IPOH (Bernama): There is no unmanaged plastic waste dump in the jungles here as claimed by British media, says the Department of Environment (DOE).

Its director Norazizi Adinan said the pile of rubbish in pictures, which went viral on social media, was actually collected on the site of a company that processes waste as fuel. 

"The company operates at the IGB Industrial Area in Tasek and has not violated any regulations," he said when asked to comment on the Daily Mail Online report about a six-meter deep plastic waste dump in the jungles here.

Norazizi said the premises was operating legally and had a licence from the Ipoh City Council which was monitoring the operations in the area to ensure that the company abided by the Environment Quality Act 1974.

Meanwhile, Resourceco Asia (M) Sdn Bhd operations director K. Muralindran said the rubbish at the site was estimated to be two tonnes which has been collected since the beginning of this year.

He said the company which had been in operations since 2011 collected garbage such as plastics and fabrics to be processed into fuel for use in cement processing plants.

"We are the first such company in Malaysia and processing waste into fuel actually helps to protect the environment, better than dumping waste at the disposal sites," he said.

He said each month, his company buys between three and 4.5 tonnes of garbage from various industries and commercial bodies for recycling.

On the claims by the British media, Muralindran did not rule out the possibility that a group of four foreigners had entered the collection site last December.

"We invited them to come to the office to give them a brief description of what really happens but they refused and proceeded to the disposal site to take pictures using drones," he said.

He added that a police report of the group had been lodged on Dec 14 at the Kampung Tawas police station. - Bernama