Bridging the Gaps: An Ewaste management and recycling assessment of material recycling facilities in Selangor and Penang

The uses of electronic and electrical devices have relatively increased with rapid increases in economic and technological development over some period of time in Malaysia. There is needs for Malaysia to apply “3R” principles of reduce, reuse and recycle for efficient control and management of material circle of electronic and electrical equipments (EEE). This paper tends to highlight, the ewaste recycling practice within the material recovery facilities (MRF) studied in Selangor and Penang, the guidelines overseeing the ewaste recycling activities, stakeholders and future plans for ewaste management in Malaysia. A total of 25 questionnaires were sent to MRF through email, fax and personal delivery and a questionnaire with personal discussion held with the department of environment (DOE) Malaysia. The result shows that ewaste recycling in Malaysia is still at infancy as there are no sophisticated technologies to carry out complete recycling process in a MRF, lack of specific regulation on ewaste, poor ewaste collection from households at the same time help us to understand various activities going on within the MRF studied. The findings from this study will help the waste management authorities in bridging the gaps that militate against proper ewaste management in Malaysia.