Extended Producer Responsibility Policy Review Report 2021

Publication date: June 2021 | Length of paper: 83 pages | ISBN: TBC

Annually, Malaysia generates approximately 14 million tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). 43.7% of that consists of dry recyclables such as plastic, paper, glass, metals and tetra pack. However, the recycling rate of municipal solid waste (MSW), despite increasing over the last seven years from 10.5% to 28.06% in 2019, is relatively low and furthermore, most of the generated MSW is disposed of in landfills.

Owing to ubiquitous plastic pollution globally and in Malaysia, an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme is proposed for better handling of packaging waste. EPR for packaging waste has been implemented in several countries including Japan, Germany, Austria, Taiwan and others. By following ‘polluter pay principle’, producers or importers of packaging would be charged for the packaging they put into the Malaysian market. The EPR fee would then be used for establishing and strengthening recycling infrastructure. A third important impact of EPR is the changes in product design to increase its recyclability.

This report details the science and industry behind the management of Municipal Solid Waste in Malaysia, identifying its gaps and examining the lessons learned from selected countries for policy comparison to Malaysia. It proposes several recommendations for implementation of EPR and charts a model for the way forward for waste management in Malaysia.

This review was conducted by the Jeffrey Sachs Centre on Sustainable Development, Sunway University, with the support of the GIZ Collaborative Action on Prevention of Single-Use Plastic (CAPSEA) Project, under the commission of and completion exclusively for WWF-Malaysia.