GEORGE TOWN – Penang is drawing up a new state law to end the open burning of plastics, with stiff punishment – half a million ringgit for the first offence by a company – as a deterrent.
Welfare, caring society and environment exco Phee Boon Poh said the state wants to get tough on industries still using this method of plastic waste disposal.
He said the plan is to slap heavy penalties on owners of land occupied by companies that engage in the polluting act.
The state will also give powers to its two city councils and enforcement agencies to go after not only the operator of a perpetrating factory, but also the company directors, their proxies and minority shareholders.
“We want to arrest the situation. We have proposed that individuals found engaging in open burning be compounded RM500 each as an attempt to educate the person,” Phee told The Vibes.
“But if a company is found to be doing the open burning, it will be slapped with a RM500,000 fine for the offence.”
He said state authorities are looking into how landowners are to be held culpable for allowing such burning on their plots.
This would be in addition to what is provided for against air pollution under the Environmental Quality Act 1974.
“We are monitoring open burning incidents in the state with the help of federal agencies, and we will make sure no stone is left unturned in this matter,” said Phee.
“We will track down company directors through the Companies Commission of Malaysia to go after them.”
Penang is believed to be the first state in the country to study such a legislative measure to fight air and soil contamination from the burning of plastics.
Phee said the state is willing to cooperate further with the Environment, National Solid Waste Management, and Customs Departments to overcome the problem.
He said the state has requested that the federal government provide more cargo-scanner equipment at the North Butterworth Container Terminal (NBCT) to clamp down on the illegal import of plastics and e-waste from overseas.
It was recently reported that a recycling company in Kedah was found to have illegally imported two containers with e-waste, metal and crushed plastic materials from Japan via NBCT.
The Environment Department uncovered the smuggling when the containers passed through the scanner at the port terminal.
Since the third quarter of last year, Malaysia has returned 150 containers of plastic waste, weighing 3,737 metric tonnes, to their countries of origin.
They had been exported from France (40 containers), the UK (42), the US (17), Canada (11), Spain (10) and Hong Kong (9).
The others included Japan (5), Singapore (4), Portugal and China (3 each), and Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Lithuania (1 each).
The containers were shipped back via ports in Klang, Penang and Sarawak, with no costs incurred by the Malaysian government. – The Vibes, November 24, 2020
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