(Miri, 22nd) Datuk Clarence Ting, Secretary-General of Sarawak United People's Party Central Committee, expressed shock and confusion over the inclusion of “halal organic waste” and “non-halal organic waste” categories in Selangor’s planning guidelines. He strongly questioned what practical benefits this measure could actually bring to the nation and its people.
Clarence Ting stated in a press release that the original intention of waste classification is to improve environmental efficiency, increase recycling rates, and enhance waste management systems. However, now the policy has further distinguished between halal and non-halal, making people wonder if these measures have completely strayed from the essence of waste management.
Although Selangor State Speaker Ng Suee Lim later clarified that the policy is limited to shopping malls and does not affect public trash bins, Clarence Ting said that this widely discussed issue still led him to bluntly state, “Trash is just trash. Waste management should be built on the foundation of environmental protection, science, and public interest, instead of endlessly adding all kinds of confusing classification systems.”
He further pointed out that—even in the world’s populous Muslim countries and those actively promoting the halal industry, such as Indonesia, Brunei, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—there has never been a formal public waste management system that differentiates between “halal” and “non-halal” categories.
He said that there is no such precedent in any major Islamic country, yet this kind of idea has appeared in Malaysia. If the world’s leading Islamic countries all consider this unnecessary, shouldn’t Malaysia seriously reflect on the actual value of this measure?
Clarence Ting emphasized that he absolutely respects the significant role of Islam and the halal system in food certification, product quality, and supply chain management, but waste management falls under the domain of public administration and must return to principles of environmental protection and science. He questioned whether this measure could increase recycling rates, reduce waste volume, lower treatment costs, or improve pollution?
“If the answer is no, then are we really solving problems, or are we creating new ones?”
He added that what Malaysia truly needs to solve right now are core issues like illegal garbage dumping, plastic and river pollution, and low waste sorting rates, rather than continuously generating more administrative procedures and social disputes that reduce policies to mere formalism.
At the same time, Clarence Ting stressed that Sarawak has always adhered to principles of diversity, inclusivity, and pragmatism. Any public policy must always prioritize the public interest and overall social benefit.
“Sarawak must never allow such practices to appear in our administrative system.”
He called for certain issues to stop at an appropriate point, and not go to the extremes of labeling and dividing even garbage by religion.
He reiterated that what people truly care about is cost of living, infrastructure, education, healthcare, and quality of environment—not whether trash is halal or non-halal.