Talking Rubbish
Here’s something we don’t see or hear about about everyday, but its everywhere around us.
We’re talking about rubbish, or more specifically waste management in commercial areas. Malaysians generate a lot of trash, from households to businesses to construction sites to industrial waste from factories. But today we’re talking about waste disposal from commercial areas. Local councils have tried many different ways to deal with this problem of where tenants should dispose of their rubbish before it is collected by the trucks.
Many years ago, the trend was to have a refuse chamber somewhere in each development - a small room where people throw their trashbags and the trucks will come to collect a few times a week. But this has its obvious problems - delay in collection will result in overflowing rubbish. Then some people will just leave their rubbish near the bins and not in the bins. And no matter how efficient the collection is, the chamber will definitely smell in the Malaysian weather, thereby affecting nearby business. Developers have a hard time finding place for these refuse chambers in their masterplan - nobody wants it near but you can’t live without it.
One particular development that comes to mind that suffers from this system is Saujana Putra in Puchong, the 2 refuse chambers are located at the entrances to the commercial area and the stench is almost unbearable.
Later some local councils opted for the refuse chambers to be at each individual unit, usually at the back so that its easier for the garbage truck to collect. Most older areas of KL practice this. This works well on paper, but in implementation, a few problems arises. One, discriminate parking blocks the backlanes. So the trucks can’t collect. Secondly, this would mean that for the higher floors, the tenants will have to come down and put their rubbish at the refuse chamber - quite a distance if you happen to be the middle unit of a long block. Thirdly in the long run, backlanes become very dirty infested with rats and overflowing rubbish. But its the first reason - trucks unable to enter the backlanes, that is the biggest problem.
So recently, some councils (like MPSJ and MBPJ) has required developers to have the rubbish bins in front of the unit (like in Bandar Puteri). This solves the problem of garbage trucks unable to get to the bins. But businesses are not in favour of this solution - who wants rubbish in front of your shop, especially of your eatery? But it works on different levels too, business are therefore responsible for making sure that rubbish are properly disposed off in the bin.
At the end of the day, any system implemented will have its pros and cons, although some more than others. The bottomline is that Malaysians should learn to reduce their garbage more, and must dispose of it responsibly.
