SINGAPORE: Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) has issued an advisory to licensed general waste disposal facilities handling construction and demolition waste on the requirements governing such waste, while reiterating that it could not be exported for disposal.
The advisory came amid allegations that construction and demolition waste from Singapore had been illegally dumped in Malaysia’s Johor state.
Malaysian media outlets also reported on Tuesday (Aug 18) that Singapore had halted all exports of construction and demolition waste to Malaysia with immediate effect, citing comments from the Johor branch of Malaysian government agency Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Corporation (SWCorp).
In response to CNA’s queries on Tuesday (Aug 18) night, NEA said that it recently reached out to SWCorp Johor to obtain more information regarding construction and demolition waste reportedly originating from Singapore being disposed of in Pontian, Johor.
“During the call with SWCorp, NEA affirmed that Singapore does not allow C&D waste to be exported for disposal,” said NEA, referring to construction and demolition waste.
“Under Singapore’s regulatory framework, C&D waste must be properly processed and sorted locally for recycling.”
However, “homogenous material streams” such as ferrous scrap recovered from such waste are considered recyclables and can be exported, subject to the relevant regulatory requirements, it added.
Both Malaysia and Singapore are parties to the Basel Convention, an international treaty that regulates the transboundary movements of hazardous and other waste and obliges countries to ensure that such waste is managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.