for the third.
For non-landed residences such as apartments, condominiums and flats, the compound is RM100 for the first offence, RM200 for the second and RM500 for the third.
Fourth offence would result in legal action and if charged, one can be fined up to RM1,000.
The law is currently implemented in Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Kedah, Perlis and Pahang.
Enforcement was carried out simultaneously in the affected states yesterday, involving 79 housing areas and almost 10,724 premises with 245 enforcement officers from Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp).
It also included the introduction of 120 segregated waste trucks operated by Alam Flora, a concessionaire of SWCorp.
Abdul Rahman said the aim was to achieve a recycling rate of 22 per cent by 2020.
“Right now, it is at about 17.3 per cent, which is not good but the public are becoming more concerned with recycling,” he said.
He also said the government saw an increase of almost RM2 billion per year to clean public areas and dispose waste.
“This money could be used to build schools, universities and hospitals, but we used it for this purpose, so we should be responsible and reduce waste,” he said.
He said the biggest issue was that waste ended up in landfills, which were harder and harder to find.
“If we find a place, there would be protests so what we have to do is reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills, so that it also has a longer life span,” he said.
“Cleanliness in the home is the path to a civilised society. When we are able to manage our waste, then we will be considered a civilised nation and we can move forward as a nation.”
from Malay Mail Online | All http://ift.tt/1UfTiik
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