Recycling in Malaysia

Data from the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) collected from January to November throughout 2018 puts the national recycling rate at 0.06%, or about 1,800 tonnes of the 3 million tonnes of waste collected in the period. Majority of the waste were sent to landfills.^[1]

In 2015, household, industrial, commercial and institutional waste generation in the country was at 38,563 tonne per day of which 88.8% went to landfills.^[2] In 2005, Malaysia produced about 7.34 million tonnes of solid wastes, of which 30% are possibly recyclable but only 3-5% were actually processed.^[3] Given the insufficiency in recyclables within the country and the potential lucrative profits, Malaysian companies have been importing rubbish from foreign countries,^[3] more so since the total plastic waste ban of China in 2018.

Household recycling rate in Malaysia is estimated to be at 9.7% in a nationwide survey in 2011.^[4] The same report indicated that Kuantan had the highest household recycling rate (18.4%) while Sabah rest at the lowest with 4.5%. Kuala Lumpur, the nation's capital with an estimated population of 1.66 million people in 2009, produced household waste of around 0.8 to 1.3 kg per day, that amount together with the industrial waste of the city led to the generation of an average 3,500 tonnes of waste per day.^[5] In 2012, its household recycling rate was at 10.4%.

In the Eleventh Malaysia Plan 2016- 2020, the stated solid waste management goals was to achieve a rate of 40% waste diversion from landfill and 22% recycling rate by 2020.^[2]