KDEB Waste Management Works Alchemy, Converting Rubbish to Today’s Gold – ENERGY! Circular Economy is an extremely crucial part of managing a city’s ecosystem. It’s recycling and sustainability at its best where nothing is left to waste and better still, waste is converted to an element that can be used again and again.
“The current way of waste management is archaic and not sustainable. Let me explain why. We collectively produce 35,000 tonnes of waste A DAY. And almost all of it is merely filling up landfills all over Malaysia, rotting in land that can be allocated for other more productive usage. So the more waste we produce, the more dumping grounds we need. And this is certainly not sustainable, neither is this healthy.” – Ahmad Rizal Mohd Daud, Senior General Manager of Corporate Servicesat KDEB Waste Management
KDEB Waste Management, the foremost waste management company in the country, understands this very well.
Leveraging on their expertise in waste management, their efficiency in top notch service to the rakyat, their exceptional success over the years in ensuring deliverables are impeccably executed, their experience in pioneering innovative technology in their already established field of waste management, KDEBWM now ups the game.
Aligning with the nation’s aspirations of being a champion of sustainability checking all SDG goals, encouraging elements of ESG in their operations and working towards UNGC’s net zero carbon emission goals, KDEBWM has accepted the government’s faith in them to build two waste-to-energy plants.
International Business Review tries to understand the challenges facing the set up of this new way of disposing trash, and we learnt how with this method we can finally convert trash to cash. Ahmad Rizal Mohd Daud, Senior General Manager of Corporate Services at KDEBWM gives us insights on this.
Upon completion, the Shenzhen East waste-to-energy project will be one of the world’s largest waste-to-energy (WTE) plants – capable of combusting 5,600 tons of municipal solid waste a day.
“Plastics, aluminium, and other non-biodegradable items are just sitting there taking up more and more land, and with population in cities growing at exponential rates, we are sitting at a cusp of a major problem in the near future if we do not do something about it. Enter KDEBWM with a solution to this. To convert the trash to cash.”
Mr. Ahmad Rizal is a man on a mission. And his objective is to ensure overall cost is reduced, yet overall productivity is enhanced. The dream of every company. However, as KDEBWM, serves the nation, this becomes the dream of the country too. And he tells us why.
“Currently, we invest heavily in foreign workers to do the waste collection and transportation, because landfills are so far away from where we live, we need more hands on board. Lorries travel 100s of kilometres everyday so they have very short lifespans and need to be replaced every 5 – 7 years. The waste lies decomposing unhealthily in bigger and bigger landfills that are eating into productive lands in three places in Selangor itself; for example – Bukit Tagar, Jaram and Tanjung Dua Belas.”
“Every state has to sacrifice about 90 acres of land every three years just for landfills to be filled with rubbish. And you cannot even use that land after that; you need to restore and rehabilitate that land which is so costly.”
“When we work with the state to execute the Waste-To-Energy (WTE) projects, we eradicate all the above problems, and we give Selangorians a chance to have the most modern technologies that have had great positive impact in places like the Baigouyuan WTE in China which transforms 4,500 tons of garbage into electricity every day, enough to supply 400,000 households.”