Making Smart Decisions For Our Future

Sustainability Is Key To Our Survival

It’s high time that our governments take the issue of sustainability seriously.

Our leaders need to seriously develop and invest in renewable energy sources, in order to successfully replace the current, harmful sources of fossil fuels.

Apart from the more mainstream renewable energy options (solar, hydropower, wind, etc), I strongly feel that our governments should be looking much more into bioenergy.

Biomass Fuels As A Great Source Of Renewable Energy

Bioenergy refers to the energy that’s derived from burning biomass fuels. These fuels originate from organic materials such as harvest residues, purpose-grown crops, and organic waste from our homes, businesses, and farms.

In my opinion, the great benefit of this form of renewable energy is that its source of fuel is constantly being produced daily, specifically in the form of organic waste.

Given that we produce organic waste every day, this type of fuel is indeed continuous and abundant.

We Need To Recognize The Value Of Our Waste In Developing A Sustainable Future

Hence, the main thing that’s required on our part, is to establish more processing facilities and plants in order to process such waste into renewable energy.

One major problem here is that in many countries, including Malaysia, such waste is largely discarded and not utilized/recycled.

Some prime examples in the case of Malaysia include:

• The organic waste from households that end up in landfills across the country
• The waste from oil palm trees, which are abundant in the country.

It’s high time the government acquires some foresight, starts thinking long-term, and recognizes the huge potential of such sources of renewable energy.

Processing Organic Waste Into Energy

One main method of how organic waste can be processed into energy is via the Waste-to-Energy (WTE) process.

Through this method:

i) The waste is initially incinerated to produce heat.

ii) Subsequently, this heat is used to convert water into steam in a ‘boiler’.

iii) This high-pressure steam then turns the blades in a turbine generator in order to generate electricity.

The Long-Term Benefits Of Such Renewable Energy

If done effectively with proper planning, this will surely bring many important as well as long-term benefits to our countries, such as:

1. Acquiring energy from environmentally friendly, renewable, as well as sustainable energy sources.

2. Reducing the levels of pollution as well as environmental damage caused by utilizing fossil fuels as our main sources of energy.

3. In general, the cost of generating and supplying electricity for our respective countries will decrease because we will be utilizing renewable energy sources, as opposed to fossil fuels that are decreasing in amount.

As a result, the financial burdens of electricity generation and supply costs to our governments and ourselves as consumers can be alleviated in the long term.

4. Reducing the high amounts of discarded organic waste. This in turn reduces the number and sizes of landfills throughout our countries, thus preventing further damage to our environment in general.

5. Providing new job opportunities, especially for our youth, in the fields of recycling and reprocessing waste.

In the end, it’s imperative that our governments take the issue of sustainability seriously by investing in bioenergy, specifically our organic waste.

Given that we’re in a period of rapid climate change and heading towards a climate crisis, we simply can’t afford to delay any development of renewable, green energy sources in order to replace our dependence on harmful fossil fuels.

As countries, we need to change our mindsets and stop discarding our organic waste, and instead recycle and process it into energy for the sake of our future.

Copyright Raveen Jeyakumar, 2024. All rights reserved.

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