A Model Landfill Like No Other
An integrated and environmentally engineered waste management facility
Monday, 27/03/2006, Kuching
SAFE & SECURE...An overview of the Sanitary Landfill catering for municipal waste and equiped with multi-base sealing system.
In the recent 10th Annual International Symposium on Waste Management and Landfill held in October 2005 at Sardinia, Italy, most of the international participants found it hard to believe that a modern landfill amidst an integrated waste management facility exists in the heart of the eastern Malaysia’s tropical forest.
Built from the foresightedness of the State Government of Sarawak in 2003, the standard set by the Kuching Integrated Waste Management Park (KIWMP) has exceeded not only the local and international environmental standards in terms of capabilities but also the imagination and expectation of international planners, operators, public officials and experts in the field of waste management and land filling. The presentation on the technical features of KIWMP at the international round table discussion was an eye-opener and learning experience for most participants as it is the only facility integrates the reception, treatment and disposal of municipal and hazardous waste under one roof.
THE KIDNEY THAT CLEANS...The Leachate Water Treatment Plant treats leachate from both the Sanitary and Secure Landfill in accordance to Standard B of the EQA 1974 which is almost to drinking water quality.
Aside from this, its operator Trienekens (Sarawak) Sdn. Bhd., had already implemented an integrated system of waste collection called the Integrated Solid Waste Management System (ISWMS) which combines the collection, transportation and disposal of wastes under one operating company. The ISWMS is currently being practiced in Kuching City and industrial town of Bintulu.
The KIWMP receives about 500 tonnes of municipal waste daily from Kuching City’s population of about 500,000 people. In addition, the park also receives, treats and disposes of scheduled and hazardous as well as clinical waste from all over Sarawak and Labuan.
Located in Mambong about 23km away from the Kuching City, the KIWMP was built on a 112-hectare State Government land, surrounded by the lush green semi-urban jungle and a number of neighbouring villages.
The waste management park has four main driving components namely the sanitary landfill which accepts household wastes, the secure landfill which caters for scheduled and hazardous wastes, a leachate water treatment plant where harmful liquids are treated and filtered before being discharged, and finally an incinerator, which burns all forms of scheduled and hazardous wastes such solids, sludge, liquids, clinical and pathological wastes. It also has other auxiliary facilities which support the four main operations.
PROPER DISPOSAL...The hazardous waste incineration plant is equipped with the most modern air pollution control system together with its associated system control and instrumentation.
The key operating principle of the park is to ensure that all in-coming waste and chemical effluents generated from the landfills are treated and eliminated using the various modern technologies in environmental engineering, and subsequently discharge them into the natural environment in the cleanest and purest form. The whole system hinges on the utmost desired goal and end result of allowing total zero environmental impact and eliminating other possible adverse consequences that could damage the existing flora and fauna in the area.
“Such care begins even from the waste collection point which is right at the city residents’ door steps until it reaches the disposal site. At the initial stage, it took lot of educating and convincing in making people aware of the total effectiveness of the ISMWS, the facility and the benefits of the integrated management system,” revealed Mr. Joerg Domroes, the Managing Director of Trienekens (Sarawak) Sdn. Bhd.
“After almost a year in operation, we are glad that people have begun to understand and accept what we exactly do here in the park, and that is to manage our waste with maximum effectiveness without damaging a single thread of our fragile environment.
“Our current outlook on waste has to change and we cannot treat waste the same way we used to. The cost of rapid urban development includes among others, the high generation of wastes by consumers, small businesses and industries while the availability of suitable lands is inevitably depleting,” he added.
“The waste management of the future will have to consider better resources management in view of the growing population. Whilst waste minimization is to the way to go as people are slowly adopting the 3Rs, we still have to address, at the meantime, the issue of proper disposal by carefully determining how we use our lands and sustain the environment without causing more harm than it probably has already endured,” said Mr. Domroes. It is with that concept in mind that the KIWMP was developed.
Since it began operation, the 23-year old dumpsite in Matang has been closed and all wastes have been re-directed to the modern waste management park. Compared to traditional characteristics of the previous dumpsite, the landfills in KIWMP were planned and designed meticulously to meet the environmental standards set by the Department of Environment. Unlike the old dumpsites, the landfills are equipped with multi-layered system that protects harmful leachate from seeping into underground natural water resources.
All social, economic and environmental impacts were also addressed at the planning stage and later presented in the DEIA report prior to the construction of the park. Today, as planned, the two-year old park has almost utilized the first cell of its sanitary landfill and two more new cells are ready and expected to receive municipal wastes by middle of this year.
Leachate water from both the sanitary and secured landfills is treated in various treatment stages to ensure that it achieve DOE’s Standard B level of safety before being released into the natural environment.
The Kuching Integrated Waste Management Park has successful achieved and implemented its design capabilities as a waste management facility that is of a truly international standards.
END OF RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Janet J. Balong, Public Relations Department
Tel: (082) 237 000
www.trienekens.com.my
