WHILE Malaysians are busy worrying about whether radiation-contaminated seawater surrounding Japan's nuclear disaster zone is going to wash onto Malaysian shores, or whether radiation-contaminated food from Japan is going to get past Customs inspections and be consumed by unsuspecting foodies, the fact is, the health of Malaysians have long been at risk of contamination by poisons contributed by leachate from our own landfills.
The poisons, including heavy metals like mercury, leach into groundwater and flow into our rivers, contaminating riverwater and the eco-system that depends on it. If the leach goes undetected, the poisons will flow into our body through the water, fish and shellfish that we consume.
Who is responsible for this insidious poisoning of the people? We are.
Every person who has ever thrown a dry cell battery (like the ones used in torchlights and television remote controls), a fluorescent tube, handphone batteries and other hazardous e-waste like computers, televisions and printers into their household dustbin has contributed to this potential poisoning of the people. Broken or crushed fluorescent tubes leak out mercury gas; dry cells leak out heavy metals. This e-waste, which is scheduled waste, cannot be thrown into an ordinary dustbin, cannot be picked up by an ordinary rubbish-collection lorry, and should not end up on a normal rubbish heap at a normal landfill which is not equipped to deal with leachate.
And yet, every day, more than 42 tonnes of such hazardous e-waste is thrown out together with ordinary household waste.
It is not enough for consumers to know their rights; they must also take responsibility for what they consume, and this includes how they dispose of what they have consumed. But it is one thing to educate the consumer about separating their rubbish; it is another thing altogether to make sure that the rubbish stays separated. Besides building more sanitary landfills with leachate treatment facilities, the government needs to set laws which require e-waste to be compulsorily recycled.
In June 1998, the Japanese government enacted a Home Appliance Recycling Law, in which all white goods were required to be cannibalised and their components recycled. The responsibility for this is borne by the consumer, who pays a compulsory up-front collection charge at the time of purchase, and the manufacturer, who must collect the used product later in the future and recycle it. No government subsidy is involved, as the role of the government is to provide direction to the public to take responsibility for their consumer habits.
Since Malaysia intends to make separation of rubbish at the source for household goods compulsory in 2013, it is only fair that this should be followed through with a plan for how to keep this waste separate.
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