Micron Technology aiming for 100% sustainability in waste management in Penang

Currently, Micron Technology sits at a 94% rate for recycling and recovery for its waste management for its Penang plant.

Semiconductor production is one of the most challenging processes in the world today. As the demand for stronger and more powerful chips continues to soar, chip manufacturers are doing their best to ensure they are capable of supplying customers on time.

As such, the supply chain of semiconductors is not just one of the longest but also one of the most complicated ones. In the midst of all the productivity is also the need to ensure that manufacturing standards are not just up to par but also sustainable, with minimal impact on the environment.

According to statistics, the semiconductor industry generates significant waste, including hazardous chemicals and large volumes of water, with the global industry using an estimated 1.2 million megaliters of water annually, and about three-quarters of that is directly related to manufacturing.

In the US, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to control hazardous waste from the generation, transportation, treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous waste. EPA has developed regulations, guidance and policies that ensure the safe management and cleanup of solid and hazardous waste, and programs that encourage source reduction and beneficial reuse.

In Southeast Asia, there are similar regulations in place for waste management for semiconductor companies. In Malaysia, Micron Technology has continued to focus on achieving its sustainability goals, especially when it comes to waste management.

According to Amarjit Singh, Corporate Vice President, Assembly & Test NAND Operations, Micron Technology, the chip company’s plant in Malaysia is already running on 100% renewable energy, producing NAND Flash Memory, Compute DRAM, client and enterprise SSDs as well as DIMMs/Memory Modules.

In fact, Singh mentioned that Micron is leading the way when it comes to sustainability in Malaysia. This includes savings in carbon emissions whereby they’ve equaled about 24,000 passenger vehicles emission removed through their 100% renewable energy use.

For water, they reached about 6,000 liters of average Malaysian household water usage per year reused and recycled while in energy, there’s been about 4,500 Energy Average Malaysian household worth of energy usage avoided since 2020.

Despite this, Singh is hoping to achieve more in sustainability, especially when it comes to waste management. Currently, Micron sits at a 94% rate for recycling and recovery for its waste management. Singh is aiming to reach 100% in this area as waste management is the most critical part in ensuring sustainability for semiconductors.

However, Singh explained that there are several reasons as to why they are unable to reach 100% for waste management in Penang.

“Actually, it's very interesting. We had a conversation with the state minister, and he was explaining to us that even within Penang itself, within one district to another district, you cannot move waste. It's more of a legacy regulation. There was protection because some areas were involved in more farming and agricultural. You want to make sure that the particular waste does not contaminate your livelihood, right?

So, it's been there for a long time. And I think they're looking towards changing some of this. For example, if the incineration plant is in location XYZ, the truck will have to go from our location to that particular location and has to pass through that district. So, they're working through that, but it'll take a little bit of time. That's a commitment they've given us. But I think there's a trajectory to get that capability in place,” explained Singh.

Singh also explained that while incineration is the preferred disposal method for waste, the current waste goes into landfill. While this waste is not toxic, he feels the most sustainable method would be to move away from the landfills.

“Our waste is divided into many different segments. Some of the waste, like toxic waste, we process it differently. Some waste we recompose and use it as fertilizers for our farm. For example, the waste from our cafeteria, we can recompose and use it as fertilizer,” said Singh.

Micron’s urban farm is located at its plant and has already produced 75,000kg of harvest which is donated to the community as well as employees at the plant.

“We’re still not happy with the 6% that we have to send to landfill and hopefully once we’ve sorted this out, we should be able to achieve 100% efficiency in waste management,” concluded Singh.