9 Enhancing Role and Participation of Industry and Community …
137
of 131.2% to a population of 32.3 million. While in 2016, there were 28.5 million
mobile broadband subscriptions compared to 2.5 million fixed broadband subscriptions (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission 2015, 2018). The
increasing trends of productions and consumption illustrate that the demands for
electronic products increased significantly, especially when the products were made
to be affordable and easy to use and access.
The effects of the increasing demand of these electronic products to sustainable
consumption and production (SCP) is critical. The positive increasing demand will
drive the growth of the industry in future. However there are critical concern on
the part of electronic wastes generation and unsustainable consumption of natural
resources to support to the need of the electronic industrial growth. There is a need
to understand the demand of resources and materials for electronic and electrical
industry production, which affects the natural resources supply. In addition there
is negative impact from the extraction of natural resources for electronic products
raw materials. For example rare earth mining operation for rare earth metals are
used to make all kinds of high-tech consumer products. The three main process,
mining, refining and disposal have been found negatively impacted the environment
and human health (Humsa and Srivastava 2015; Rashid et al. 2018). In addition to
the raw materials production impacts, the consumer consumption lead to increasing
E-waste generation. Malaysian consumers for example generated 706,295 metric ton
of E-waste in 2010, and the number is estimated to increase to 1,119,115 metric ton
in 2020. With the large amount of E-waste generated by Malaysian consumers, there
is a need to manage these wastes in a sustainable manner. Thus it is important to
place an emphasis to need for E-waste recovery which play an important role for
sustainable consumption and production (John et al. 2010).
The E-waste recovery in Malaysia is still at infant stage. There are many aspect
that needs to be put in place before E-waste recovery in Malaysia able to be effective to support sustainable consumption and production requirements. For the start
Malaysian government through the Department of Environment has embarked on a
specific program to manage E-waste in a sustainable manner (Rasnan et al. 2016).
This program come equipped with legislation and specific strategy. However this is
not enough. Government agency alone would not make the E-waste recovery sustainable in Malaysia. There is a need to make all the key stakeholders understand the
electronic products recyclable requirements and capability. The key stakeholders are
the community and industry in addition to government agencies. At the current situation, participation of community and industry to recover E-waste through recycling,
reuse and reduce is still not encouraging. There is a critical issue of community
and industry lack of participation for E-waste recovery, which will affect the efficiency of sustainable consumption and production, especially for electronic industry.
The role of these two groups is important to ensure the material flows of E-waste
recovery is efficient and sustainable, which important for sustainable consumption
and production sustainability (Mohamed 2013). However to ensure they play the
role effectively, these groups still require government agencies intervention, which
mostly done through education and awareness program.
137
of 131.2% to a population of 32.3 million. While in 2016, there were 28.5 million
mobile broadband subscriptions compared to 2.5 million fixed broadband subscriptions (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission 2015, 2018). The
increasing trends of productions and consumption illustrate that the demands for
electronic products increased significantly, especially when the products were made
to be affordable and easy to use and access.
The effects of the increasing demand of these electronic products to sustainable
consumption and production (SCP) is critical. The positive increasing demand will
drive the growth of the industry in future. However there are critical concern on
the part of electronic wastes generation and unsustainable consumption of natural
resources to support to the need of the electronic industrial growth. There is a need
to understand the demand of resources and materials for electronic and electrical
industry production, which affects the natural resources supply. In addition there
is negative impact from the extraction of natural resources for electronic products
raw materials. For example rare earth mining operation for rare earth metals are
used to make all kinds of high-tech consumer products. The three main process,
mining, refining and disposal have been found negatively impacted the environment
and human health (Humsa and Srivastava 2015; Rashid et al. 2018). In addition to
the raw materials production impacts, the consumer consumption lead to increasing
E-waste generation. Malaysian consumers for example generated 706,295 metric ton
of E-waste in 2010, and the number is estimated to increase to 1,119,115 metric ton
in 2020. With the large amount of E-waste generated by Malaysian consumers, there
is a need to manage these wastes in a sustainable manner. Thus it is important to
place an emphasis to need for E-waste recovery which play an important role for
sustainable consumption and production (John et al. 2010).
The E-waste recovery in Malaysia is still at infant stage. There are many aspect
that needs to be put in place before E-waste recovery in Malaysia able to be effective to support sustainable consumption and production requirements. For the start
Malaysian government through the Department of Environment has embarked on a
specific program to manage E-waste in a sustainable manner (Rasnan et al. 2016).
This program come equipped with legislation and specific strategy. However this is
not enough. Government agency alone would not make the E-waste recovery sustainable in Malaysia. There is a need to make all the key stakeholders understand the
electronic products recyclable requirements and capability. The key stakeholders are
the community and industry in addition to government agencies. At the current situation, participation of community and industry to recover E-waste through recycling,
reuse and reduce is still not encouraging. There is a critical issue of community
and industry lack of participation for E-waste recovery, which will affect the efficiency of sustainable consumption and production, especially for electronic industry.
The role of these two groups is important to ensure the material flows of E-waste
recovery is efficient and sustainable, which important for sustainable consumption
and production sustainability (Mohamed 2013). However to ensure they play the
role effectively, these groups still require government agencies intervention, which
mostly done through education and awareness program.