Adoption of post-disaster waste management plan into disaster management guidelines for Malaysia

Malaysia is one of the Asian countries which are prone to disaster: flooding is one of the natural disasters that are becoming more common in Malaysia every year, threatening life. Disaster waste management is, therefore, one of the most important issues to address. Furthermore, as urbanization, population growth, and economic development increase, this leads to larger quantities of disaster waste requiring more systematic management, and this is becoming one of the most critical environmental issues to be tackled. This research aims to highlight possible entry points for waste management adoption into disaster management guidelines for Malaysia. Furthermore, the extent of disaster waste affecting the environment will be investigated, to identify the needs of waste management to be adopted as disaster management guidelines. Ultimately, the research intends to propose the adoption of a post-disaster waste management plan into the existing disaster management guidelines in Malaysia. In fact, an act and policies with regard to waste management have already been enacted and developed, but none of them focuses on disaster waste. Comparative studies will be conducted to benchmark waste management practices in other countries, to produce a systematic plan for post-disaster waste management in Malaysia. Qualitative research design methods will be rigorously applied by reviewing existing studies and carrying out semi-structured interviews. This paper presents an overview of disaster waste management, outlining the issues and challenges encountered during managing disaster waste, exploring existing guidelines on waste management, and discovering ways to improve the current situation by comparing it with the disaster waste management planning of more experienced countries, such as Japan, the USA (North Carolina), and Indonesia.