TRANSPORT Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook yesterday tabled the Road Transport (Amendment) Bill 2018 for its first reading in the Dewan Rakyat which, among others, seeks to enable the authorities to tow abandoned vehicles to scrapyards. According to Loke, there are 60,000 abandoned cars in towns and cities nationwide. The number may be more.
On Nov 25 last year, the New Straits Times reported the number of abandoned vehicles to be eight million, quoting then natural resources and environment minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar. In fact, he figured the number to be closer to 10 million as not all abandoned vehicles were reported to the authorities. The vehicles are a great threat not only to the safety of other road users, but also cause much damage to the environment. As such, the Road Transport Act may not be the only one needing an amendment. The Environment Quality Act 1974 and related regulations, too, may have to be amended to enable the safest means of depolluting and disposal.
A vehicle’s impact on the environment starts long before it hits the road. Just think steel, plastics and paint to get a feel of the hazardous materials that your car is made of. We haven’t even begun talking of the asbestos in the brake drums. The hazard doesn’t end when the car is taken off the road either. Think lead, mercury, bromine and chromium — they are all there in the car.
Researchers have found more than 200 chemicals in the cabin of the car. You may praise your new car now, but beware when you “bury” it. Because the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and everything else in the cabin can kill. The good news is automakers are getting better at being green. More and more hazardous materials are being replaced with biodegradable ones. One brand even claims to have removed 75 per cent of PVC in its cars’ cabins. Malaysia, too, must compel its automakers to do the same.
But Malaysian abandoned cars are old clunkers or “bangers” as the British call them. But Malaysia need not reinvent the wheel, so to speak. The European Union’s 2005 End-of-Life Vehicles Directive is a good place to start. Abandoned cars are taken to what is called a depollution plant where hazardous materials such as mercury switches are removed and dangerous fluid pumped out. What cannot be reused or recycled are sent to specialists for safe disposal. But these are treatment facilities that must be specially licensed. Otherwise, unauthorised operators may cannibalise the parts and dump the wreck with all the hazardous materials intact.
Under EU regulations, such treatment plants can only operate if determined to be in compliance with environmental law and registered with the environment agency. Our licensing system and enforcement must be as robust. The EU system also encourages vehicle owners to send their vehicles to the treatment facilities for depolluting and disposal.
Adopting a similar dismantling and recycling system may finally put an end to the tonnes of waste our eight million abandoned cars are. Vehicle cemetery will be a grave mistake.