COMMENT | Somehow I find our government is very inconsistent with solid waste management.

While households will soon have to segregate their solid wastes, the manufacturers of polystyrene boxes and packaging containers are having a field day.

It clearly shows a lack of political will on the part of our government to reduce the dumping of solid wastes, especially non-biodegradable packaging materials, in public places.

Styrofoam or polystyrene is made from a synthetic chemical known as Styrene. According to the US National Toxicology programme, styrene is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen”.

Yet, we are still allowing manufacturers to continue producing cups and other packaging materials using styrofoam. How ridiculous! While some university campuses have become ‘No Polystyrene Zones’, across the nation we are still seeing polystyrene used widely.

Polystyrene boxes

Lately, a new phenomenon has arisen - the dumping of polystyrene boxes in public places. These boxes are apparently manufactured locally and supplied to some wholesalers.

They are used to either keep vegetables or fish. This has become more popular within the last 12 months. Apparently, some manufacturers have created a new market segment for themselves, but they are doing a big disfavour to all Malaysians.

It is the failure of the Housing and Local Government Ministry to control the proliferation of this industry. I have noticed in the past one month that used polystyrene foam boxes are thrown all over the place.

The dumpsters are the hawkers at both wet and night markets. After their business is done, the white polystyrene boxes have to be discarded but they are usually not properly managed.

Because they are big, a few boxes can easily fill in a half-tonne bin and they cannot be easily disposed into the standard garbage bins. Even if they are ferried into a landfill, polystyrene is known to be non-biodegradable. They will remain in our environment for many years down the road.

Breeding ground for mosquitoes

What I find most disgusting is that some of these hawkers dump the styrofoam boxes here and there, and everywhere, at their own convenience without thinking of the environment.

These empty polystyrene boxes collect rainwater and become easy breeding ground for mosquitoes. This is a cause for concern, especially since we have become what I call “a nation of dumpsters”.

Sometimes, these polystyrene boxes are not dumped in just one location. For whatever reason, one box appears here, and another box appears elsewhere.

It is anyone’s guess, but it appears that some dumpsters are even trying to make life difficult for the garbage collectors to pick up the boxes.

In fact, these boxes would come in handy especially for horticulturalists and can be turned into a little vegetable farm for households. I have seen them being used creatively to plant vegetables.

There should be efforts to reuse these polystyrene foam, but in the long run, it will not help the environment as there would be too many polystyrene boxes to re-use. Styrofoam, as we know it, is not recyclable.

What the dumpsters, the wholesalers and manufacturers fail to realise is that polystyrene will not decay over time. If they choose to continue using the polystyrene boxes, the government should ban the manufacture of styrofoam altogether.

Why allow import of polystyrene-producing machines?

As Malaysians who are concerned about the environment, we continue to ask the government why it continues to allow manufacturers to import the machines producing polystyrene products?

Why is the government not taking stern action and imposing heavy import duties on such machines to make them less competitive to the other alternatives such as those producing more environmental-friendly packaging materials?

If we want to keep our environment clean, we should nip the problem in the bud. Import of polystyrene machines should be banned altogether.

The ones that are operating now should be given a time frame and in the meantime hefty taxes should be imposed on them for incurring expensive disposal methods.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.