Residents Raise Alarms Over Batu Arang Waste-to-Energy Plant, But Expert Urges Calm
Batu Arang waste-to-energy plant approved but faces community backlash over air quality and pollution. Expert weighs in on modern safety technology.
The Sultan Idris Shah Green Energy Plant, a waste-to-energy facility slated for Batu Arang with a capacity of 2,400 tonnes per day, has drawn sustained community opposition even after its environmental impact assessment was approved — though a senior waste management academic says the technology has evolved well beyond residents’ fears.
SEO Title: Batu Arang Waste-to-Energy Plant | EIA Approved, Residents Object
Deck: The Sultan Idris Shah Green Energy Plant in Batu Arang, approved through an environmental impact assessment, is designed to process up to 2,400 tonnes of municipal waste daily across six Selangor local councils, yet residents remain unconvinced that odour, leachate, and heavy vehicle traffic can be adequately controlled.
Introduction
Approval of the environmental impact assessment for the Sultan Idris Shah (SIS) Green Energy Plant in Batu Arang, Selangor, has done little to quiet opposition from the community it will serve. The Batu Arang waste-to-energy plant — developed by KDEB Waste Management in collaboration with YTL Power International — is designed to convert up to 2,400 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily into usable energy, easing pressure on landfills across six local councils in Selangor. Residents, however, have vowed to continue protesting, citing concerns over air quality, waterway contamination, and tourism impact. Into that standoff stepped Agamutu Pariatamby, a senior professor at the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development at Sunway University, who told FMT that while residents’ misgivings are understandable, modern waste-to-energy infrastructure has been specifically engineered to address each one of them.
With The EIA Stamp In Place, Batu Arang Is Already On Edge
Three residents speaking to FMT in the days following the EIA approval each described a different version of the same anxiety — and none of them had been persuaded that the project’s approvals meant their concerns had been resolved.
This is not a simple case of community resistance to infrastructure.
It is a collision between lived environmental memory, a heritage identity under pressure, a technical gap in public understanding of modern combustion systems, and a long-standing distrust of assurances made about industrial projects.
Zulfaizi Rusli, 40, who was born and raised in Batu Arang, raised the most immediate logistical concern: waste lorries travelling to the plant could shed leachate — dirty water from garbage — onto local roads, which then drains into Sungai Garing and its tributary Sungai Batu Arang. Both waterways pass through the district and serve as the backbone of a modest but active outdoor recreation economy, drawing hikers and cyclists to the area.
For 71-year-old longtime resident Rusli Sharif, who has lived in Batu Arang for half a century, the anxiety is more atmospheric. “We are also worried that the air quality may be affected,” he said, adding that odour from incoming waste could erode the town’s appeal as a heritage destination.
Musician Hashiamaldin Bazin, 58, was blunter still. Any news of the plant triggered memories of the pig farms that once ringed the area — operations that ceased in the 1980s following pressure over untreated animal waste discharge and water pollution. He expressed doubt that odour from the waste facility could be neutralised in the way developers have claimed, while stressing a point that all three residents ultimately shared: “Residents do not object to technology, but they want to be assured that it will not have a negative impact on them.”
From Negative Pressure Systems To Catalytic Converters, The Engineering Has Changed
Agamutu Pariatamby, whose academic work at Sunway University’s Jeffrey Sachs Center focuses on sustainable development and waste systems, drew a clear distinction between the waste-to-energy model proposed for Batu Arang and the incinerators that have historically generated community opposition in Malaysia.
The confusion between the two, he said, is understandable — both involve combustion — but the operational and regulatory differences are significant. A traditional incinerator is essentially a combustion chamber. A modern waste-to-energy plant generates electricity or heat from that combustion and is built with multiple layers of containment and emission treatment that older facilities never incorporated.
On the odour question specifically, Agamutu explained that modern WTE facilities use negative air pressure to prevent smells from escaping when waste is delivered. “The moment the door opens for the lorry to offload, the vacuum inside will actually suck the air in from outside,” he told FMT. “As the air is sucked in, so is the odour.”
On airborne emissions from the combustion process itself, he pointed to catalytic converters and fibre filter systems now standard in modern WTE design. When plastics combust, toxic by-products can be released — but these systems are engineered to capture and neutralise those compounds before they reach the surrounding air.
The real story here is not whether residents’ fears are legitimate, but whether the technology currently in use has outpaced the mental model most people still hold of what a waste-burning facility looks like.
Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari made a version of that same argument in 2023, when earlier protests were mounting. The plant, he said, would not resemble “incinerators from the 1990s,” because it would not rely on old technology. The EIA approval in 2026 reflects that assurance having passed regulatory scrutiny — though it has not, at the time of reporting, resolved the community’s scepticism.
Behind The 2,400-Tonne Daily Capacity Is An Experiment In ‘Distributed Landfill Relief’
The real story here is not the size of the plant, but the structural problem it is designed to solve.
Selangor’s landfills are under sustained pressure. The SIS Green Energy Plant, first mooted in 2019, is positioned as a systemic intervention rather than a single site solution — its 2,400-tonne daily intake is calculated to serve six local councils simultaneously, diverting municipal solid waste from tip sites that are running out of room.
The EIA process, Agamutu stressed, is the mechanism through which exactly the concerns raised by Batu Arang residents are meant to be examined. “Any waste-to-energy plant has to go through a detailed environmental impact assessment. Experts will review the EIA and look into all these issues such as proximity to houses or lorry transportation,” he said. The assessment is prepared by both government officers and independent specialists in air pollution and traffic management, among other disciplines.
The ambition of the design is to shift waste management in the corridor from a reactive, landfill-dependent model into a sustained energy-generating system — one where municipal waste becomes feedstock rather than burden.
Whether residents who remember the pig farms of the 1980s will accept that framing remains, for now, an open question.
Sungai Garing’s Tourism Identity Gives The Opposition A Natural Anchor Point
The choice of Batu Arang as a site is itself a strategic decision worth noting.
The town sits along two waterways — Sungai Garing and Sungai Batu Arang — that have become informal recreation corridors for hikers and cyclists from the wider Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area. That existing visitor base means the community’s objections carry a specific economic dimension that purely residential opposition often does not.
Rusli Sharif captured it in a single question: “How do you expect people to come to your heritage town if you have an incinerator?”
Sourcing materials describe the plant’s daily throughput as up to 2,400 tonnes of municipal waste, with coverage across six Selangor local councils, while the official EIA approval confirms the project has cleared the primary regulatory threshold required before construction can proceed. Public information confirms the development is jointly driven by KDEB Waste Management and YTL Power International, with the proposal dating to 2019.
At the time of reporting, community consultations beyond the EIA process have not been publicly confirmed, and no construction timeline has been formally announced.
Frequently Asked Questions About The Batu Arang Waste-to-Energy Plant
What is the Batu Arang waste-to-energy plant and who is developing it? The Batu Arang waste-to-energy plant, officially named the Sultan Idris Shah (SIS) Green Energy Plant, is a facility designed to convert municipal solid waste into energy. It is being developed by KDEB Waste Management in collaboration with YTL Power International, with the project first proposed in 2019.
Has the Batu Arang WTE plant received environmental approval? Yes. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the Sultan Idris Shah Green Energy Plant in Batu Arang has been approved, as reported in September 2026. The EIA is the primary regulatory clearance required before a waste-to-energy plant can proceed to construction in Malaysia.
How much waste will the Batu Arang plant process each day? The Sultan Idris Shah Green Energy Plant is designed to process up to 2,400 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily, serving six local councils across Selangor.
Will the Batu Arang waste-to-energy plant cause odour problems for nearby residents? According to waste management expert Agamutu Pariatamby of Sunway University’s Jeffrey Sachs Center, modern WTE facilities use negative air pressure systems at waste intake points to prevent odour from escaping. When a lorry unloads at the facility, a vacuum draws air inward rather than allowing smells to disperse outward.
Is a waste-to-energy plant the same as an incinerator? No. While both involve combustion, a waste-to-energy plant generates usable electricity or heat from the process and incorporates emission-control technologies — including catalytic converters and fibre filters — that traditional incinerators do not use. Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari stated in 2023 that the Batu Arang plant would not use the outdated technology associated with 1990s-era incinerators.
What are residents in Batu Arang specifically worried about? Residents have raised concerns about leachate from waste lorries contaminating Sungai Garing and Sungai Batu Arang, airborne odour affecting quality of life and tourism, air quality degradation from combustion emissions, and road damage caused by the regular movement of heavy vehicles into the area.
Why is the Batu Arang location significant beyond the plant itself? Batu Arang is a heritage town whose surrounding waterways — Sungai Garing and Sungai Batu Arang — serve as recreation destinations for hikers and cyclists. Residents and business stakeholders argue that the presence of a large-scale waste facility could deter visitors and undermine the town’s heritage tourism identity.
A Decision Made, A Debate That Continues
The EIA approval for the Sultan Idris Shah Green Energy Plant marks a formal regulatory milestone for the Batu Arang waste-to-energy project — but it has not closed the public argument. Residents who grew up alongside polluted pig farms and watched decades of promises about industrial management remain sceptical, and their concerns about waterway contamination, air quality, and heritage tourism are consistent with the kinds of questions the EIA process is designed to answer.
Agamutu Pariatamby’s position is that modern WTE technology has already answered them, through negative pressure intake systems, catalytic converters, and multi-agency EIA oversight. The gap, for now, is between what the engineering can demonstrate and what the community has been given cause to believe.
For more information on the Batu Arang waste-to-energy plant and the Sultan Idris Shah Green Energy Plant EIA, readers may refer to:
- Developer: KDEB Waste Management — www.kdebwaste.com.my
- Co-developer: YTL Power International — www.ytlpower.com
- Regulatory body: Department of Environment Malaysia (EIA Division) — www.doe.gov.my
- Academic source: Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development, Sunway University — www.sunway.edu.my/jeffrey-sachs-center
- News source: Free Malaysia Today — www.freemalaysiatoday.com
Reporting based on interviews and statements published by Free Malaysia Today in September 2026.
