Landowners clear illegal plastic waste from plots

KUALA LANGAT: Twenty landowners who rented their plots to illegal recycling plastic factories have removed unwanted imported plastic waste from their plots, as instructed by the Selangor government.

This came following fears that their plots, possibly worth millions of ringgit, would be seized by the state government if they failed to get rid of the imported plastic waste within a stipulated time frame.

To date, 20 out of 33 landowners have removed the plastic waste, while the rest are racing against time to do so.

Checks on two illegal factories at the Jalan Gangsa Industrial Park and Jalan Segenting Batu 11 in Teluk Panglima Garang showed that tonnes of plastic waste, which used to occupy the compounds of the illegal factories, have been removed.

At the illegal factory at Jalan Gangsa Industrial Park, the operator appeared to have ceased its activities as no more machinery or jumbo plastic bags were seen, and “For Sale/Rent” banners were hung at its entrance.

The Jalan Segenting Batu 11 premises was also devoid of any plastic waste and machinery.

At an illegal factory in Jalan Segenting, Mukim Telok, no work seemed to have begun to remove the plastic waste.

At another illegal factory in Jalan Sungai Jarum in Jenjarom, a backhoe was spotted removing mountains of plastic waste.

The backhoe operator said he had been working on the site for several weeks. He, however, was tightlipped when asked where the waste would be sent to.

Banting assemblyman Lau Weng San said landowners were adhering to the strict directive issued by the state government and the situation was progressing well.

He said landowners were left to their own device, despite them pleading to the state government to go easy on them.

“Some landowners have approached me for help. They want me to assist them to get leniency from the state government.

“But I told them to follow the law. They were hauled up and charged in court under the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and there is nothing I can do.

“The criminal charge was filed

by the Attorney-General’s Chambers based on investigation papers prepared by the Department of Environment.

“The legal proceeding has started and the best thing they can do is to engage lawyers to help them,” Lau told the New Straits Times.

He said the landowners were not only charged in court, but were also facing double or triple jeopardy as they risk being jailed or fined tens or hundreds of thousands for committing the offence of land abuse.

Lau dismissed suggestions by certain quarters that the federal and state governments were not doing enough to tackle the problem.

“To claim that we have not done anything to eliminate the illegal factories is an understatement. We have jumped into action and done something to address the problem. Otherwise, the situation would have persisted.”

Selangor Local Government, Public Transportation and New Village Development executive council member Ng Sze Han had earlier said that the state government was taking action against landowners through the National Land Code for the wrong usage of land, which involved many agricultural plots that carried out industrial activities.

He said there were several stages to serving notices to landowners to clear the land and ensure that the plots go back to its status before a confiscation could be carried out.

He said Notice 7A of the National Land Code had been served to the landowners at the end of last year, which instructed them to revert their plots to their original status.

Failure to do so would see a reminder notice served under Notice 7B.

If nothing was done, Ng said, they would issue Notice 8A, which enables the state government to seize the land.

He said the process from the issuance of Notice 7A to Notice 8A will take six to 12 months.

Ng said the state government would not extend the grace period given to revert the status and clear the plastic waste.