Projects in an urban setting

Making a region clean – and keeping it clean

As important as concepts are, success is ultimately determined in practice that combines experience, know-how, and cooperation. In Sarawak, Malaysia’s largest federal state, Trienekens built Southeast Asia’s most advanced integrated “disposal park”, which it operates in close cooperation with local decision makers. The facility receives around 200,000 tonnes of waste from Kuching, one of Asia’s cleanest cities. It is a state-of-the-art project and was planned to have an operational lifetime of much longer than a quarter of a century. 

The holistic Sarawak solution model not only foresaw the entire logistics process for the collection of refuse, but also its pre-treatment. The plan comprised the recycling of reusable materials in combination with reduction of the amount of garbage through the use of appropriate microorganisms. Ultimately, the household waste ends up in a landfill site. Of course, all the components of Trienekens’s undertaking were oriented toward European standards. 

Cutting-edge technology is embedded in every phase of the process. For example, the leachate is collected in the landfill and treated. The landfill gas is aggregated, transported, and used instead of primary fuels in the hazardous-waste incineration plant to conserve resources. The disposal park also has its own laboratories and various recycling stations. Even when the landfill’s scheduled lifecycle ends, the sustainable Trienekens concept will continue to function: Careful recultivation ensures that it will be re-assimilated into its natural environment.