ABSTRACT
MOHAMAD ANUAR KAMARUDDIN, MOHD. SUFFIAN YUSOFF, HAMIDI ABDUL AZIZ, and YUNG-TSE HUNG
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The exponential generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) over the years has been contributed mainly due to the expanding of industrial activities, population growth, and lifestyle changes (Ahmed and Lan 2012). In Malaysia alone, population has been increasing at a rate of 2.4 % every year and the generation of MSW also increases dramatically. As a result, various types of MSWs including industrial, commercial and agricultural byproducts are being disposed to the landfill over the years. Therefore, it is undoubtedly that appropriate MSW management is somewhat crucial (Akinbile et al. 2012) nowadays. Most significantly, Malaysians are currently generating about 5,781,600 tonnes of solid waste annually based on 2012 census data. Put together the waste generation of 0.9 kg/capita/day, it is expected that the amount of solid waste will be increased to double
digits as the country is moving forward to be a developed nation in 2020. This estimation is by some means realistic because the process of urbanization has seen many rural and isolated areas receive widespread economic development program which has changed Malaysia landscape entirely due to the implementation of Government Transformation Program (GTP) introduced by the present 6th Malaysia’s Prime Minister in 2009.
