Through working closely with neighbourhoods, municipalities across Malaysia have successfully implemented Community Initiatives which work with and for the citizens. These centres have been successful in incentivising citizens however it is not clear how the waste streams are handled and consequently the positive and negative impacts of the whole system.

Malaysia has an adequate waste collection system, but 20 years ago identified inadequate means to handle and dispose of that waste. Researchers working in collaboration with government identified targets and strategies that could support the reduction of waste and improve handling - namely by implementing separation at source for households. Challenges include raising awareness around doing this properly and linking the collected waste streams into value chains.

This is a national strategy which was deployed in different ways across neighbourhoods and regions. One such solution was the Zero Waste Community Initiative, which rewards participants who separated their recyclable and food waste. The staged programme began in 2018 with Rumah Pangsa Senawang 1 in Negri Sembilan as its first location. Residents who separated food (500g) and recyclable waste (1kg) received coupons which could be redeemed for items such as rice and cooking oil.

In one year, 7 ZeComm centres had collected 14,515.42kg of recyclable waste, followed by 11,335.38kg of food waste and 600kg of used cooking oil. SWCorp was looking at having another 14 ZeComm centres over the next year.