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JOHOR BAHRU – Singapore\u2019s National Environment Agency said Singapore does not allow construction and demolition waste to be exported for disposal, following talks with Malaysia\u2019s national waste management authorities, SWCorp.<\/p>\n
Responding to queries from The Straits Times on Aug 18, NEA said the nine companies that were identified by SWCorp as linked to the illegal dumping of construction waste in Pontian<\/span><\/a> were Malaysian.<\/p>\n NEA said it has not yet been established if Singapore companies were involved, noting that such waste must be processed and sorted in Singapore.<\/p>\n \u201cThe NEA recently reached to SWCorp Johor to obtain more information regarding Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste reportedly originating from Singapore being disposed of in Pontian, Johor,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring the call with SWCorp, NEA affirmed that Singapore does not allow C&D waste to be exported for disposal.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement followed a news report by Malaysian media outlet Kosmo on Aug 8 alleging that construction debris from Singapore was being dumped in Pontian, Johor.<\/p>\n NEA said it has also issued an advisory to the licensed General Waste Disposal Facilities (GWDFs) handling C&D waste in Singapore, reminding them of the requirements.<\/p>\n The agency said that under Singapore\u2019s regulatory framework, C&D waste must be properly processed and sorted locally for recycling.<\/p>\n Homogeneous material streams such as ferrous scrap recovered from C&D waste are considered recyclables and can be exported, subject to the relevant regulatory requirements.<\/p>\n \u201cNEA takes a serious view of any illegal disposal of waste, as it pollutes the environment and can be a hazard to public health.<\/p>\n \u201cNEA will continue to work closely with the Malaysian authorities to investigate the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n SWCorp said it had provided the NEA with a list of nine companies allegedly linked to the export of C&D waste from Singapore to obtain further information and verify their activities.<\/p>\n It said: \u201cSingapore\u2019s NEA informed us that shipments of C&D waste from Singapore to Malaysia would be stopped with immediate effect, while further reviews would be conducted on the parties involved in Singapore.\u201d<\/p>\n Johor SWCorp director Zainal Fitri Ahmad said any export of such waste to Malaysia must comply with applicable regulations and obtain approval from the relevant local authorities.<\/p>\n The agency has opened four investigation papers for possible offences involving the disposal, storage and transfer of controlled solid waste.<\/p>\n Residents of villages in Pontian had told The Straits Times on Aug 12 about convoys of trucks making their way late at night to several plots of land nearby to dump construction debris such as cement, broken tiles and used construction equipment.<\/p>\n NEA said on Aug 14 that it was aware of news reports regarding the issue and had reached out to Malaysian authorities to establish the facts.<\/p>\n Zainal Fitri said the cooperation extended by NEA is a \u201cpositive development\u201d in ensuring that no further shipments of such waste will be transported from Singapore to Johor.<\/p>\n He also thanked NEA for helping to address this issue faced by residents in the Sungai Karang sub-district in Pontian, which has been ongoing for almost two years.<\/p>\n \u201cAs this matter involves two neighbouring countries, the Singapore NEA\u2019s concern over the issue raised by Johor residents and the action taken is greatly appreciated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSingapore has laws and regulations governing the export of used and waste materials. Malaysia also has laws and regulations that must be complied with in matters relating to waste management and disposal,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Sign up for our weekly\u00a0Asian\u00a0Insider\u00a0Malaysia Edition\u00a0<\/span><\/a>newsletter to make sense of the big stories in Malaysia.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n JOHOR BAHRU – Singapore\u2019s National Environment Agency said Singapore does not allow construction and demolition waste to be exported for disposal, following talks with Malaysia\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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