Timely isn't it? Just when I write about this industry, things begin to happen all around. This time the Royal Malaysian Police acting on a tip off from none other that His Royal Highness Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Al-Sultan Abdullah (Regent of Pahang) through the Inspector General of Police's Secretariat alongside members of the Anti Money Laundering Squad of Bukit Aman raided at least 6 illegal waste operating sites in Pekan, Bandar Muazzam Shah (Pahang), Simpang Renggam (Johor), Gemencheh and Rembau (Negeri Sembilan) as well as one in Bukit Tagar, Selangor.
As I mentioned in my previous article, these illegal operators make so much in profits that any raid or closure of their facilities will only push them further underground. They have no responsibilities and continue to pollute both their surroundings as well as waterways.
The value of such canibalised metals are so high these days that. they simply harness, liquid and disappear into the next land that they can secure on a short to middle term lease. They operate without a care for the environment and only have profits as their goal.
So, will these raids be effective for Malaysia's long term objective? For some perspective, one can argue that it started some time in 2018 when then newly minted Minister of Science, Technology and Environment Yeo Bee Yin had declared an open war on environment polluters, starting from the illegal dumping of chemicals in Johor, and Puchong. That further developed into front page photos of her opening containers of waste, which also included e-waste and 'demanding that developed' countries stop using Malaysia as their garbage dump.
Perhaps, back then having to win over the media, not much attention was paid to what the recycling industry was churning, billions of Ringgit in much needed revenue to revive Malaysia's dwindling economy. Fast forward to 3 ministers later post Mahathir's 2nd coming, still not much is done enough for those that are legal and fighting a system created to challenge them instead of helping the industry grow.
In Norway for example, instead of battling different producers and materials, the European directive of waste electronic and electrical equipment has authorised 'Productive Creative Schemes' or PCS. It helps producers through a scheme championed by approved agencies to collect and package and passes the cost directly to producers. But what then becomes of other wastes? Collectedresponsibly, it becomes a much needed resource for licensed legal recyclers. Win + Win, and Norway leads the way !
So why aren't countries like Malaysia following these steps? In fact even in Singapore (it is almost always argued that Singapore is small, so easier to manage) such positive steps are already taken and even household batteries, which does not score very high on the recycle-o-meter in terms of value, has found its very own home in waste recovery efforts.
While countries like Norway, can see why their policies might help turn around an industry shunned by the Basel Convention, though many have totally misunderstood the very reason of the accord, others like Malaysia is still more interested in the headline grabbing news of illegal factory raids.
As calls grow for the Anwar Ibrahim led government to do more in order to protect legal operators from being seen in bad light, as well as the shrinking of resources created by the blanket ban that it has been imposing on e-waste imports - Singapore, Thailand and Vietname stand to gain more and more from Malaysia's short sightedness in recognising that there is really a pot of gold at the end of the e-waste rainbow!
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