Exploring the Municipal Solid Waste Management via MFA-SAA Approach in Terengganu, Malaysia

This study aims to investigate the outflow and entry of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) from two aspects of the study system, i.e., the rural and urban scale in the state of Terengganu, Malaysia. Modelling was performed on 8 MSW management scenarios, one per district, over a period of 12 months in 2020 throughout the entire state. Detailed residual composition data were collected from available literature on landfill sites and related studies. The results indicated that the urban scale produced an annual waste stream input of 1187 ktons, approximately 18% higher than that of the rural scale (819 ktons) for 2020. However, the sociogram network demonstrated a low (r = 0.15, p < .001) density score in the overall separation, probably due to the exclusion of NGOs, research institutes, communities, and private sectors from the decision-making process in the management of solid wastes. Therefore, the Material Flow Analysis-Social Agent Analysis (MFA-SAA) decision was proposed as a preliminary measure to be considered in the decision-making of waste management policy. It can be concluded that the solid wastes released from the components and subsystems revealed short-term and long-term capabilities in enhancing the effectiveness of the environmental management of the study area