More Trash Talk...

I did a tiny intro, about a post ago, about the amount of solid waste we produce in Malaysia. After a nice chat with the very informative and lovely Suchen (Photographer of Wonderland... Beyond The Bin), I've managed to gather quite a bit of information regarding the Solid Waste Management in Malaysia. I've got a number now!!! We actually produce a surprising amount of 24,000 to 26,000 TONNES of waste a day.

Honestly, I've never thought about where exactly all this waste goes to, until now. So without having to think of how to phrase things, I'm going to write down the whole process of solid waste disposal in Malaysia in point form. Starting from the generation of this waste.

1. The generation of solid waste.
We don't actually think about how much waste we generate and what actually gets generated to waste. It's everything and anything! Literally, from glasses to boxes to plates from restaurants, to electrical wires and CDs.

2. Collection of solid waste.
Special thanks to our hard working friends behind the scenes from Alam Flora, other collection companies, and even random rubbish pickers.

3a. Recycling to products
Only very little of this trash actually goes to the usual glass/plastic/paper/metal recycling plants as a lot of our trash is wet. A box drowned in unwanted curry and many other graphic examples I wouldn't like to describe :)


3b. Recycling to compost or enzymes.
This is more for what our wet rubbish is accustomed for. There's a compost production in Subang Jaya called Projek Pengkomposan Sisa Makanan MPSJ. So a few hawker stalls actually bring their unwanted/our wasted food there to be made into compost for fertilisation.
Wet waste can also be made into enzymes to create soap, washing up liquid and other things that enzymes do :)

3c. To the landfills!!!
Now, we have about 200 landfills all around Malaysia but only a handfull are worth mentioning, which are the sanitary landfills. Normal dumps like the one in Sungai Seminyih (which got shut down September this year) do NOT dispose of the trash the proper way. As I said earlier, living in this country and eating the food we eat, most of our waste is not dry. Now, the yummy juices that come out of our rubbish is called LEACHATE. For quite a few of these landfills, the leachate seeps into the soil and makes its way to our rivers and this may be why our tap water is undrinkable.
Hopefully soon most landfills will become Sanitary Landfills. A fine example would be the one in Bukit Tagar, opearated and developed by KUB and obviously Berjaya. Now this is a special landfill that covers 1700 acres of land, not only is it lined with plastic to act as an irrigation system for the leachate, the poisonous Methane gas that is created by the stench of the rubbish is then converted into energy!!! Not very well explained, so you can check out KUB-Berjaya Enviro Sdn. Bhd. 
Two thumbs up to you!!

At least we know something's being done about the future.

Photography by Suchen SK

Party Like A ROCKSTARRR!!!

This post has no relevance to the title whatsoever. Just a small post on my recent furniture finds for the new place. Got a really old Mongolian antique chest/table/miscellaneous counter top. Has a matte finish and it's BEAUTIFUL!!!!

You can find many similar items at Eastern Charms in Great Eastern Mall along Jln Ampang. The lady that mans the shop is Shirine and she's lovely. Sooooo many nice things in there and they're mostly one off pieces. I also bought a lamp from her :)

Discovered that Isetan has more to offer than just being Japanese. The Isetan in KLCC and ONLY the Isetan at KLCC carries this fantastic range of kitchenware products called TYPHOON, ranging from bread bins to drizzles to weighing scales and even garlic crushers?! For people who are reading this outside of KL (not that there are many of you), and would prefer not to fly to KL just to buy a couple of kitchen accessories, the online shop is http://www.typhoonhousewares.com/

Also, for Ampang people who are constantly tearing their hair out deciding what to have for breakfast. (More for people like me who don't work in the mornings and ACTUALLY have breakfast.) Well, KLCC is only an AKLEH away and I bet most of you thought that Harrods on the 1st floor was just a shop. Well, I thought it was, obviously not considering the massive sign above it that says "Restoran". It's been around say for almost a year now and I've never had a reason to go in until one day. I decided to stroll in. And low and behold, there was a full on bar and a small cafe/restaurant toward the back. So couple of days ago, mom and I decided to have breakfast there. If you want a good English fry up, that's the place to be!!!

Big "Restoran" sign above the shop.

The tinsels made me realise Christmas comes too soon every year.

That was a good sausage.

Held the waitress at gun point for this photo. haha just kidding!! :)

All in all a good day :)

Can the grass possibly be GREENER on the otherside?

Most of us are very much unaware as to where our trash goes. Does it hide behind the beautiful facade of our city? Or does it hide behind an imaginary wall that we've created?

As a KL-lite, I know we have a lot of trash scattered all across the city, but I automatically block it out when walking down the streets. I've learnt to accept that this is how it is and that corner is a fine place for a big black bag to settle in. And I believe I'm not the only one who does this.

Recently, well not that recently, say half a year ago, I ran into this interesting character. Tall fella who hails from KK, with dreadlocks and only wears shorts to whatever occasion he attends. Not knowing what to expect, he pulled out these fantastic shots of trash in Malaysia. Suchen's the name, and the shot below is from his book that is sadly not going to be in bookstores. 

It's also one of the shots from his article in The Star.
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2010/10/25/lifefocus/7256810&sec=lifefocus

Do not fret as an e-book will be coming out soon, Wonderland ... Beyond The Bin is what it's called. Probably on his website www.suchens.com

The grass probably isn't as GREEN as we'd like it to be now, but if we start by implanting the awareness around us internally. I'm sure results will bloom to make a much greener Malaysia.

What do I mean to say??!!!

Ah oui.. this is my first post and I'm pretty new to this whole blogging thing. So.. bear with me. I've never really saw the point in sharing my life or anything for that matter with the virtual public, except for a few cheeky photos on facebook :) But after I set up this blog, I got soooo into it. Like choosing the templates, changing font colours (I like), taking more photos with my new powerful Canon EOS 550D (I'll sing you the song), and of course, waiting for sponsors :)

Well, I like eating, listening to music (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Prince, The Rolling Stones, Live, No Doubt, SUBLIMEEEEEE!!! and many more to be named), shopping for furniture, reading my Collins Pocket German Dictionary, baking cookies, tending to my ever blossoming farm on Farmville, shopping, traveling and rolling in my mountain cash when I'm sad. As we all know, that last "like" of mine has never ever happened before.

I suppose I can say it's huge benefit living in Kuala Lumpur as it offers many traveling opportunities in itself. I can choose to start my day by going to a VARIETY of places, like have coffee at the skanky Imbi market (Curry laksa there is AMAZING), or some coffee on some lorong behind Petaling Street, OR be stupid and drive to Petaling Jaya for coffee, or perhaps go somewhere slightly more hygenic like Pavillion for a nice cup of coffee before work. (People working from 9am can start writing my name on a piece of paper and ripping it up into tiny pieces as I only start work at 2pm today and finish at 6:30pm!! Yahoo!)

So instead of going down the floral smelling streets of KL, I'm going for breakfast and going to start on some Christmas shopping with my mom at KLCC. We'll see how that goes, I'll probably end up shopping for myself and jumping into the wading pool by noon. Well, nature calls and it says I need a new computer. My macbook is hanging on to a zimmer frame for its dear life and is hooked on Prozac. So Au Revoir.

Pretty lengthy for a first post :)