BUTTERWORTH, March 4 — The Penang Department of Environment (DOE) has ordered two plastic recycling factories in the Perai Industrial Area, here, to immediately stop their operations beginning yesterday due to water, air and sound pollution.

Its director, Sharifah Zakiah Syed Sahab said the DOE issued order notices to both factories under Section 38 of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 to stop the pollution and to enable the department to conduct further investigation.

"Our initial investigation found that one of the factories was recycling plastic waste without an environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval.

"It is equipped with several machines such as plastic crushing and resin machines, which caused noise disturbance to the residents nearby, especially during the night until early morning,” she said in a statement here today.

Sharifah Zakiah said the enforcement officers also found that the factory which had a plastic waste approved permit (AP), also washed the plastic waste without having an industrial effluent treatment system.

She said during the raids, DOE found that the other factory management had failed to properly operate and maintain its spray booth air pollution control system.

Sharifah Zakiah said it was also found that the factory was carrying out plastic moulding, causing black dust pollution in the nearby area.

The cases are being investigated under Rule 7 (3) of the Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations 2014, she said, adding that the inspections were carried out following public complaints. — Bernama