Govt will hold open tender for waste system

PETALING JAYA: An open tender exercise will be held for companies interested in developing a waste-to-energy (WTE) management system for safer waste disposal in the country, says Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin (pic).

The government is sorting out the tender details which will be ready in three months’ time, she added.

“After that, we will launch a request for proposal,” she said yesterday after opening the Pharmacy Renaissance Summit by the Malaysian Community Pharmacy Guild (MCPG), supported by, among others, the BP Healthcare Group.

Yeo said the time had come for the country to modernise and shift from landfills to a better waste management solution.

In her speech, Yeo said the chemical pollution incident in Pasir Gudang should serve as a lesson on how every kind of waste, particularly scheduled waste, must be managed with caution.

She praised MCPG’s Green Pharmacy pilot project, which began in 2017 and is aimed at empowering pharmacists in educating the public on sharps waste (hypodermic needles, etc) disposal.

In her speech, MCPG organising chairman and president Lovy Beh said the initiative started with 30 community pharmacists in Penang.

She said many people did not know how and where to dispose of sharps waste, as well as unwanted or expired medicine, and mostly they would be thrown out with household waste or flushed down the toilet.

“Such an act is dangerous because disease can be easily transmitted,” she said.

Source : TheStar