Accounting for Waste: Turning Sarawak’s Circular Economy Vision into Financial Reality
By Dr. Shahid Latif
Circular Economy 3
Every tonne of waste discarded in Sarawak carries two price tags. The first appears visibly on municipal budgets – for trucks, landfills, and clean-up crews. The second, often hidden, accumulates in polluted rivers, lost tourism income, and deteriorating public health.
Environmental accounting brings this invisible bill into the open, assigning monetary value to each tonne of carbon or kilogram of plastic that slips through the circular economy envisioned in the Sarawak Sustainability Blueprint 2030.
The Blueprint’s Circular Economy thrust sets out ambitious but clear waste reduction targets. By 2030, local councils are tasked with phasing out single-use plastic items and cutting food waste by five per cent. By 2035, no more than five per cent of municipal waste should end up in landfills or open dumps.
Accounting disciplines can translate these targets into line-item costs. For instance, replacing a styrofoam lunch box with a compostable alternative may initially cost more, but life-cycle costing captures the avoided methane emissions and reduced clean-up expenses – providing a more complete picture of value. These insights allow local governments to weigh bans and incentives on firm economic grounds, rather than guesswork.
Electronic waste tells a similar story. Sarawak aims to double e-waste collection within five years and recover 90 per cent of valuable metals by 2040. Environmental accountants can track every gram of copper, gold, and rare earths otherwise lost, assigning each a market value. They also calculate the liabilities from toxins like lead and brominated flame retardants, which leach into the soil when discarded electronics are improperly dumped. When these figures are compared to the cost of modern recycling lines, policymakers often find that recovery pays for itself – and more.
Landfills present yet another blind spot in cost assessments. Decomposing waste produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas, while poorly managed sites can strain water utilities. To address this, the Blueprint instructs authorities to upgrade current dumps into sanitary landfills by 2035. Full-cost accounting strengthens this case, monetising benefits such as reduced emissions, groundwater protection, and even surrounding property value retention. It also provides the evidence needed to calibrate a proposed landfill levy that could help fund these necessary upgrades.
Numbers matter upstream too. The Blueprint calls for extended producer responsibility and recycled-content standards in packaging. Here, material-flow cost accounting can reveal how much aluminium, energy, and water a beverage company loses per can through off-cuts and waste. Once these losses are priced, investments in design-for-recycling or refillable packaging become not just good PR, but sound financial strategy.
Importantly, environmental accounting is not just about identifying costs – it also helps uncover new income streams. Sarawak plans to raise plastic recycling rates by 20 per cent within five years. Transparent records of recovered polymers can unlock financing for sorting facilities and support compliance with foreign recycled-content regulations. Similarly, quantifying avoided emissions from waste-to-energy systems opens the door to carbon credit revenue – something the state is preparing for under its emerging carbon market.
For accounting data to drive action, credibility is crucial. The Blueprint, therefore, promotes digital tracking systems: IoT-enabled bins, weighbridge sensors, and blockchain-based traceability. These technologies ensure that every kilogram of waste and tonne of carbon can be verified by auditors. Yet, technology alone is not enough. Training programmes for local officials and industry accountants are essential. Without skilled personnel, even the best data systems risk being underutilised.
Sarawak’s circular economy goals are bold, but they are also quantifiable. Environmental accounting provides both the yardstick and the calculator – exposing true costs and revealing hidden profits along the waste chain. If agencies, businesses, and households embrace these tools, the state can move beyond counting rubbish to counting savings – in both ringgit and emissions. Only then can the vision laid out in the Sustainability Blueprint evolve from policy on paper to balance-sheet reality.
Dr. Shahid Latif is a lecturer in the Department of Accounting and Finance at the Faculty of Business, Curtin University Malaysia. He holds a PhD in Accounting from Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. His research has appeared in leading journals such as the Asian Review of Accounting, South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, Global Business Review, Business Perspectives and Research, and International Journal of Emerging Markets. His areas of expertise include accounting and control systems, performance management, financial literacy, sustainability, SMEs, and corporate governance. He can be contacted at shahidlatif@curtin.edu.my.
