Pengasingan sisa penting.

Yes. It is a complete and natural Malay sentence.

Malay often allows sentences without a verb like is/are. So:

• Pengasingan sisa penting.
• literally: Waste separation important
• natural English: Waste separation is important.

The idea of is is understood automatically.

Malay commonly leaves out the copula (is/am/are) in simple statements, especially when the predicate is an adjective or noun.

So:

• Pengasingan sisa penting. = Waste separation is important.

You may sometimes see adalah, but it is not usually used before adjectives in basic sentences like this. For this sentence, leaving it out is the normal choice.

Pengasingan is a noun meaning something like separation, segregation, or the act/process of separating.

It is built from the root asing, which carries the idea of being separate or distinct. In this form, Malay uses the pattern peng- ... -an to make a noun.

A learner may find it helpful to compare:

• asing = separate / foreign / distinct, depending on context
• mengasingkan = to separate
• pengasingan = separation / segregation

So in this sentence, pengasingan sisa is a noun phrase: waste separation.

Here, sisa means waste, refuse, or leftover material.

In different contexts, sisa can also mean remainder or residue, but in environmental or recycling contexts it commonly means waste.

So pengasingan sisa is the standard kind of phrase you would expect for waste separation or sorting waste.

Because penting is the predicate of the sentence: it tells you something about pengasingan sisa.

The structure is:

• Pengasingan sisa = subject
• penting = predicate adjective

So the sentence works like:

• [Waste separation] [is important].

This is also consistent with a general Malay pattern where adjectives often come after the thing they describe, and predicate adjectives come after the subject.

Grammatically, it is a noun phrase: waste separation.

That is because pengasingan is a noun. Malay often uses this kind of noun where English might use either:

• a noun phrase: Waste separation is important
• or a verbal idea: Separating waste is important

So although English may feel more verbal, the Malay sentence is built with a noun.

Yes. That is also correct.

Adding itu can make the noun phrase feel more definite or more clearly marked as the topic:

• Pengasingan sisa penting. = Waste separation is important.
• Pengasingan sisa itu penting. = That waste separation / Waste separation is important.

In many contexts, the version without itu is already perfectly natural.

Yes, often you can.

Both sisa and sampah can relate to waste, but they are not always identical in feel:

• sampah often means garbage / trash
• sisa can be broader, like waste / residue / leftovers

So:

• Pengasingan sampah penting = separating garbage/trash is important
• Pengasingan sisa penting = waste separation is important

In environmental or formal contexts, sisa can sound broader or more technical.

A helpful approximate pronunciation is:

• pe-ngah-see-ngan

More roughly:

• peng as in pung with an ng
• a like ah
• si like see
• ngan with the ng sound as in sing

So the full sentence is approximately:

• peng-ah-see-ngan see-sah pen-ting

A few notes:

• ng is the same sound as in English sing
• g in pengasingan is pronounced, not silent
• c is not involved here, so nothing tricky like ch

It is neutral to fairly formal, and it sounds very natural in public-information, educational, or environmental contexts.

For example, it would fit well on:

• a poster
• a school notice
• a recycling campaign sign
• an informational brochure

It is short, clear, and slogan-like, which is very common in Malay public messaging.