Itinerant waste pickers who comb through housing estates in search of recyclables from the garbage discarded by households seem to be having a field day following the implementation of solid waste separation at source on Sept 1.

The new ruling, which requires households to segregate their waste by categories such as plastic, paper, cardboard, glass, metal and food waste, has made it easier and more convenient for the waste pickers to collect the recyclables, without having to rummage through dirty trash bins.

Of late, the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Corporation (SWCorp) has observed a noticeable drop in the amount of recyclable wastes collected from households.

Its Research and Technology Director Dr Mohd Pauze Mohd Taha said SWCorp has received reports from the contractors tasked with rubbish collection that "others were picking up the recyclables before the garbage trucks got there".

This "practice" appeared to be prevalent in Pahang, Kedah and Perlis, he said. In Pahang, for instance, during the fourth week of the implementation of the waste separation ruling, the amount of garbage collected reduced to 3,000 tonnes, from 5,000 tonnes in the second week and 9,000 tonnes in the first week.

"Of course, it warrants our attention. But, to be frank, we are happy as long as the 'missing' wastes don't end up in some landfill," he told Bernama in an interview.

Mohd Pauze said he has instructed his staff to look into the matter in order to identify the waste pickers and find out what they were doing with the wastes they had collected.

"These people know the (garbage) contractors' schedules and they go (to the housing estates) before the trucks arrive. They are clearly taking advantage of the waste separation ruling," he said.

Mohd Pauze also said that SWCorp was considering whether or not to propose that waste picking activities be licensed, adding that it was taking a look at the relevant legislation and regulations and would have discussions on the matter with the authorities concerned.

Most of these "free-lance" waste pickers are unemployed people who go from one neighbourhood to another on their bicycles or motorcycles in search of recyclables like cardboard boxes, newspapers and magazines, scrap metal, cans, bottles and plastic items, which they sell to the businesses concerned.

Mohd Pauze said households were now becoming more aware of the waste separation ruling and SWCorp was receiving more requests to give talks on the matter to local communities.

"The people are cooperating better now and they want to know how to go about separating their household wastes.

"This is part of the education process... the more people ask (about waste separation), the better we feel," he said.

The waste separation initiative, which comes under the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007, aims at reducing the amount of solid waste sent to dumpsites by 40 per cent by the year 2020.

The ruling has been implemented in Kuala Lumpur, Pahang, Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis and Kedah.

Starting June 1 next year, a compound of RM1,000 will be imposed on households which fail to adhere to the ruling. So far, a total of 1.9 million leaflets, explaining how the waste segregation should be carried out, have been distributed in the seven states.

Mohd Pauze said a total of 72,473kg of wastes was segregated between Sept 4 and Sept 27 in all the states where the ruling had been implemented, with Pahang recording the highest amount at 28,389kg, followed by Kuala Lumpur (21,350kg), Negeri Sembilan (7,513kg), Melaka (7,395kg), Johor (5,274kg), Kedah (1,971kg),
and Perlis (581kg).

He said the actual figures were higher as SWCorp could not take into account the amount of recyclables "pilfered" by the waste pickers, and newspapers and magazines which households normally sold to the "paper lama" (old newspaper) traders.

Admitting that it was not an easy task educating almost 10 million Malaysians on the waste separation ruling, Mohd Pauze said the biggest challenge was to "continuously engage and educate them... this is the most fundamental issue here".

At present, Malaysia's recycling rate stands at 15 per cent and SWCorp hopes to increase it to 22 per cent by 2020.

"If everyone starts practising waste separation, we can save 30 per cent of the potential recyclable wastes, which translate into 10,000 tonnes of garbage per day," he said.

The cost savings that could accrue from the waste separation initiative were substantial as well, he said, pointing out that the corporation currently had to fork out about RM120 to manage each tonne of waste.

"If we can reduce 10,000 tonnes of waste a day, then we can save RM1.2 million a day that would otherwise go into managing that amount of waste," katanya.

In a random survey of various residential areas in the city, Bernama found that many households had initially found the waste separation process complicating but most of them have now become more familiar with it.

Housewife Nazzera Karim, 45, from Cheras said she was confused and had no idea how to go about separating her household waste for almost two weeks after the implementation of the ruling.

"But with some advice from my neighbours and the contractors (in charge of garbage collection), I learnt how to do it and it has now become easy for me to separate my waste," she said.

For bank clerk, Foong Mei Fen, 37, the new ruling meant more work at home but reckoned that the effort was worthwhile.

"Less garbage is good for our environment and it will keep our country green and clean. Of course, there's more work for us at home because we have to separate our waste but it's for our own good," she added.