Brunei's solid waste management system

IN Part 1 of "Solid Waste Management in Brunei" that appeared on 14 June in The Brunei Times, the Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies (CSPS) described on the types of solid waste, causal factors and the status of waste management in Brunei Darussalam as well as the various measures that can be implemented in the country and possible best practices from the macro point of view. Part 2 will conclude on suggesting simple actions that can be integrated both on the individual and household levels in correlation to government efforts.

In Brunei Darussalam, other than the government, individuals, families and all members of the community members play different roles in solid waste management. There are many ways where this is possible. The community can participate in solid waste management by showing proper sanitation behaviour and by participation in the administration and management of solid waste services. These include: making it a habit to properly store and dispose of garbage in special bags or bins, whether awaiting collection or sending it to a communal collection point for transfer; cooperating in clean-up campaigns; keep house and immediate environment clean (drains, streets in front of the house); and separate waste in organic and non-organic, wet and dry, keep plastic, paper, and others.

Proper solid waste management practices include reduce, reuse, and recycle. Reducing the solid waste at the initial stage is one of the common practices which had been adopted in many developing countries. It tries to reduce the rate of solid waste production by discouraging people to use less non-biodegradable material. Charging a few cents for every plastic bag that a grocery provide is one of the measures that may help so that shops and stores do not distribute plastic for free. Zero cost on products like plastic bags is causing overuse action. In Brunei, based on a 2005 survey, the composition of plastics from solid waste collected is around 18 per cent, or the second most found material after food scrap (36 per cent) (Department of Environment, Park and Recreation, 2006). Another way of reducing the solid waste is by imposing garbage tax. This tax will discourage household to produce more garbage and for instead considering recycle or reuse. Setting collection days will also help to reduce waste production. By setting special days for certain types of waste, the number of wastes collected will be reduced as people will be alerted if they keep on piling garbage and neglecting the collection day. With the percentage of food scrap up to 36 per cent of the total solid waste production, this practice might show a significant drop of the solid waste production. Reuse is a practice which actually encourages people to reuse common scraps, such as: papers, and plastics, among others. A blank page of a scrap paper can be bound and used as notebook, or a used tyre can be used as a garden bench or other household appliances and others. The practice actually needs creativity and innovation and this habit or creation utilisation can be inculcated right from the school level through projects. The merit of this practice is that it might result in a new business opportunity of new products, handicrafts and other goods which can absorb new employment and upgrade the skill of the local community. This is the most popular practice in solid waste management around the world. People are starting to try the opportunity to recycle almost every material. Gaining new economic value from what people used to call them: garbage. Paper, metal, plastic and glass are the most popular materials to be recycled. Food scrap and other organic scraps, such as grass clipping, can be recycled with modern technology to become a kind of humus which can be sold as organic fertiliser. With food scraps made out of 36 per cent out of total solid waste, which equals to 108 tonnes of food scraps per day, then add the yard waste of 18 tonnes and wood 3 tonnes, the total will be 129 tonnes of organic waste material per day which are ready to be recycled. And if plastics and cans are also recycled, it means more than 70 per cent of total solid waste collected can be recycled and this can definitely reduce the number of wastes dumped in the landfill. Paper waste production per day is 54 tonnes while plastic is 48 tonnes. All these materials offer good opportunities for starting a recycling industry. Some countries impose the restriction of a minimum amount of recycled material used in industries such as packaging and retail. This restriction will increase the demand for recycled paper and will also create the market for recycled goods. Another practice that might complement recycling is garbage separation. If households separate their garbage and with collection authorities specifying collection types by different days, collection days and recycling practices can be further encouraged. Apart from that, the community is also taught to improve their awareness of nurturing a clean environment. The garbage separation practise can also be introduced to the younger age community through schools education. At the moment, eco-education has been implemented in some schools in Brunei, by teaching students to separate litters based on their materials. Children then might be able to copy their activities in school, at home, and also influence the family. Recycling practice is very promising as the main tool to manage solid wastes, but it takes the participation from all stakeholders, from individuals, businesses, organisations to the government authorities as the regulator.

In Brunei Darussalam, the only existing disposal practice is by using landfills. Conventional landfill just piles up the solid waste and buries them. There is no engineered technology that processes the waste.

Meanwhile, the modern landfill uses liners made of clay to prevent the waste polluting the soil and the ground water and other technology to process the gas and liquid waste from garbage. A leachate collection pipe is installed above the clay liner. This pipe is built to collect all the leachate and flown them to the liquid recycle container.

Gas collection well, barrier layer, gas monitoring probe and groundwater monitoring probe are equipment which also installed in a modern sanitary landfill in order to minimise the negative impacts of landfill especially to process the hazardous substance.

Another method of disposal is by using incinerator. Unfortunately, this option has some pros and cons as it might give another environmental problem of air pollution. Some experts also found that it takes a minimum amount of solid waste to operate the incinerator. This minimum requirement means encouraging more waste rather than reduce them.

Proposals on energy generation from waste have also been introduced by many engineering experts. However, this proposal still need to be assessed the impact especially future impact for the environment. Due to the challenges and the conditions in Brunei, it is suggested solid waste management strategies be swiftly considered and implemented.

An integrated solid waste management system needs to be built to adapt and mitigate the environment problem that might occur in the future, a system which is not only answering the current solid waste problem, but also reducing the solid waste production in the future. However, in order to guarantee a working strategic planning on solid waste, it is important to have the full involvement and participation from government, business, organisation and households.

Under the National Development Plan 2007-2012, Brunei is set to introduce new laws to address the lack of comprehensive legislation in protecting the environment and enforce existing laws and regulations to sustain environmental quality.

Some of the regulations include issues on landscape improvement in urban areas and roadsides, recreational amenities, as well as coastal and marine resources conservation as well as the setting up of four new air quality monitoring systems. A total of $128 million has been allocated to finance the implementation of 19 projects under the National Development Plan 2007-2012. Emphasis will also be placed on new policies, including waste recycling and management; urban and rural planning, water resources conservation, and preservation of biodiversity and endangered species. In time to come, it is planned that the Sungai Akar dumping site, which has encountered many brickbats and health hazard complaints, will be closed down and "rehabilitated" due to the fast developing surrounding areas.

Public awareness programmes are also important tools of communicating and educating the public on how to implement environmental protection and conservation activities right from home and work areas. Maintenance of established infrastructure and services is a major problem in developing countries nowadays. A solid waste management system is in fact a continuous maintenance system, which always requires community participation.

Developing a sustainable and integrated waste management system inherent to Brunei's social wellbeing, the national image, as well as the environmental and financial sustainability, takes time and commitment from all parties involved, including individuals, companies, community and enforcers, in this case, the government.

CSPS