GEORGE TOWN – Distressed by the mounting piles of rubbish each Aidilfitri season, Seberang Prai City Council (MBSP) Mayor Datuk Rozali Mohamud has entreated the public to reduce waste.
“There is an increase in garbage of 5% year-on-year every festive season,” he said at a Hari Raya Aidilfitri food aid programme organised by his office and state local government exco Jagdeep Singh Deo.
“We have seen an increase of 20% in daily rubbish thrown per full year as well.
“This has been happening for the past two Raya seasons, but we don’t yet know the statistics for this year.”
He urged people to cut the amount of waste produced if they care for frontliners amid the Covid-19 pandemic, including city council workers who pick up trash.
Despite the Raya celebrations, 566 MBSP cleaning personnel are on duty today.
Of the total, 473 from the urban services department are deployed to keep the roads clean and collect rubbish, 42 from the engineering department make sure utilities and rainwater pumps are working in case of heavy rainfall, and six enforcement personnel and 10 community safety officers ensure public safety.
Fourteen personnel with the crisis management team are on 24-hour standby.
“Out of all the people on duty today, only 100 are non-Muslims. They will be working a full day,” said Rozali.
“We gave the Muslims time off for Raya prayers this morning, and they got back to work immediately afterwards.”
Green Hero founder Calvin Chan told The Vibes that the increase in rubbish produced is because waste segregation awareness is not as heavily promoted on the Penang mainland compared with the island.
“The mainland is quite big, and the towns are scattered. Therefore, it is quite hard to go campaigning from one neighbourhood to the next to spread the message.
This makes me wonder why the Penang Green Council didn’t conduct digital marketing to target the whole of Penang. Why only do an offline campaign that is door to door?”
He suggested that waste on the island is less partially due to the Tzu Chi charitable community actively conducting recycling drives.
“Their volunteers can be seen going around flats to collect recyclable items, which encourages households to practise waste segregation.
“Moreover, there is food waste compost in Penang, such as biogas at the Batu Maung waste transfer station and Chowrasta market.
“(Non-profit organisation) Arts-ED has been working with them on a pilot project since November 2020 to reduce food waste.”
Sustained educational campaign needed
Chan said the Green Hero initiative to reduce waste in the food and beverage industry is more active on Penang Island than the mainland.
The basis of reducing waste is to know what can be recycled.
Chan stressed that a “green” mindset must be instilled with the help of the government and relevant organisations.
“They must work together on running a long-term educational campaign instead of just a seasonal one.
“Tonnes of waste are generated daily. Soon, it will be too late to save Malaysia from too much rubbish.
“I hope that in the next Penang budget, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow will allocate funds for green-related campaigns that focus on education, to enable us to switch to a greener lifestyle.
“Penang needs to wake up to that now, as the Pulau Burung landfill on the mainland is at its last phase. It is expected to last only a decade. So, what happens when it is full? Where are we going to throw our rubbish?” – The Vibes, May 14, 2021
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