Waste Disposal Schemes and their Applicabilities in Malaysia

Timed Paragraph Practice:

Question 1

Briefly compare and contrast any two waste disposal schemes (e.g. zero waste and land filling, land filling and using incinerators or any other methods you know) and decide which might be more suitable for your country.

Various waste disposal schemes have been proposed to replace the existing methods in the hope to get rid of the piling waste. One of them is the popular zero waste scheme. The ultimate goal of the scheme is to reduce waste generation, best to zero. The main idea is to ensure industrial products are made from materials that can be repaired, reused and recycled (Collins, 2002). Many developed countries have adopted the waste disposal scheme seeing its potential in effectively resolving the problem. However, conventional waste disposal methods, for example, incinerators are still practical in many countries especially to the developing nations. The fact that the use of incinerators has given rise to the increased concentration of dioxins in the atmosphere is undeniable. Alongside with that, incinerators require high cost of building, operating and maintaining. Despite of all these drawbacks, it is still the most effective and rapid way to get rid of the ever-increasing trash. In addition, the process of burning could be a source for power supply. Every waste disposal scheme has its pros and cons. There are various aspects need to be taken into consideration when it comes to application; a good scheme does not necessarily be suitable to every country.

The increase in population and rapid economic development in Malaysia have brought about the high waste generation rate of the nation. The amount of waste generated each day is comparable to the high-income countries (Ndiaye, 2003). Furthermore, Malaysia is running out of suitable land filling sites since the last few years as urbanization is taking place in most of the potential locations. In my opinion, a better alternative to replace the existing land filling method would be using incinerators rather than the zero waste scheme. The awareness on the importance of proper waste disposal is low among the people. Privatization of waste management has worsened the case to a greater extent where households are required to pay for the service. According to Netto (2007), only about 10 to 15 percent of the waste is recycled in Malaysia. The discouraging figures imply that the zero waste scheme is unlikely to succeed in the country. With the tight trade relationship, Malaysia has started seeking for advice and technologies transfer from Japan to minimize the potential pollution by incinerators. For these reasons, I firmly believe that the most efficient and immediate way to resolve the Malaysian’s waste problem is by using the incinerators.

References

Collins, J. (2002, Oct 3^rd). Radical plans for waste could herald a big clean-up. The Guardian Weekly. p.25.

Ndiaye, Catherine. (2003, May 19). Talking Trash: Waste Disposal Services in Malaysia. Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia. Retrieved October 24, 2008, from

http://www.idrc.ca/eepsea/ev-29989-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Netto, Anil. (2007, March 23). Environment-Malaysia: Costly Incinerators or Efficient Waste Disposal? Retrieved 25 October, 2008, from Inter Press Service News Agency Web site:

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37058

Writing in Engineering Classes

After enrolling into an engineering course, I realize that academic writing is not exactly what I thought it is. It is much more professional and various skills are required in order to write a good academic essay. Taking one of the engineering modules MLE 1101- Introductory to Materials Science and Engineering as example, I encounter a different kind of problems as compared to writing an English essay. In my opinion, the intended audiences for my writing in engineering classes are lecturers and tutors who already possess knowledge on the subject matter. The purpose of writing in engineering classes is mainly to evaluate our level of understanding on different topics and therefore minor grammatical errors are acceptable. Therefore, making a minor mistake is obvious enough to be noticed. One main problem that I encounter when writing for this module is the organization pattern. As most of the engineering processes consist of various stages and procedures; logically, a chronological order of idea organization should be use. However, a lot of them are of cause-effect pattern at the same time, where one outcome is a result of the other. Things are fairly complicated and ideas often get messed up due to confusion; as a consequence, the writing turns out to be unorganized and related ideas are scattered all around. To counteract this problem, I should cultivate the habit in doing brainstorming or mind map and get my outline done before I start writing. This would help me to get a better picture of how one process or procedure links to another, allowing me to organize my essay better and smoother. Besides that, this could also be improved by reading more frequently in order to familiarize with the content and to study the different approaches on the same task.

Reflections

After attending lessons of EG1471 for a few weeks, I do realize some changes in my writing skills. First and foremost, I have a clearer picture on how to write an academic essay than before. It provides very useful guidelines when I am writing. I feel more confident with my words and sentences, not to forget, the style of writing. The formality is more discernible and my writings just seem more appropriate and accurate. I used to write according to my intuition, on what I think is correct and what sounds right. It therefore turned out to be unorganized and points just scattered within the essay which makes it very difficult for readers to understand. Tutor has given clear explanation on writing skills and emphasized much on some common mistakes that we tend to make when we are writing. Her words do serve as reminders which help reducing the errors I make as I am writing. I pay more attention on the grammar and vocabulary usage besides the organization of my points and elaboration. It gives my essay a smoother flow and words just seem to be connected and not in bits and pieces. I would like to extend my gratitude to Ms Fong for the well-conducted lessons and her kind assistance throughout the course.

Summary: Engineer Better Medicines

Current medicines are designed for general treatments which are standardized for the majority. This is an issue engineers have to deal with. DNA variants give rise to the difference of individuals, in this case, response to medicine treatment. Therefore, personalized medicine is an ideal way and also the future direction to give effective and optimum healthcare decisions. There are three challenges for personalized medicines. First, generate systems for quick accessibility to individual’s genetic profile. Second, create methods for storage and management of the tremendous amount of genetic data. Third, invent affordable and effective equipments to identify small amount of chemicals in blood. The randomized clinical trials to test drug’s worth and safety only provide an average result, not specific to an individual. Besides, engineers are to invent new approach in aiding delivery of drugs to target cells while bypassing the body’s natural immune response. The emergence of the new study “synthetic biology” in replacing or repairing damaged cells has also deterred the creation of personalized medicine. Personalized medicines bring about numerous benefits. First of all, it gives an early warning or indication to patients on disease or risk of disease. Diseases can then be treated or prevented at earlier stage and avoid inessential treatment while ensure the best dosage of medicines is applied. However, disclosure of individual’s genetic profile will raise ethical and social problems. Drug-resistant infections have been a major concern in the medical sector where now engineers come to in to play. Natural selection takes place when drugs failed to get rid of the microbes, leading to the growth and eventually dominating the cells and they continue to be infective. Efforts have been done in fighting drug-resistant infections. Engineering is needed in designing methods to overcome multiple drug-resistant infections. This is done by searching for potential alternative drugs. Chemical engineers are posed to a challenge in inventing new group of drugs from plants or bacteria living in harsh and remote environments. Other than that, hybrid treatment is another way to fight multiple drug-resistant infections by using a combination of drugs and antibiotic. Above all, the in-depth knowledge on the resistance of viruses is essential for mapping out tactics to avoid pandemics. One challenge to the biomedical engineers is to design antibiotics that work on specific organisms only. In general, engineers have to develop therapies with higher degree of precision, efficiency and effectiveness. The professionals have to also deal with viruses that disrupt the protein synthesis process of RNA. Engineers have to make possible the production of incisive and credible vaccines to accommodate the needs in areas where infectious diseases are pandemics. The great amount of vaccines is of utmost importance in cases like this (National Academy of Engineering, 2008).

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References

National Academy of Engineering. (2008). Engineer Better Medicines. Retrieved September 27, 2008 from

http://engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9129.aspx