The Garbage Talk

What kind of promise Malaysia holds?

In Taiwan household dump are collected from doors to doors. These collectors, I assume, contractors paid by local municipal council; collects and measures the weight and house owners would be charged according to certain tariff set. In short, I assume there are no estates or apartment dumpster, instead, a dump collector in their jumpsuit uniform would come every alternate day and do their job. In a meanwhile, unit occupiers need to be ready with their packed garbage with coins to spare.

In a nutshell, this is a great idea. On paper it sparkled several positive chain effects, this includes the reduction of unnecessary garbage produced by each household; each household puts a tremendous effort to reduce wastage knowing the fact that they are paying for those unneeded stuff. They would be going to wet market and refusing polystyrene packaging or whatever sorts of wrapping, instead they relied on their own reusable market bags.

Any foodstuff bought was done in tactful moderation. Anything too much like an extra carton of milk would just be too heavy to be charged, being careful; things were bought in sufficient, if not too low, quantity. Plans were made if there were friends and family gatherings so that the resultant waste would be at bare minimal. Children were taught by their parents to eat until the plate is squeaky clean like those of dishwashers’ advertisement where rubbing finger against it would produce that imaginable ‘krrrrrieek!’ sound. So, another indirect advantage is kids in Taiwan are guaranteed to be safe from malnutrition with the No-Leftovers rule(unless they chose to be anorexic)

Apart from waste reduction, Taiwanese may be cracking to think creatively on how to recycle their garbage. Like one of Disney channels’ Art Attack where most paper or plastic based refusal were reincarnated and turned into wonders of purposeful or decorative items. Thus this all reduce the amount (importantly the total weight), imagine walking into Taiwanese residences to see flowers made from cake wrappers or coin holders made of cigarette boxes. Nice! Menthol smelling coins…mmmm….

Implementation Here

If we were to implement this Taiwanese pragmatism of charging household per weight, we honestly going to be swarmed by endless pessimism. We may gather all effective and wonderful ideas all around the world yet making it work here is no way easier than said. Thing look rosy in the papers; just like buying a furniture from IKEA where it looked very much stylish-modern uber high-income indie hipstep, yet, the moment you unpacked and assembled it in your living room; the furniture drowned into the monotonous 80s furniture and dull coloured wall with pre-historic chandelier hanging off the ceiling glimmering with non-energy efficient bulbs.

Endless of ideas tanked due to inefficient execution or bureaucratic resistance or we are just Malaysian. For instance the introduction of PUSPAKOM, an autonomous body with private-level efficiency to inspect/grade/report on motor vehicle safety level in Malaysia using fully computerized methods. Wow! I guess that whole sentence would blow the wind off to anybody face… wouldn’t it? Yet, PUSPAKOM currently are ridden with the disease ‘C’, unreliable and inefficient.

Not forgetting the EPF scheme so that enables each family to own personal computers through reductions. The implementation of back seat safety belt which kept getting delayed into the next millennium, toy safety grading system and recently announced grading of car workshops around Malaysia. As if we lived in a nation that moved backwards rather than approaching that vividly envisioned Wawasan 2020.

It would be something marvelous to hear echoes from a expatriates that sounded like: “ did you know, every toy in Malaysia is inspected for safety – even if its as small as lego bricks “ or “ did you know last week when I went to Malaysia, every car has got to have backseat seat belt even though it’s a friggin Kancil? “

When we start charging Malaysian households for the garbage they produce, the immediate effect would be more and more garbage being thrown on the streets or open area. Many people who barely make a living have yet to spare some cash and be responsible for their refuse. Its just throw and forget, something that had been hardwired since independence. Unlike Singapore,the tiny and micro-managable city state, here is like a Chrismas for litterbugs – we could have thrown cigarette buds to construction refusals without being caught.

Every citizen in a country that still trapped in low-income high-inflation syndrome( like us ) would have us investing tremendous amount of time devising various types and methods that would save them every ringgit and cent. Say, stealing of water supply, taking-off copper from high voltage electricity cable or taking routes around KL that has no tolls ( samseng one uses toll free road emergency lanes )No doubt, if Taiwanese garbage weighting were implemented here, there are household which would take it to the extreme with burning it. Thus providing a cheaper option to destroy household refusals and forget the kilograms of Carbon released into the atmosphere since its intangible.

There would be slim elite minority which is somewhat special type of homosapiens which is above the law. As you know, Malaysian social fabric are filled with fringes of above-law people ( Datuk, kawan Datuk and adik-beradik Datuk ), these people would have another set of standards which exclude them from paying the proposed garbage cost. They make as much dirt and waste and given the exclusion from paying.

Thus, the garbage collection, like taxi and timber, would be a multi-million industry where everybody wants a piece of the cake. Now, an issue would arise of whose adik-beradik or saudara Datuks shall get a wet bite of these contracts?

Bleak as it is. There is no other lowest period being a Malaysian than now. Worst, when you’re a teenage going to adult - the outside world seems and sounded very ridden with old things that takes more than my generation to replete and change. Its apparent my generation lives in a marvelous age of great ideas but never done. Its been a while since I abstain myself from talking about politics – so, I guess you might take this as just a concern from a citizen of this once promising country.

To make this place promising again, just like the days of Wawasan 2020, some may think we have the power to vote and change things for the better. But how well can we do? Its possible to change the incumbent government, would they be able to shun big cooperates which runs shoddy businesses like money laundering and curb ah long? Or developers and contractors who were starved from cheap outside labors when a ‘concerned’ government wanted these jobs taken by local workforces? These big companies are high rollers and could tip the favor to anything that benefit them. Ah! The competitive nature of capitalism.

Shall we go back to the days of Pharoah where absolute rule and slavery gets shit done? The Pyramid wouldn’t be standing without the Pharoah forcing hundreds of thousands hard labors to charge forward with tons of stones on their back. But we wouldn’t want to go back into these dark times.

Looking on the bright side, Taiwan does it well...why couldn't we? Someday, we’ll get things retooled and sorted out.