Many materials contained in different e-wastes can be potentially hazardous, if improperly handled throughout their lifecycle. If the e-wastes are disposed in landfills, these materials have potential to leach in landfills and contaminate surface and ground water. In addition, the resources are lost for future used.
Valuable resources can be recovered from e-waste, which contributes towards sustainable development and environmental protection.
E-waste is one of the Scheduled Wastes stipulated by the Environmental Quality Regulations 2005 under the Environmental Quality Act, 1974. The code of e-waste is SW110. DOE has a responsibility to control the SWs including e-waste. Among the DOE's responsibilities, especially, DOE has the all rights to license the solid waste management (SWM) companies to deal with SWs, including e-wastes.
E-wastes are generated both in households and factories, where the SWs are mainly generated in factories. Thus, DOE has rich experience to manage e-wastes from factories and SWM companies, but it has little experience to deal with households. Generally, it is not easy to develop an appropriate and effective waste collection system from households, because it requires the change in people's waste discarding behavior. At the same time, many e-wastes are traded as second-hand products and/or segregated parts in the market. People's behavior needs to be considered from many aspects such as motivation, incentive and social structure.
Therefore, DOE would like to seek a possible e-waste collection system by setting up a pilot project in managing e-waste from household.
The Project aims at working with DOE to develop an appropriate, effective and efficient e-waste collection system from households. The developed system is expected to use as a model for nationwide collection system expansion. At the same time, it is expected for DOE to derive the policy implication for the future expansion.
Project title
The official title of the Project is:
Project title
The official title of the Project is:
"The Project for Model Development for e-waste Collection, Segregation and Transportation from Households for Recycling"
and a pilot project for e-waste is scheduled in Penang Island.
The short name can be proposed as "Penang E-waste Project".
Implementation agency
Department of Environment, Malaysia
Cooperation agency
MPPP (Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang) (Municipal Council of Penang Island)
Project duration
September, 2011 - March, 2013 (18 months)
Founder
Japan International Cooperation Agency
