By Karen Bong
KUCHING, April 8: A Sarawakian artist will be leading a project under the Kuching South City Council (MBKS) to create an art piece using plastic straws as an entry into the Malaysia Book of Records.
MBKS Mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng said that the project is part of a series of activities, including exhibitions and awareness programmes to be carried out starting April 22 until July 22, as the council steps up local actions on the environment.
“It (the project) is expected to begin next week using plastic straws we have collected from the businesses in MBKS jurisdiction now that plastic straws have been banned.
“These are following the Earth Hour event (on March 25). We will also use recyclable items to construct the biggest Sarawak flag, which will be displayed at MBKS headquarters compound,” he shared during his ShallWeeTalk live session with the community today.
Following the sudden storm that caused severe damage in Sibu two days ago, Wee urged the public to enhance efforts to protect and sustain Sarawak’s environment.
“Human activities have probably changed the weather pattern more than ever before. Therefore, the weather can be seriously unpredictable today, and as a council, we will not only take more action, but we hope to get more schools to join us for the cause.
“We are thankful to all schools for allowing us to go into their premises to promote environmental protection and awareness that we hope will encourage children from primary level to develop habits to respect and care for our Mother Earth,” he said.
Wee also encouraged members of the public to bring their own reusable bags when shopping, as well as reusable containers and bottles when buying food and drinks, to help reduce the amount of single-use plastic.
Sharing that Treineken has started using a machine and technology to melt mineral bottles’ caps to create reusable small cups, coasters, key chains and other accessories, he said the council would continue to look for innovations to reuse recyclable items.
“We will also engage businesses on the possibility of providing some kind of rewards for eco-conscious customers so as to motivate more users to reuse and recycle. This is what we plan to do this year. We appeal for public cooperation for the success,” he added.
Wee also encouraged people to reuse recyclable materials such as plastic packaging for chips to make crafts like dog-shaped tissue holders as well as using plant leaves and palm waste by-products like fibres or kernels to create bio-pots for planting.
“We are planning all these, and we also need to educate our people on how to reuse and reconvert waste materials, which would otherwise be thrown away and go to the landfill, into new useful things and objects,” he added. — DayakDaily
