Rubbish

1. We are great producers of rubbish - not the verbal kind, although that also - but real solid waste. But we are not keen on their disposal.

2. Rubbish dumps, legal and illegal are everywhere. Land fills which seem to be the preferred method are really hazardous to health. When rain falls and leaches the waste, the water would seep into the ground and pollute ground water. This water flows into the land around and may get into the water supply. At least New Water in Singapore is thoroughly filtered and rendered safe though not aesthetically acceptable. But our ground water is not filtered and can poison the soil and ourstreams and rivers.

3. The Government had wanted to build a modern incinerator like the ones in Japan. These Japanese incinerators are located in the residential area. They produce hardly any smoke from their very tall chimneys. The incinerator is so clean that the locals use them as their recreation area. I have never heard of the Japanese complaining against incinerators being located in their residential areas.

4. But we in Malaysia have higher standards of cleanliness. We do not want even the cleanest incinerators to be located anywhere near where we live. We prefer to dump the rubbish untreated on land. Soon we will be having rubbish mountains like in a neighbouring country where scavengers can recover discarded items which can be washed and sold to the not so rich. 5. Incidentally I am told that in the United Kingdom every household has to have three rubbish bins; one each for plastics, glass and perishables. If the rubbish inspectors finds that there is nothing in the bins the householder will be fined for throwing his rubbish elsewhere. Will we accept sorting our rubbish and dumping them into the correct bin! I think not. That is for the Government to do, as we pay taxes precisely for sorting our rubbish.

By Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at November 1, 2008