The study tour in Japan successfully ended.

The study tour for the counterparts was held for 12 days between 18th Feb. and 29th.

They heard from the related Ministries and industries to know the laws/regulations in Japan for e-waste recycling and also visited some recycling factories.

Based on the knowledge on the laws/regulations in Japan, we discussed possible regulations suitable for the situations in Malaysia. Also, ideas for the pilot project starting in next June tentatively were discussed based on the ideas for the future policies.

The Japanese experts are coming back to Penang on 4th March to discuss with the counterparts further.

The team visited a partial recovery facility in Tokyo.

The team discussed future possible policies based on the lessons learnt in the Japan tour.

Idea sharing workshop was held.

A workshop to share ideas on what collection system for e-waste from households is applicable was held in Penang on 17 Jan. 2012.

Y. Bhg. Datin Paduka Che Asmah Ibrahim, Director of Hazardous Substances Division of DOE Putrajaya opened the workshop with a message that it is very important to listen from the industrial side first.

Mr. Hideki Wada, the team leader of JICA expert team made a presentation first on the amount of e-waste and the current e-waste flow. Also, he pointed out by showing the result of the questionnaire survey to households that 1) the number of collection centers should be increased, 2) it is convenient for households to have retailers take back old equipment when new products are delivered, and 3) economic incentive for e-waste collection should be added.

Mr. Xavier Sebastian, Municipal Council of Penang Island, explained the conventional e-waste collection businesses from households by showing the photographs.

Mr. Mohd Fitri Mohd Mokhtar, DOE Penang, reminded us the functions of the partial recovery facilities and the full recovery facilities under the current e-waste related policies.

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Manufactures and full recovery companies were expected to make presentations based on many experiences related to e-waste collection.

Mr. Bu Fan, DELL, expressed very positive opinions on behalf of manufactures and proposed the following ideas as “shared responsibilities among stakeholders”.

• Involvement of conventional recyclers is very important.
• Multiple collection channels such as 1) take-in/trade-in by retailers, 2) voluntary collection by community groups and 3) municipal waste management services should be facilitated with contribution from manufactures.
• The characteristics of target products should be considered. The characteristics of home electric appliance and ICT (information and communication technology) products are different.

Mr. John Ashok, TES-AMM Malaysia, a full recovery company, proposed an e-waste collection system by taking the China model as an example.

After all presentations, the participants raised many questions to the speakers for deeper understanding. The workshop for sharing the ideas and opinions were closed successfully.

The participants left their ideas and opinions inspired by the speakers in “Idea Sheets”, which are being arranged by the expert team.

The project is proceeding to the next step.

Presentations in the workshop held on Jan 17, 2012

You can download the presentations here.

The second workshop is being held on January 17, 2011.

We are now compiling the data obtained in the series of the studies to an e-waste flow.


The result will be delivered in the coming workshop as one of the basic information for discussing the pilot project.


Not only such data, to make the discussion more effective, we asked to some manufactures of electrical & electronic equipment to make presentations which include their ideas on what kind of systems are appropriate to collect e-waste from household. We could expect them some good ideas from their worldwide perspective and experiences.


Also, we asked some full-recovery recyclers to make such presentations. We are looking forward to hearing their ideas from the persons who know the local conditions very well.

Taskforce Meeting was held on 21 December 2011.

The 4^th Taskforce meeting was held in Penang Island on 21 December 2011 following the last Taskforce meeting on December 5, 2011. The members of DOE Headquarters, DOE Penang and MPPP discussed present e-waste flow based on some results from surveys, targeting e-waste generators, recyclers, e-waste collection centres authorized by MPPP and retailers, etc. The e-waste flow in Penang Island is being described with quantities and traded prices.

We also discussed that all relevant actors should share the current e-waste flow for discussing appropriate e-waste collection systems in Penang Island. For this, the Taskforce meeting decided to hold a workshop in Penang Island on January 17, 2012. It is expected that all relevant actors share their opinions and discuss the future e-waste collection system based on the current e-waste flow.

E-waste Flow Surveys are being finalized.

During the past few months, we concentrated on two surveys for describing the e-waste flow in Penang Island.

One is the questionnaire survey to the e-waste generators including businesses, such as hotels, restaurants and offices and another one is the interviews to the e-waste recyclers including small recycling collectors and dealers.

In the survey, the amount of e-waste, the dealing prices and the vintages of e-waste for calculating the future amount of e-waste were studied and the data is now being analyzed.

The first JCC was held.

The first Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) was held on November 3,
2011 chaired by Ms. Datin Paduka Che Asmah Bt. Ibrahim, Director of
Hazardous Substances Division of DOE.


The role of JCC is:
-       To approve the annual work plan of the Project,
-       To review the overall progress and achievements of the Project,
-       To examine major issues arising from or in connection with the Project,
-       To work out the modification of activities depending on the necessity; and
-       To discuss any other issue(s) pertinent to the smooth implication of
the Project.