Malaysia’s waste management firm in talks with Naga, Cebu LGU

KUALA LUMPUR -- KUBBerjaya Enviro Sdn Bhd, operator of a world class sanitary landfill facility in Malaysia, is in talks with the local government of Naga City and Cebu for its planned facility on 106-hectare property as part of the company’s initial foray into the ASEAN region.

Company general manager Peter Wong told visiting journalists from the Philippines they made a presentation two weeks ago before the Naga City Council and Naga City Mayor Kristine Chiong about their proposal if the local government would be willing to host the sanitary landfill project.

Wong said its local subsidiary Berjaya Philippines Inc. has already bought the 106-hectare property in Naga City and they are just awaiting the city council’s decision on its project.

The initial plan is for the landfill facility to have a capacity of 500 tons to 1,000 tons of garbage a day. Wong estimated an initial investment of 40 million Malaysian Ringgit or $10 million for the landfill alone.

They expect to collect waste not only from households but also from the industrial wastes from ports and cement plants in Cebu.

Chock Eng Tah, managing director of KUB-Berjaya Enviro Sdn Bhd, in a separate interview during the visit at their first facility in Bukit Tagat, 50 kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur, said the company is looking at the Philippines and Indonesia as the first countries for their expansion in the region.

"Apart from China, we would like to go to Indonesia and Philippines because these countries have lots of waste, similar background and would need these facilities," said Chock even as he also cited Vietnam and Thailand as potential expansion sites.

In the Philippines, Chock said they were initially looking at building a landfill facility to showcase its state of the art technology in waste management.

"We certainly are looking at Cebu as a possible area to work on to create a showcase of landfill. We have to have the first landfill so people will have the confidence," he said.

He, however, said they've tried all the Asean countries but has not started any project yet except China.

Chock attributed the delay in its foray to other ASEAN countries to government policies.

He stressed that the private sector needs to recover its capital. "If there is no proper concession agreement with the government then it is a big risk," he stressed noting they've already invested 250 million ringgits (RM) or R2.5 billion for its world class sanitary landfill facility.

In the next 28-30 years, Chock said the company would be investing 400 million to 500 million RM.

Unlike Malaysia, waste management in the Philippines has been relegated to the local government units, where the tenure of elected officials lasts for only 3 years.

Since political leadership changes often, there is a likelihood that contracts entered with by the previous administration may not be honored when new set officials are elected.

Thus, it is incumbent upon government to ensure that investors or contracts are honored by the next administration or there is a provision for some sort of government guarantee.

The Malaysian national government has allowed KUB-Berjaya to operate on a total of 1,700-acre Butik Tagar Sanitary Landfill (BTSL) for a 30-year concession period renewable for another 30 years. The local government of Kuala Lumpur has also a commitment tipping fee of 49 RM or $18 per ton of waste to KUBBerjaya.

The BTSL, which operates on a 24-hour by seven and operated by 60 people, has a capacity of 120 million tons of wastes over a 60-year period. It averages 5,000 tons of wastes a day. So far, it has only spent 10 million tons for the initial 700-acre lot, but it has another 1,000 acres more to fill up with a buffer zone of 500-meter width.

The normal process is that wastes arriving in trucks are weighed electronically at designated tipping areas in active cells. It has a fully lined cells at the base and sides to ensure no leakages of toxic into the water ways for optimal environment protection.

The facility is equipped with leachate treatment plant with the capacity to treat 1,200 cubic meters of leachate (garbage waste water) per day.

Some of the sludge are also converted into inputs for cement manufacturing.

Chock, who is also the managing director of the KUB-Berjaya Energy Bdn. Sdh has also a gas management system with pipes engineered to capture the methane gas. So far, it has now produced 5.4 megawatt energy, but expects to bring it to 10 MW that it supply to the power grid, another source of revenue for the company.

The treated leachate are further processed into the 4 aerobic ponds to reduce its toxicity and goes further treatment that at the end of the process the water becomes clear with nitrate, good enough to water the nearby palm tree plantation, and not discharged into water courses.

Chock, however, said that it may not be advisable to build high-rise structures on completed landfills although it can be developed into golf courses.