Where a decade ago garbage trucks plied a dirt road that traversed forested land to reach the landfill, today they have to navigate through a maze of link houses, bungalows and apartment blocks. 

The valley within which the landfill sits on, once surrounded by greenery, is now completely hemmed in by buildings. Taman Equine, Taman Putra Permai, Taman Lestari, Taman Pinggiran Putra and Pusat Bandar Putra Permai are among the residential enclaves closest to the landfill.  

Apartments and link houses have crept up to the Ayer Hitam Landfill in Puchong as tracts of forest meant to act as a buffer zone were cleared for development.

“The residents here don’t need a garbage truck to collect their rubbish. They can just pass us their bin bags over the fence and say tolong buang (please throw),” jokes Zamri Abdul Rahman, general manager of Worldwide Landfills Sdn Bhd, which operates the waste disposal facility. 

The sight is incongruous, to say the least. The landfill literally sits in the backyards of houses and apartments. In some spots, a mere 300m is all that separates them. The waste mound itself is even higher than some of the low-rise apartment blocks.  

No wonder there has been outcry over the foul stench, health hazards and pollution risks from the landfill, which is the destination of 3,000 tonnes of waste discarded daily by Klang Valley folk. And politicians have succumbed to public demands. Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo has ordered that the landfill cease operations by year-end.  

Standing in the middle of the rubbish disposal site, one can empathise with the residents. The stench coming from the leachate treatment ponds reeks and the ammonia gas stings. Sure, no one wants a smelly rubbish tip in his backyard but the truth of the matter is, the landfill was there first.  

It was carved out of the sprawling Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve in 1995 and tracts of greenery were specifically left intact around the site as a buffer. Over the years, however, the forested land was parcelled out to developers, resulting in today’s incredulous sight of houses a mere stone’s throw from the landfill. 

Even portions of the 58ha that the state government had allocated for the landfill were given away to developers, leaving Worldwide Landfills with only 42ha today.  

“The development started around 2000. We raised our concerns to state authorities but it all happened so fast. Suddenly, the houses were all around us,” says Zamri.  

House buyers might not have known about the landfill in their backyard but surely the developers did? As do the government agencies which approved the residential projects. Last year, Selangor Department of Environment director Kalsom Abdul Ghani said many developers had flouted guidelines by building right up to the edge of their property and not planting trees to act as buffers. 

This is yet another case of failed landuse planning – or the lack of.  

At the landfill, workers spray a mixture of enzymes onto the trash to minimise odours but the stench would not go away – this is a rubbish dump, after all.  

The closure order may appease residents but appears to have been ill-advised. If the landfill closes, where is all the trash going to go? There is no alternative disposal site, particularly one that is equipped with anti-pollution features. A new landfill in Bukit Tagar near Kuala Selangor and an incinerator in Broga are still under construction, while other existing landfills in Selangor are open dumps.  

Ayer Hitam was built to take in up to seven million tonnes of waste generated within Selangor and to last for 20 years but a sudden daily deluge of 1,500 tonnes from City Hall since April 2002 had drastically shortened its lifespan. Zamri discloses, however, that there is still some land left for expansion, which will stretch the landfill’s usefulness by a couple of years.  

But with development closing in, he admits the site is no longer suitable for a landfill. “We want to operate the landfill properly, and not with all these public complaints.” 

What a shame – a perfectly good landfill has to close before its time.