Pick the cheapest waste collector and you will probably pay more. The low-price operator skips pickups, mixes your recyclables with general waste and leaves you no paperwork. When an inspector asks, the problem is yours. So score every vendor, your current one included, on the six checks below. Start with the licence, then ask where your waste ends up.
We say this from the 1,500+ locations we serve in Malaysia. A good waste management company holds the right licence for your state, shows you where your waste ends up and gives you records you can use. This page gives you the scorecard, seven questions for your tender and the contract terms to write in.
Score every waste management company on the same six checks
Use one scorecard for every provider that bids, so price does not decide alone. Give 5 when the vendor shows you the real document. Give 0 when it only tells you about it. Use 1 to 4 for a part answer.
| Check | What to ask for | Your score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Licence | The licence or approval that covers each of your sites, plus company registration and insurance | Pass / Fail |
| 2. Coverage | Which of your sites the vendor covers, how often it can collect, and who does the collecting | ____ / 5 |
| 3. Records | The record of one real pickup from last month, and a monthly report by site and waste type | ____ / 5 |
| 4. Destination | The named landfill and recycler for each type of waste, each facility's licence, and a recycling rate measured at a customer like you | ____ / 5 |
| 5. Response | Who answers a missed pickup, how fast, and customers of your size you can call | ____ / 5 |
| 6. Price and terms | An itemised quote, how any recycling rebate is shared, and the contract terms below | ____ / 5 |
| Total | ____ / 25 |
The licence is pass or fail. A vendor that fails it is out, whatever it scores elsewhere. Score price last. Then score again each year, because a licence can lapse or be revoked.
Score what you are shown, not what you are told. Here is why. The previous vendor at M3 Shopping Mall took two to three days to act on a complaint. Its paper delivery orders carried no photo, so the mall could not prove what had gone wrong.
Check the licence first, because the right one depends on your state
Find the row that matches your site and your waste. Ask for that licence in writing, then check it yourself.
| Your site and your waste | Licence or approval to ask for | Where to check it |
|---|---|---|
| General waste and recyclables in an Act 672 state: Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Johor, Kedah, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang or Perlis | A SWCorp licence | The i-License system at swcorp.gov.my |
| General waste and recyclables in Selangor | Local council approval. Councils and KDEB Waste Management run solid waste there today. An extension of Act 672 was announced on 29 July 2026, with no start date or phase order published | Your local council |
| General waste and recyclables in Penang, Perak, Terengganu or Kelantan | Local council approval | Your local council |
| General waste and recyclables in Sabah or Sarawak | A state permit | The state government |
| Scheduled (hazardous) waste in any state, such as chemicals, e-waste and clinical waste | A Department of Environment (DOE) licence, held by a separate scheduled-waste handler | The list of licensed facilities and transporters at eswis.doe.gov.my |
| Any waste, in any state | Company registration and insurance | A company search with SSM, the Companies Commission, and the certificate of insurance |
In an Act 672 state the risk is yours as well as the collector's. Section 71 of Act 672 bars you from causing or permitting your waste to be handled outside the Act. The penalty is a fine of RM10,000 to RM100,000, or six months to five years in jail, or both. Our SWCorp guide shows the licence check in four steps. Our Act 672 guide lists your duties.
The Department of Environment (DOE) regulates scheduled, or hazardous, waste only. Do not ask a general-waste collector for a DOE licence. If you produce scheduled waste, it goes to a separate handler that holds one. Our guide to solid waste regulations explains who regulates what.
Mark the licence check as a fail if:
- the vendor will not put its licence number in writing
- the licence has expired, or does not cover your state or your type of waste
- a collector with no DOE licence offers to take your scheduled waste
- the vendor cannot name where your waste goes
A licence shows that the collector may operate. It does not show where your waste ends up. The next checks do that.
Ask each vendor to show you four records
Ask for last month's real records from a site like yours. A brochure does not count.
- A photo of each pickup, with the time on it, so a missed collection is settled by the record.
- Waste figures by site and by waste type, which you can open without emailing anyone.
- The disposal ticket for each load, which shows where it went. This is what an audit asks for.
- An itemised invoice that you can match against the collections that took place.
Ask for the weight of each load too, not one total for the month. If you publish a sustainability report, you will need those tonnes by site. Two of our guides go further. One sets out what a waste report should contain. The other shows how to check where your recyclables end up.
Put these seven questions in your tender
Copy these into your tender or request for quotation. Each one asks for a document, not a promise.
- Provide the licence or approval that covers each of our sites: a SWCorp licence in an Act 672 state, the local council or state approval elsewhere.
- If this tender includes scheduled waste, name the DOE-licensed handler that will take it, and provide its licence.
- List every enforcement action, penalty and compliance notice you have received in the past three years.
- State who will collect at each site: your own crews or named subcontractors. Provide each subcontractor's licence.
- Send last month's report for a site like ours, and the full record of one pickup.
- Name the landfill and the recycler for each type of waste. Confirm that each holds a valid licence.
- State how fast you answer a missed pickup. Give three customers of our size whom we may call.
Then check the answers yourself. Look up every licence, including the facilities named in question 6. Call the customers. A reference from a small business does not prove a vendor can serve a company with many sites.
Write these seven terms into the contract
The contract keeps the vendor to its answers after you sign. Have your lawyer draft the final wording.
| Term | What it should say |
|---|---|
| Service levels | The collection days, the response time for extra requests, and the remedy when a collection is missed |
| Reporting | What the monthly report holds and when it arrives: tonnes by site and waste type, recycling, and the disposal records |
| Licence warranty | The vendor keeps every licence it needs for the whole term. It tells you at once if one lapses, is suspended or draws enforcement action |
| Audit rights | You may inspect collections and the facilities that receive your waste |
| Price changes | When the price can rise, by how much, and which cost triggers it |
| Rebate | How the rebate is split, which materials qualify, and when it is paid |
| Exit | You may end the contract without penalty if the vendor loses a licence or breaks the warranty |
Before you agree a rebate, read our recycling rebate guide. It lists the price ranges to check an offer against.
How GarGeon answers the same six checks
Hold us to the same scorecard. Three things to know first: GarGeon holds no collection licence, owns no trucks and runs no recycling plant. Licensed partner collectors and recyclers do that work. We manage them on one contract and keep the records in GarGeon Connect.
- Licence. We show you the licence of the collector that handles your waste. We keep its company registration and insurance on file. We serve five Westlite Dormitory locations in Johor and Selangor, under two sets of rules, and 95% of collections are on time.
- Coverage. We arrange general waste and recycling collection in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor, with every site on one contract. We do not collect or treat scheduled waste: where a site has it, a DOE-licensed contractor takes it, and we keep its records with the rest. Leighton Construction brought five sites under one contract.
- Records. Each pickup record carries a photo, a timestamp and the weight. Your figures sit in one dashboard, in the shape a sustainability report needs. With a weight on every collection, CCL Impex saw its recycling rise from 1–2 tonnes a month to 5–6.
- Destination. General waste still goes to landfill, and you get the landfill's tipping receipt. You share in the value of the recyclables we route to licensed recyclers through our partner network, instead of it disappearing into the hauler's margin. We do not claim everything is recycled. The recycling rate is 8% at Meewah, a vegetable wholesaler. Signature Market kept 68.598 of 93.09 tonnes out of landfill in 2025, which is 73.69%, mostly carton.
- Response. You get one point of contact, and we hold the collector to its service levels. M3 Shopping Mall now has its requests answered within 24 hours.
- Price and terms. Rates are set out in writing, with no charge you have not seen the basis for. Pangsapuri Optimus cut its monthly bill by 20–30% once unneeded trips came out of the schedule.
Start with the vendor you already have
Fill in the scorecard for your current collector first. If it fails the licence check, or cannot show you a record, you have your answer.
To put GarGeon through the same checks, book a consultation. If you only need a bin for one job, see our RORO bin rental options in KL, Selangor and Johor. Not sure which size you need? Our RORO bin guide matches the bin to the job.
