Nik Nazmi: Updated mechanism to manage ewaste disposal to be brought to Cabinet

The Star

An updated mechanism to manage the disposal of household electrical and electronic waste or ewaste efficiently will be proposed to the Cabinet, says Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.  The Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister said such a proposal would be in line with the increasing use of technology in the country’s households such as electric vehicles (EV) and solar panels.  Read more at http://tinyurl.com/uahtm6pc  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00 [SPEAKING IN MALAYSIAN]

00:10 And how is the government planning

00:12 to address the environmental impact of the EUAs in Malaysia?

00:16 Because EUAs is getting more and more.

00:18 Yeah, I think that one, I mean, that's why we--

00:20 these campaigns are important.

00:21 But I agree that maybe we need to look at more specific policies

00:25 and all that.

00:26 We are already coming to the first generation of hybrid cars,

00:30 for example.

00:32 They are already reaching-- a lot of the batteries

00:34 are reaching the end of the life cycle.

00:36 EV adoption is growing very fast.

00:38 Solar panel installation is growing very fast.

00:40 So I think we will have a discussion.

00:45 Definitely it will involve the local government, KPKT

00:49 Ministry.

00:50 It will involve [INAUDIBLE] what we call the Energy Transition

00:55 and Public Utilities Ministry and other ministries

00:57 to-- and METI, I think, for us to have a whole of government

01:01 approach.

01:02 But I think, I mean, definitely we

01:04 need a more structured policy with regards to that.

01:07 Because EUAs is getting a bigger component of our waste today.

01:11 And one more is that, are there any plans

01:14 to collaborate with the industrial stakeholders

01:17 to establish effective EUAs management system?

01:21 Yes, definitely.

01:22 I mean, I think we need their participation.

01:24 I mean, because they are already in the business,

01:29 whether they are-- we're talking about the producers,

01:31 the retailers who are selling these products.

01:34 Also, actually, there are already

01:36 some people who are operating the recycling,

01:38 the management of this EUAs.

01:41 But maybe the regulation needs to be upgraded.

01:43 So we will engage all of them.

01:45 Because we don't want to start from scratch.

01:48 They already have some experience there for us

01:50 to tap into.

01:51 My last one question.

01:52 So what role does the government see for technology innovation

01:57 in developing more environmentally-friendly

02:00 solutions for EUAs management?

02:02 Like technology, how do you use technology to resolve--

02:06 Well, I mean, technology is changing very fast.

02:08 But I think the thing is to keep up with it

02:10 and to ensure that we can continue to be focused

02:13 on the EUAs side of it.

02:16 Like I said, I mean, it's important.

02:17 And I'm in full support, as you know,

02:19 with regards to solar panel, EV, and all that.

02:23 So for us, we are trying to also use technology to also see

02:27 how we can address it.

02:29 Part of it, for example, is because NRES also

02:33 has the mandate over rare earths.

02:35 And we are starting.

02:36 We've had a pilot project.

02:38 The states are doing their own SOPs based on our SOPs.

02:41 So for us, if we can explore that to make it economically

02:47 viable, recovering of rare earth, for example,

02:51 from used products, then you don't

02:54 have to impact the mining as much,

02:56 because part of the supply can come from recycled product.

03:00 But it's not easy, because the cost, the technology,

03:03 and all that can be a bit--

03:05 the cost is quite high now.

03:06 So those are things that we need to explore.

03:08 So technology will play a big role.

03:10 [AUDIO OUT]

03:14 [AUDIO OUT]

03:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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