MODULE: MPU 2332/MORAL

LECTURER NAME: JAY DEE ALLEN

DATE: 15TH MARCH 2016

DIAN BATO-002F11115

CHARISSE YAP XIAO TENG-002F11714

LEE YI SIN-001F11014

PIONG YUYU-005F11014

CHIA JING HENG-001F11714

WERN JUIN-002F11014

Introduction

Pollution is a major problem in Malaysia, especially when it comes to air

pollution. Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that

causes adverse changes. Air pollution is one of the most noticeable pollutions in

Malaysia other than water pollution, land pollution or noise pollution to name a few. Air

pollution occurs when gasses, dust particles, and fumes are introduced to the natural

environment that is harmful to humans, animals, and plants.

As the years have passed by Malaysia’s haze that happens everyday third

quarter of the year which is late August and early September has gotten worst. The haze

that recently passed was one of the thickest and longest. School’s were closed for weeks

and people of a working class could not continue their regular routine. The haze that

occurs during the third quarter of the year is usually caused by forest fires and also

emission from factories.

There are many things we can do to help reduce the air pollution in Malaysia.

For instance, instead of driving two cars to the same workplace, we could carpool when

convenient or even take public transport, walk or take a bike if the destination is in short

walking or biking distance. These are the things we can do as Malaysian citizens to

reduce the air pollution before it gets worst and before its too late.

Types Of Environmental Issues

INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION

Industrial pollution is the contamination of the environment by businesses,

particularly plants and factories, that dump waste products into the air and

water. Industrial waste is one of the largest contributors to the global pollution problem

endangering people and the environment.

 Industrial pollution is the air, water, and chemical pollution caused by

industries. There has always been pollution. Industrial pollution began when our country

went through the Industrial Revolution. Most all parts of the world are affected in some

way by industrial pollution. Big cities with steel mills, power plants, heating plants, or

railroad stations feel the direct effects of industrial pollution. The smog, smell, and

contamination of food or water are some direct effects. Remote areas of the world are

affected indirectly by industrial pollution. Even though the people in these communities

may not live near any factories, plants, etc. they still are affected. The air pollution

caused by the industries can carry for many miles (World Book, 338).

WATER POLLUTION

Water pollution occurs when a body of water is adversely affected due to the

addition of large amounts of materials to the water. The sources of water pollution are

categorized as being a point source or a non-source point of pollution. Point sources of

pollution occur when the polluting substance is emitted directly into the waterway. A

pipe spewing toxic chemicals directly into a river is an example. A non-point source

occurs when there is runoff of pollutants into a waterway, for instance when fertilizer

from a field is carried into a stream by surface runoff.  

More to this, water pollution affects not only individual living species, but also

populations and entire functioning ecosystems that exists in the waters. Humans have

now realized the importance of clean water as a foundation for life. In recent times,

more and more organizations and councils are working hard to educate, protect, restore

waterways and encourage practices that help waters from contamination, and also to

preserve water ecosystems from destruction.

AIR POLLUTION

According to businessdictionary.com (2016), air pollution described as the

mixture of air that contains gases, dust, fumes or biological molecules that can cause

disease, which is harmful to the living organisms and the environment. Air pollution in

Malaysia divides into two groups, Firstly, the exhaust gas from mobile emission sources.

For example, the exhaust gas from the vehicles, especially, in urban area like Kuala

Lumpur, Johor, Selangor and Penang. Secondly, the haze caused by the industrial

activities and forest fires in the neighbouring country, Indonesia.

Mobile emission sources are the main concern of air pollution. According to

malaysiakini.com (1997), there are about 1.9 million tons of carbon monoxide gas (CO)

and a total of 377,000 tons of other gases such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons

(HC), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter are released by the motor vehicles in

Malaysia. Besides, the mean values between the year of 1993 to 1997 have shown that

about 81% of all air pollutions are released from the motor vehicles.

According to the Environment, D. o. (2011), there were 21.25 million

registered motor vehicles on the road in 2010 as compared to the year 2009 which is

approximately 19 million, with the total increase of 11.74%. The problem became more

critical as the number of motor vehicles is increasing each year. As a result, urban areas

like Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley exposed to high levels of particulate matter, which

is measured as PM10, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide due to the heavy motor vehicle

traffic. In addition, the Ministry of transport Malaysia is encountered another problem,

which is the black smoke that released from the diesel motor vehicles, as they have

received numerous complaints from the public.

On the other hand, haze in Malaysia became the second major issue of air

pollution. Haze on an unprecedented scale occurred in last June to the end of October

due to the huge forest fires that blazed in Sumatra and Kalimantan in Indonesia. Also,

the school closures due to the haze, where it exceeded the “hazardous” level of 500 on

the Air Pollutant Index (API) in late September 2015 (thestar.com.my, 2015). Haze has

a huge impact on various aspects. for example, it has affected the economy in certain

areas, health, transportation services, tourism, the fishing industry and so on. This has

caused the government to subsequently ban all open burning activity in Malaysia.

WASTE PROBLEMS

Solid waste can be defined as the useless and unwanted products in the

solid state derived from the activities of and discarded by society. According to Global

Environment Centre (2016), just as children depend on their parents for shelter and

sustainability, mankind depends on the environment to sustain their lives. The

environment consists of every single living being on Earth, from the smallest

microorganism to the giant whale that swims in the depths of the ocean. 

Solid waste is one of the three major environmental problems in Malaysia. It

plays a significant role in the ability of Nature to sustain life within its capacity.

Currently, over 23,000 tonnes of waste is produced each day in Malaysia. However, this

amount is expected to rise to 30,000 tonnes by the year 2020. The amount of waste

generated continues to increase due to the increasing population and development, and

only less than 5% of the waste is being recycled. 

Despite the massive amount and complexity of waste produced, the standards

of waste management in Malaysia are still poor. These include outdated and poor

documentation of waste generation rates and its composition, inefficient storage and

collection systems, disposal of municipal wastes with toxic and hazardous waste,

indiscriminate disposal or dumping of wastes and inefficient utilization of disposal site

space. Rivers represent the lease of life which pulses through the earth. It is a finite and

only source of water. In Malaysia, there are almost 1800 rivers. Sadly, more than half of

these rivers have been polluted and destroyed. Improper solid waste management

contributes greatly to river pollution.

DEFORESTATION

Malaysia had the world’s highest rate of forest loss between 2000 and 2012,

according to new global forest map developed in partnership with Google. Malaysia’s

total forest loss during the period amounted to 14.4 percent of its year 2000 forest cover.

The loss translates to 47,278 square kilometre, an area larger than Denmark.

According to Mongabay (2013), Malaysia’s forest loss was partly offset by a

25,978 square km gain in vegetation cover resulting from natural recovery, reforestation,

and establishment of industrial timber and oil palm plantations. During the

period, Malaysia’s oil palm estate grew by roughly 50 percent or 17,000 square km. But

tree plantations don’t stack up well to natural forests into terms of biodiversity, carbon

storage, or maintenance of ecosystem services, indicating that Malaysia suffered very

extensive decline of its natural capital base.

Environmental Ethics

1. Industrial Pollution

Management of Industrial Pollution

The way of reduce the industrial pollution is reducing the consumption or usage of a

polluting product. To let the industries reduce the pollution, consumers and government

take the important rule. According to King and Lenox (2002), industries will increase

the efficiency and the financial performance when preventing pollution in the production

process by reducing the use of pollutants. However, the consumer pressure will develop

the awareness of the pollution problems by the industries.

Law and Regulation of Industrial Pollution

Government should spread the environmental regulation to the industries. In the

environmental regulation, government may increase the tax that needs to pay by the

industries based on how much pollute they emit. Hence, the industries will find ways to

reduce the pollution to lower the tax. A slogan “Reduce pollution saves money” may

spread to the industries. Next, consumers may reject and refuse to buy the products that

causing the pollution. The industry will decrease to manufacture the product when the

sale is drop.

2. Water Pollution

Management of Water Pollution

In the past few years, Boyan Slat has designed a passive system for concentrating and

catching plastic debris driven by ocean currents. His team has more than thousands of

voluntary researchers around the world. Slat’s invention is focused on how recycled

plastic can be made into oil. Besides, Slat believed that the Pacific Garbage Patch will

collect 70 million kg of plastic waste in 10 years of time (Stat, 2013).

The Malaysian government can promote and raise awareness of the issue of water

pollution to the public and spread the benefits and opportunity of The National

Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM) plan in the future of Malaysia.

3. Air Pollution

Ethics in Research

The government-funded research projects encourage the exploring of methods of clean

electric transportation, in order to reduce the air pollution. It can reduce the use of fossil

fuels, therefore reducing the pollution. It will also decrease the unwanted product when

using the electric vehicles, such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide

which will bring harmful to the environment. Besides, use the carbon credit system to

against the pollutants also another way to reduce the air pollution. Carbon credit system

is a system that reduces the carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide equivalent gases from

atmosphere.

Law and Regulation of Air Pollution

On the other hand, to ensure the quotes of polluters, a punishment should be made and

give a clearly standard. Moreover, government should give strict requirement to those

factories which release the air pollutants to install the air scrubbers. An air scrubber is

important to protect human live. The emission of the pollutants such as aerosols, carbon

monoxide and sulfur dioxide will bring effect to the chemical balance of the ecosystems

and the survivability of the species. Hence, government should pay attention and give

the strict rules to decrease the air pollutants that release from factories.

Management of Air Pollution

According to Design Recycle Inc (2010), LED lights are known to be 50 percent more

efficient than fluorescent lights and 90 percent more efficient than the incandescent

bulbs. LED light use 70-90 percent less energy, as compared to the fluorescent lights

and incandescent bulbs. The less energy use can reduce the burning of fossil fuels and

lead to the reducing of the emission of carbon dioxide. So, use the LED lights to replace

the fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs can reduce the air pollution and energy

consumption if replacing the fluorescent lights and incandescent bulbs with LED lights.

4. Waste Problems

Law and regulation of waste problems

In order to reduce the issue of waste problems, the government should focus and

implement law and regulations of waste problems. For example, the government should

set rules to against people who thrown garbage into the river, sea or illegally landfilling

as well as incinerator.

Waste Management

Waste management is a crucial area related to the economic status of a country and

the lifestyle of its population. The main objective is to improve waste minimization

strategy and control. There are various ways to improvise and manage waste

management in our country. For example, research has shown that about two-thirds of

household wastes can be composted by using reduction and reuse techniques that can be

found in social network, such as D.I.Y, to create or design something useful to

convenient daily life (Duke University from North Carolina of United States, ).

Additionally, apartment management could built up guests interest in urban gardening,

motivate them effectively utilize food scrapes in composting every once a week, so that

the food scrapes would not grow worms and become stinky. Moreover, composting is

one of the best methods of waste disposal as it can turn unsafe organic products into safe

compost. Hence, it is suitable for every household to educate children about natural

process and farming skills.

5. Deforestation

Law and Regulation of Deforestation

To solve the deforestation problem, government plays an important rule. Government

should fine the developer which did not have permit to cutting down the tress. A tax also

can be use to limit the developer which developer needs pay the higher tax based on how

much they do deforestation. Additionally, the trees should be growing back after cutting

down. Government should spread the effect of deforestation to public to gain the

people’s insight therefore people could know the important of trees and avoid to simply

cutting down.

Ways To Reduce Pollution

Industrial Pollution

The way of reduce the industrial pollution is reducing the consumption or usage of a

polluting product. To let the industries reduce the pollution, consumers and government

take the important rule. According to King and Lenox (2002), industries will increase

the efficiency and the financial performance when preventing pollution in the production

process by reducing the use of pollutants. However, the consumer pressure will develop

the awareness of the pollution problems by the industries. Government should spread the

environmental regulations to the industries. In the environmental regulations,

government may increase the tax that needs to pay by the industries based on how much

pollute they emit. Hence, the industries will find ways to reduce the pollution to lower

the tax. A slogan “Reduce pollution saves money” may spread to the industries. Next,

consumers may reject and refuse to buy the products that causing the pollution. The

industry will decrease to manufacture the product when the sale is drop.

Water Pollution

For the modern society of large quantities of chemical contaminants, the flow rate of the

river is almost no effect. In many cases, people will feel the rapid flow of river water to

absorb more contaminants, it seems to have the ability to purify. In fact, this is an

illusion, fast flowing water use to add a lot of clean water, mainly dilute the

concentration rather purify polluted water bodies. However, the society arbitrarily put in

garbage, radioactive solid, sewage and toxic to pollute rivers and oceans.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in the past 30

to 40 years, millions of tons of plastic had been put into the ocean. Global production of

plastic per year currently to 288 million tons, of which 10% goes into the ocean, among

80% were comes from the land, through the sewers, though rivers and eventually into

the sea.

In the past few year, Boyan Slat (2013) has designed a passive system for concentrating

and catching plastic debris driven by ocean currents. This won a prize for Best Technical

Design at Delft University of Technology. Initially he contact with almost 300 company

and government aquaculture department to sponsor implement his study to change the

ocean, yet only one private company willing to put a bet on this 17 year young boy. In

2013 March 26, his talk in TEDx suddenly as viral spreading around the world. Today,

his team has more than thousands of voluntary researcher around the world. Slat (2013)

invention could recycled plastic, and some can be made into oil. After Slat (2013)

preliminary calculations, he believes in the Pacific Garbage Patch, in ten years’ time to

collect 70 million kg of plastic waste. However, his invention it’s considered there is

still more space to upgrade.

In fact, Malaysia has a lot of talented person, government could openly invited or gather

someone with creative ideas and invention to challenge “National Invention Award”

such as in China and United State. Since it promote the youngest generation makes more

opportunity with people in different field to invest on them. In addition, government

could promote the water pollution information to public and spread the benefits and

opportunity of The National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM) plan

in the future of Malaysia.

Air Pollution

To reduce the air pollution, the government-funded research projects should be

encourages exploring the methods of clean electric transportation. It can reduce the use

of fossil fuels, therefore reducing the pollution. It will also decrease the unwanted

product when using the electric vehicles, such as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and

nitrogen oxide which will bring harmful to the environment. Besides, use the carbon

credit system to against the pollutants also another way to reduce the air pollution.

However, to ensure the quotes of polluters, a punishment should be made and give a

clearly standard.

According to Design Recycle Inc (2010), LED lights are known to be 50 percent more

efficient than fluorescent lights and 90 percent more efficient than the incandescent

bulbs. So, use the LED lights to replace the fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs can

reduce the air pollution. It will also reduce the energy consumption if replacing the

fluorescent lights and incandescent bulbs with LED lights.

Moreover, government should give strict requirement to those factories which release

the air pollutants to install the air scrubbers. An air scrubber is important to protect

human live. The emission of the pollutants such as aerosols, carbon monoxide and sulfur

dioxide will bring effect to the chemical balance of the ecosystems and the survivability

of the species. Hence, government should pay attention and give the strict rules to

decrease the air pollutants that release from factories.

Waste Problem

To reduce the waste issues people should against the issues of waste recycle, yet to

arbitrarily thrown into river and sea or illegally landfilling and incinerator. Non-

combustible and unrecyclable waste were a part of origin severely influences the nature

of water, air and environment and bring chronic disaster to earth. For instances,

unrecyclable solid wastes such as plastic baggies/ tableware, tissue paper, light bulbs

and wastes contain harmful substances as motor oil cans, cardboard containers, paint

cans and so forth chemical that resulting in sewage.

Waste management is a crucial area related to the economic status of a country and the

lifestyle of its population. Waste management is define as all those activities and action

required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. The main objective is to

improve waste minimization strategy and control.

According to Duke University from North Carolina of United States, it declared their

private research “approximately two-thirds of household waste can be composted.”

There is many reduction and reuse techniques could be find in social network, such as

D.I.Y to create or design something useful to convenient daily life. Additionally,

apartment management could built up guests interest in urban gardening, motivate them

effectively utilize food scrapes in composting every once a week, and so the food

scrapes won’t grow worms and become stinky. Composting is one of the best method of

waste disposal as it can turn unsafe organic products into safe compost, so it suitable for

every household to educate children about natural process and farming skills.

Deforestation

To solve the deforestation problem, government plays the important rule. Government

should fine the developer which did not have permit to cutting down the tress. A tax also

can be use to limit the developer which developer needs pay the higher tax based on how

much they do deforestation. Additionally, the trees should be growing back after cutting

down. Government should spread the effect of deforestation to public to gain the

people’s insight therefore people could know the important of trees and avoid to simply

cutting down.

References

Businessdictionary.com. (2016). Air Pollution. Retrieved on 11th February 2016 from

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/air-pollution.html

Environment, D. o. (2011). Malaysia Environmental Quality Report 2010. Malaysia :

Department of Environment.

Malaysiakini.com. (1997). Haze deaths rise as air pollution increases. Retrieved on 11th

February 2016 from https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/233744

Merriam Webster (2015). Noise Pollution. Retrieved on 11th February 2016 from

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noise%20pollution

Thestar.com.my. (2015). Schools in Selangor, KL, Putrajaya, NS, Malacca to close Tuesday.

Retrieved on 11th February 2016 from http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2015

/09/15/haze-schools-close/

Solid Waste In Malaysia. (2015). Retrieved March 03, 2016, from

http://www.gecnet.info/index.cfm

Butler, R. A. (2013, November 15). Malaysia has the world’s highest deforestation rate,

reveals Google forest map. Retrieved March 03, 2016, from

http://news.mongabay.com/2013/11/malaysia-has-the-worlds-highest-deforestation-rate-

reveals-google-forest-map/

Design Recylce Incorporated. (2010). Comparison Chart LED Lights vs. Incandescent Light Bulbs vs. CFLs. Retrieved 21 November 2011, from http://www.designrecycleinc.com/led%20comp%20chart.html.

Duke University from North Carolina of United States. Municipal Solid Waste Generation and

Recycling United States. Retrieved 21 February 2011, From

https://center.sustainability.duke.edu/resources/green-facts-consumers/how-much-do-

we-waste-daily

King, A., & Lenox, M. (2002). Exploring the locus of profitable pollution reduction.

Management Science, 48(2), pp. 289-299.

Environmental quality act 1974. (1974). Arrangement of sections. Retrieved on 1st March

2016 from http://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/mal13278.pdf

Claire Le Guern Lytle (2015). WHEN THE MERMAIDS CRY: THE GREAT PLASTIC

TIDE. Retrieved on 13 February 2015, from http://coastalcare.org/2009/11/plastic-

pollution/

Sarah Benton Feitlinger (2015). Twenty-Year-Old Boyan Slat Takes On The Monumental

Task Of Cleaning Our Oceans. Retrieved on 13 February 2016, from

http://www.dogonews.com/2015/9/26/twenty-year-old-boyan-slat-takes-on-the-

monumental-task-of-cleaning-our-oceans

Terrence McCoy (2015). Can the ‘largest cleanup in history’ save the ocean?. Retrieved on 13

February 2015, from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/02/01/can-the-largest-

cleanup-in-history-save-the-ocean/