Waste To Energy Plant Just A Beautiful Word To Describe Incinerator

---

The KL Tak Nak Incinerator (KTI), a residents’ group from Kepong, remains opposed to the incinerator project, although it has been shifted from Kepong to Serendah, as it believes that burning wastes is not the best choice for Malaysia
KTI committee member and its media director as well, Lam Choong Wah, said the people should not be misled by the government, which is using the "Waste-to-energy plant" (WTE) term as a more beautiful word to describe the incinerator
This response came after Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin last Saturday announced the cancellation of the incinerator project in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, and said it would be replaced with a WTE project in Serendah, Selangor
"The waste-to-energy plant is just a more beautiful name to describe the incinerator. In fact, it is not as beautiful as the government claims
"We should not be misled by the government, although the term sounds more advanced and sophisticated. The waste-to-energy plant is still an incinerator. For KTI, we don't support either the incinerator or WTE, " Lam (photo) said
He stressed that the best and most fundamental way for waste management is to cut down the amount of waste by using the 3Rs principle of reduce, reuse and recycle
Burning wastes without proper segregation may cause serious pollution to the environment, including heavy metal pollution, such as from mercury
Lam urged the government to take on the role of advising the people to reduce, reuse and recycle, instead of building "a big monster" to burn all the waste
'Government not willing to meet with civil society'He also complained that the Pakatan Harapan government was not willing to meet with civil society for discussion on the matter, as compared with the previous government
The Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) reports and the open tendering process practised by the government, he said, were not transparent in the incinerator projects for Kepong, Serendah and Jeram
"As a government that is always claiming that it embraces the principles of democracy, transparency and good governance, Harapan should publish the DEIA report for the incinerator projects, but until today we haven't seen anything,” Lam pointed out
He added that the Harapan government often makes U-turns on the matter and that the residents’ group wants the government to announce the cancellation of all incinerator projects in a document
“The current government tends to announce this here and announce that there. They are always just 'syok sendiri', but we don't see any documents. We know that it has become normal that this new government makes U-turns, so we urge the government to announce the cancellations in black and white.”KTI also urged Zuraida to elaborate the reasons for building the incinerator, the reasons to change the location of the incinerator project and also to answer why the government didn't publish the DEIA report, and why the 3R principle is not imposed thoroughly
The residents’ group president, Lee Chong Tek (photo, above), also announced that they would, on April 6, hold a closed-door discussion on waste management with the housing and local government minister and the executive councillors from all states
"Waste management experts from local and overseas, such as Prof Paul Connett and Dr Tan Chin Seong, have been invited. The invitation letter for the minister and exco members will be sent to them soon," Lee added. - Mkini

---