PETALING JAYA: The government will hold an open tender exercise for companies interested in developing a waste-to-energy (WTE) management system for safer waste disposal in the country.
Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister, Yeo Bee Yin, said the government is sorting out the tender details which will be ready in three months’ time.
“After that, we will launch a request for proposal,” she told Bernama today after opening the Pharmacy Renaissance Summit by the Malaysian Community Pharmacy Guild (MCPG), supported by among others the BP Healthcare Group.
Yeo said the time had come for the country to modernise its waste management system and shift from landfills to a better waste management solution.
In her speech, Yeo said the chemical pollution incident in Pasir Gudang should serve as a lesson on how every kind of waste, particularly scheduled waste, must be managed with caution.
“Malaysia needs a paradigm shift in terms of how we monitor our scheduled-as well as clinical-waste disposal. Malaysians need to be more responsible, and as a government, how can we better enforce,” she said.
She praised MCPG’s Green Pharmacy pilot project which was begun in 2017 and aimed at empowering pharmacists in educating the public on sharps waste (hypodermic needles etc) disposal.
In her speech, MCPG organising chairman and president, Lovy Beh, said the initiative started with 30 community pharmacists in Penang was supported by the Penang state government.
She said many people do not know how and where to dispose of sharps waste, as well as unwanted or expired medicine, and many a time it would be thrown out with household waste or flushed down the toilet.
“Such an act is dangerous because disease can be easily transmitted,” she said. – Bernama
