4th WMAM Annual Conference

Date: 6 April 2017
Company: Waste Management Association of Malaysia (WMAM)

The 4th WMAM Annual Conference was held on 6 April 2017 at the Novotel Melaka, with more than 150 participants from various countries, including Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and Europe.

This conference focused on holistic waste management—from production to final consumption—and highlighted some of the issues and challenges in the waste management industry, along with idea and solution proposals.

The Global Waste Management Outlook (GWMO) from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) suggested that holistic management of the world’s solid waste problem could cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent, while generating Green jobs, improving public health and saving countries billions of dollars.

In conjunction with the officiation of the conference, two Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) were signed as a commitment to carry out programmes and initiatives towards sustainable environmental management. The first was signed between the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Corporation (SWCorp) and WMAM, while the second was signed between SWCorp and the Organisation of Environmental Heritage (WASM).

Under Malaysia’s Separation at Source (SAS) policy, effective 1 September 2015, it is compulsory for households within most states in Malaysia to separate their waste into recyclable and non-recyclable waste. Another effort underway is the transformation of Waste to Energy (WtE) policy, which is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste.

Through these measures and more, Malaysia hopes to increase its Gross National Income (GNI) from RM30 billion to RM34 billion, create 10,000 to 30,000 jobs, and encourage private sector investments of between RM20 billion and RM26 billion by the year 2020. Malaysia’s environmental targets include reducing landfill waste by 40 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 38 percent by 2020.

This event was supported by the Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government (KPKT), as well as SWCorp. The two-day conference was officiated by Chief Minister of Melaka Datuk Seri Ir Idris Haron and Ho De Leong, chairman of WMAM.