Food Waste Management in Malaysia: P a g e | 36

Journal of Industrial Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 1, April 2012

An International Journal

HATAM Publishers

J. Ind. Res. & Technology 2(1), 36-39, 2012


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Food Waste Management in Malaysia- Current situation and future
management options

Azlina Abdul Hamid
*,1
, Anees Ahmad
2
, Mahamad Hakimi Ibrahim
1
, Nik Norulaini Nik Abdul Rahman
3

1
Division of Environmental Technology, School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
11800 Penang, Malaysia.
2
Division of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, A.M.U. Aligarh,
202002, India.
3
Division of Biology, School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia.
*Corresponding author, Phone:+60-102060336, Fax: 60-4-6573678, E-mail: azlina6222@hotmail.com

ARTICLE INFORMATION ABSTRACT
Article history
Received January 10, 2012
Revised February 20, 2012
Accepted March 05, 2012
Available online April 30, 2012


The high amount of food waste generated is the main cause to most issues
related to landfills such as foul odor, toxic leachate, emission of greenhouse
gases and vermin infestation. Although food waste issue is as critical as
municipal solid waste issue, the condition is such that municipal solid waste
management systems in Malaysia are also very poorly conducted. Thus, the
aim of this paper is to discuss the possible options of food waste
management systems that are suitable for implementation in Malaysia.


Keywords
Food waste;
Management;
Municipal solid waste;
Waste prevention;
Food waste composition


2011 HATAM: Publishers. All rights Reserved.

1. Introduction
The problem of food waste (FW) is a global
issue nowadays and even the developed countries
are much concerned to find its appropriate
management solution along with the municipal solid
waste (MSW). Countries such as Korea and Japan
separate FW from MSW due to food waste
degradation, insufficient areas for landfills, problems
with transportation of FW to disposal sites and
problems arising from landfill and incineration (Kim
and Kim, 2010). Malaysia on the other hand, is
trying its best to solve the basic problem of
municipal solid waste management only and finding
the most environmentally friendly solutions which
are acceptable by the public. The FW is treated as
part of MSW and a separate FW management
system does not exist in Malaysia. Thus together
with efforts to solve MSW issues, Malaysia should
also consider finding solutions for FW matter as
MSW is highly related to FW as it constitutes
approximately 60% of MSW (Kathrivale, et al. 2003,
Saeed, et al. 2009, Hassan, et al. 2001).
In 2005, municipal solid waste generated was
7.34 million tons and is predicted to increase to 10.9
million tons in 2020 (Alias, 2010). Food waste
content is about 60% of the MSW, thus the
estimated amount of food waste generated in 2005
is 4.404 million tons and is estimated to increase to
6.54 million tons in 2020. The high amount of food
waste generated is the main cause to most issues
related to landfills such as foul odor, toxic leachate,
emission of greenhouse gases and vermin
infestation (Lee, et al. 2007). Although food waste
issue is as critical as municipal solid waste issue,
the condition is such that municipal solid waste
management systems in Malaysia are also very
poorly conducted (Hassan, et al. 1999). Thus, the
aim of this paper is to discuss the possible options
Journal of Industrial Research & Technology
(ISSN 2229-9467)

Food Waste Management in Malaysia: P a g e | 37

Journal of Industrial Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 1, April 2012

of food waste management systems that are
suitable for implementation in Malaysia.

2. Current food waste situation in Malaysia
Municipal solid waste generated daily in
Malaysia range from 0.8-0.9 kg per household in
general and about 1.62 kg per household in densely
populated cities such as Kuala Lumpur with food
waste constituting approximately 60% of the total
solid waste (Saeed, et al. 2009, Kathrivale, et al.
2003). Kathrivale, et al. (2003) also stated that 85-
90% of total solid waste are organic wastes. Table 1
shows the composition of Malaysian food waste.

Figure 1 : Hierarchy of waste management
option (Cox, et al. 2010)

Table 1: Composition (%) of food waste on wet weight basis.
Components Malaysian food
waste
Japanese food waste (Ohkouchi
& Inoue, 2007)
Moisture 78.09 77.5
Ash 1.42 1.68
Total Sugar 10.36 9.85
Carbohydrate 8.05 7.79
Protein 3.50 3.99
Fats 5.22 5.41
Fiber (cellulose, lignin, hemicelluloses) 4.64 4.72
Note: Malaysian food waste data is taken from a laboratory work by the author to study food waste
composition from a household in Malaysia. The above data is not regarded as representative of the
whole countries food waste composition but only used as a sample reference.

Table 2 :Food waste recycling methods
Food waste recycling
options
Description Examples of countries
applying recycling options
Anaerobic digestion/
Co-digestion
Food waste is collected and fermented to
produce methane gas which is collected as
renewable energy (Knipe, 2005)
Germany, Great Britain.
Composting Home composting (food waste digesters) or
in-vessel composting facility whereby the
compost product can be used as fertilizers
or soil amendment (Knipe, 2005, Kim and
Kim, 2010).
Great Britain, Korea.
Dry or wet feed Facility that processes and converts food
wastes into safe animal feeds (Kim and Kim,
2010).
Korea

The data given shows chemical content in
Malaysian food waste compared to Japanese food
waste content. Nevertheless, this data is not
representative of all Malaysian food wastes as there
is no actual study on food waste composition
collected from households or disposed at landfills. A
study by Afizah (2006) shows that moisture content
of municipal solid waste collected from Pulau
Burung landfill contains 54.1% moisture and
Kathrivale, et al. (2003) study showed moisture
content of 55%. Nevertheless, home food waste
moisture content is higher as shown in Table 1 and
is in agreement to the food waste tested in Japan
(Ohkouchi and Inoue, 2007). This increase in
moisture could be due to the water from washing of
plates and pots that were inevitably introduced to
the waste mixture.
Food waste in Malaysia is not segregated at
source nor separated from other solid wastes at
landfill sites before disposal. At present there are
289 landfills in Malaysia and only 7 out of total
landfills are sanitary landfills (Syed Ali, 2009). Solid
wastes are not normally recycled by Malaysians
either by composting or by other recycling methods.
Separation of wastes such as papers, plastics,
glass, rubber, ferrous and non-ferrous metals are
usually done by garbage collection worker and
scavengers at disposal sites (Hassan, et al. 2000).
Waste Prevention
Reuse
Recycling
Recovery
Safe
Disposal
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Journal of Industrial Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 1, April 2012

Food wastes with other organic wastes such as
garden waste and timber products are dumped
directly into landfills without any treatment
whatsoever. Nevertheless, a positive turn of events
recently shows that Malaysian government is
concerned about the ever rising solid waste issues
in the country. The government will enforce
Malaysians to separate solid waste at home
according to category by giving free garbage bins by
the year 2013. Datuk Nadzri Yahya, the Director
General of the Department of Solid Waste
Management, said that the Prime Minister, Datuk
Seri Najib Razak demanded during the last cabinet
meeting that Solid Waste Management Act and
Public Cleansing 2007 to be executed as soon as
early next year. For the execution of this act, 2
separate garbage bins will be provided for every
household that is one for organic solid waste and
one for recyclable waste material (Alzahrin, 2010).

3. Types of food waste management in the
world
Food waste issue, although has always been
frequently regarded as main contributor to
greenhouse gasses, only recently received much
attention even in developed countries. In order to
assess management options, that option must have
detailed health, safety, environmental, social,
economic and operational risk to determine whether
the waste management strategies are suitable for
implementation (Knipe, 2005).
There are many types of food waste
management. Basically, all waste management
methods should follow the hierarchy shown in Figure
1. Waste prevention is set as the top priority
because that is the source of waste generation.
Reuse of waste includes using second hand goods
but in the case of food waste, not many foods in its
original form can be reused due to edibility issue.
Recycling of food waste in Malaysia is rarely
conducted. But the importance of recycling is at the
third priority. Examples of food recycling methods
that some countries have applied are as shown in
Table 2. Recovery level usually includes energy
recovery from certain types of waste management
for example incineration. The final option for waste
management is safe disposal at an organized landfill
system.

4. Food waste management option for Malaysia
Suitability of food waste management is highly
dependent on the costs of setting up and running
the system. Based on the hierarchy shown in Figure
1, normally the most expensive part of waste
management is to set up highly advanced facility for
recycling, recovery and safe disposal. The least cost
used is for the first priority and the second priority
that is waste prevention and reuse respectively.
Nevertheless, this is the most difficult part to
implement as it involves more human participation
compared to the other three. Human attitude and
behavior has always been the most difficult part to
make a change to as shown in a study by group of
researchers in United Kingdom on peoples waste
prevention habits (Cox, et al. 2010). In order to
produce change, steps to tackle this matter through
education, campaigns and policies must be
conducted continuously. The effect of waste
prevention is enormous on the generation rate of
food waste (Cox, et al. 2010). Thus, this is the
ultimate step that Malaysians must take in order to
reduce food waste generation as a whole.
One of the prominent recycling methods of food
waste and municipal solid waste is by incineration
and has been successfully applied in countries such
as Japan. In Malaysia, however, the previous Blue
Valley project to build a mega-incinerator in Broga,
Pahang has led to many serious objections from the
residents in that area and most environmentally-
concerned non-government organization (The Sun,
2007). The government has finally decided to cancel
the project (The Star, 2007). Recently, there have
been articles in the newspaper that the government
is planning to build mini-incinerators all over
Malaysia such as in Melaka and Johor (Bernama,
2009). These new projects are bound to receive
continuous protests as incineration ash by-product is
highly toxic to the environment (Balifokus, 2006).
Besides the hazardous ash by-product of
incineration, the setup and running costs of such
incinerator are also very expensive. The previously
cancelled incinerator project costs 425 million US
dollar.
Other potential food waste processing facility
includes anaerobic digestion, dry or wet animal
feeds and in-vessel composting (Table 2). The
government should be opened to these technologies
as the by-products are relatively safe, can be used
as soil amendment or safe to be disposed at landfills
as well as useful for energy recovery (Kim and Kim,
2010). The private sector should also take this
opportunity to enter this field as not only it helps in
recycling the abundant of food waste but also
producing revenue from sale of biogas, animal feeds
and agriculture compost.
There are also some other options that can be
taken into consideration for example producing
energy products from food waste. Currently, there
are proven and applied technologies to produce
methane (Han and Shin, 2004) and hydrogen (Kim
et al. 2009). Other potential technologies include
producing oil (Minowa et al. 1995), lactic acid (Sakai
et al. 2000) and plastic (Sakai et al. 2004). Although
most of these technologies are only available in lab
scale, future interests and investment should be
channeled to develop such beneficial technology
into pilot scale project.
5. Conclusion
Food Waste Management in Malaysia: P a g e | 39

Journal of Industrial Research & Technology, Volume 2, Issue 1, April 2012

Several food waste management options for
Malaysia have been discussed. The most important
part of waste management is to apply waste
prevention and reuse to all Malaysians. Although
this is undoubtedly the most difficult, the Malaysian
government and non-government organizations
should consider prompt implementation of this
option due to its current and long term future
benefits.

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Institute of
Postgraduate Studies for providing scholarships and
grants in order to fulfill completion of the first
authors Masters degree program.

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