posted 3 years ago
My recycling monograph in 18 installments
01 Preface
02 Pee
03 Humanure
04 Toilet Paper
05 non-toilet-paper tissues
06 Glass
07 Metal cans
08 the-elephant-in-the-room-plastics
09 Corrugated boxes
10 the-other-elephant-in-the-room-excess-food
11 batteries
12 Used engine oil
13 fruit rind, egg shells and seashells
14 dead pets and roadkill
15 Covid face masks
16 reader suggestions
17 miscellaneous
18 Resources
01 Preface
I live in a landed property with a septic tank system.
This affords me the blessing of multiple compost piles
and greywater systems without a lot of hassle{yes there
are a few instances} from the authorities or the local
residents association.
The advice I give here may not apply to your
locale/circumstances.
A law was passed in my country a few years back which
mandated compulsory waste separation at source or else
face the penalty of fines/imprisonment/both.
It is an unjust law because it takes the livelihood
away from rag-pickers and criminalize them to boot
...
because any trash once placed on the ground or bin
BECOMES THE PROPERTY of this semi-government-privatised
company who have their own uniformed "police"-type
enforcement inspectors. So one way to seek revenge
against your neighbour is to go mess up their pile/bin.
It is thus a stupid law. Imagine having to install a
trashcam to protect yourself. Luckily for me, as you
will discover later, I produce so little trash that my
bin is in my garden supporting a transplanted Moringa
sapling as it takes root.
They have this sales pitch: For the sake of our
children. In reality they just want to grow rich from
easy pickings of nice clean newspaper, clean tin cans
and bottles, aluminum cans which they can immediately
sell to recycling centres and in the future detach from
the ministry under which they are currently parked.
They did not forsee that enterprising parties would
make the rounds early before collection day and harvest
the pickings. I think their own contractors take their
cut on the way to the collection centre.
Schadenfreude.
We need to invest time and effort and water to clean
stuff and don't get paid/compensated in any way. Not
even a discount/rebate on assessment fees.
One legal way to thwart them is to take your own
recyclables to sell to the recycling centre but I guess
many people are just not bothered.
There are 3 collection days announced for my locality.
Two days are for kitchen waste/diapers/contaminated
food containers. These go into the bin. The remaining
day is for sorted and clean paper/cardboard, tins,
plastic bottles/containers, electric appliances,
construction waste, garden refuse, old furniture,
paint, poisons/pesticides/insecticides and batteries
and these are to be placed on the ground beside the bin.
We have a one bin system. Needless to say, these are to
be bagged{which recycling centre would pay for soggy
newspapers?} to the extent that they can be.
No, plastic bags are not supplied so use those from
your supermarket except that some other law following
this tasks the supermarkets from supplying these for
free and now are no longer supplied at some chains.
Needless to say, nothing much has improved and plastic
bags and plastic straws and plastic food containers
still abound. Covid has even given this a boost.
I am not sure about engine oil but one surprising thing
they will not collect is cooking oil. I guess that if
this spills during transport it will damage the clean
stuff. The collection truck initially had compartments
but now everything is just lumped together. After all
they announced at the beginning that microsorting will
be done at the collection centres. They had grand
plans, they did.
The moral of the story: They had it coming. It is a
complete mess with yet another pair of laws and more
detect/prosecute/punish perils.
I think the lawmakers were lazy and simply
cut-and-paste from other legislature and didn't
read/debate before voting.
Want to laugh-then-weep?
Here is an excerpt:
LAWS OF MALAYSIA
Act 672
SOLID WASTE AND PUBLIC CLEANSING MANAGEMENT ACT 2007
...
Access to computerised data
83. (1) An authorized officer conducting a search
under this Act shall be given access to
computerized data whether stored in a
computer or otherwise.
(2) For the purposes of this section, the
authorized officer shall be provided with
the necessary password, encryption code,
decryption code, software or hardware and
any other means required for his access to
enable comprehension of computerized data.
Power to stop, search and seize vehicle
84. (1) If an authorized officer has reasonable
cause to suspect that any vehicle is
carrying any thing in respect of which an
offence under this Act or any regulations
made under this Act is being or has been
committed, he may stop and examine the
vehicle and may, if on examination he has
reasonable cause to believe that such
vehicle is or has been used for the
commission of such offence, seize the
vehicle and any thing found in the vehicle
that is reasonably believed to furnish
evidence of the commission of the offence.
(2) The person in control or in charge of the
vehicle shall, if required to do so by the
authorized officer
(a) stop the vehicle and allow the
authorized officer to examine it; and
(b) open all parts of the vehicle for
examination and take all measures
necessary to enable or facilitate the
carrying out of such examination as the
authorized officer considers necessary.
(3) Any person who contravenes subsection (2)
commits an offence and shall, on conviction,
be liable to a fine not exceeding ten
thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a
term not exceeding six months or to both and
in the case of a continuing offence be
liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand
ringgit for every day or a part of a day
during which the offence continues after
conviction.
Power of investigation
80. (1) An authorized officer shall have the power
to investigate the commission of any offence
under this Act.
(2) Every person required by an authorized
officer to give information or produce any
document or other article relating to the
commission of any offence which is in his
power to give shall be legally bound to give
the information or produce the document or
other article.
Search and seizure with warrant
81. (1) If it appears to a Magistrate, upon written
information on oath and after such inquiry
as he considers necessary, that there is a
reasonable cause to believe that any
premises have been used or are about to be
used for, or there is in or on any premises,
evidence necessary to establish, the
commission of an offence under this Act, the
Magistrate may issue a warrant authorizing
an authorized officer to whom it is
directed, at any reasonable time by day or
night and with or without assistance
(a) to enter any premises and there search
for, seize and detain any property,
equipment, machinery, book, record,
document, container, receptacle or other
article;
(b) to inspect, make copies of, or take
extracts from, any book, record,
document or other article so seized and
detained;
(c) to take possession of, and remove from
the premises, any property, equipment,
machinery, book, record, document,
container, receptacle or other article
so seized and detain it for such period
as may be necessary;
(d) to search any person who is in, or on,
such premises, and for the purpose of
the search, detain the person and remove
him to such place as may be necessary to
facilitate the search, and seize and
detain any property or document found on
the person; or
(e) to break open, examine, and search any
container, receptacle or other article.
(2) An authorized officer acting under
subsection (1) may, if it is necessary to do
so
(a) break open any outer or inner door of
any premises and enter the premises;
(b) forcibly enter any premises and every
part thereof;
(c) remove by force any obstruction to the
entry, search, seizure, detention or
removal that he is empowered to effect;
or
(d) detain any person found on any premises
searched under subsection (1) until the
search is completed.
(3) If, by reason of its nature, size or amount,
it is not practicable to remove any
property, equipment, machinery, book,
record, document, container, receptacle or
other article seized under this section, the
authorized officer making the seizure shall,
by any means, seal such property, equipment,
machinery, book, record, document,
container, receptacle or other article.
(4) Any person who, without lawful authority,
breaks, tampers with or damages the seal
referred to in subsection (3) or removes the
property, equipment, machinery, book,
record, document, container, receptacle or
other article under seal or attempts to do
so commits an offence and shall, on
conviction, be liable to a fine not
exceeding ten thousand ringgit or to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding six
months or to both and in the case of a
continuing offence be liable to a fine not
exceeding one thousand ringgit for every day
or a part of a day during which the offence
continues after conviction.
Search and seizure without warrant
82. If an authorized officer is satisfied upon
information received that he has reasonable
cause to believe that by reason of delay in
obtaining a search warrant under section 81 the
investigation would be adversely affected or
evidence of the commission of an offence is
likely to be tampered with, removed, damaged or
destroyed, the officer may enter the premises
and exercise in, upon and in respect of the
premises all the powers referred to in section
81 in as full and ample a manner as if he were
authorized to do so by a warrant issued under
that section.
I can understand this if it involves narcotics but it
seems a bit over the top for garbage{but not for a
sit-com if the King and palace become embroiled with an
Inspector Clouseau type officer}.
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