Society serious on quest to ‘go green’

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Carter shows the audience a plastic bag that is widely used by people.

KUCHING: One million plastic bags are used each day in the city, which will at the end of the day either end up in the rivers or landfills.

Founder of ‘Go-Go-Green Society’ Ian Carter said the figure was based on the assumption that the city had approximately one million residents with each one using a plastic bag a day.

He said in actual fact, plastics discarded by the city folk had contributed between 70 and 80 per cent of rubbish in the city’s landfill.

“There are only two elements that can destroy plastic – oxygen and ultra-violet ray from the sun.

“However, we produced so much waste each day that the rubbish will be covered from the air supply and sunlight.

“At the end of the day, the plastics will not decompose,” he said at sharing on Go-Go-Green at Menara SEDC here yesterday.

As one of efforts to help save the environment, Carter and members of the society were on a mission to create a ‘plastic free’ Sarawak by 2020.

The society is also on a ‘go-green’ campaign to encourage people to ‘say no to plastic’ and at the same time educate the people to reuse and recycle plastic that they use each day.

Carter encouraged people to bring their own shopping bags when doing their shopping to avoid using plastic bags. He also encouraged people to reuse plastic bottles to grow plants and could also be creatively modified as home decorations.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) general manager, Soedirman Aini, said SEDC was supporting a good cause as a corporation that accepts the importance of being collectively responsible for the local community and environment as an integral part of its core business.

“This talk is the first in a series of activities for our ‘Let’s Go Green Together’ project launched this morning here. Our business premises, hotels and even the Kuching Waterfront will eventually provide recycle bins for the campaign too.”

Soedirman said it was the responsibility of everyone to care for the environment and the people could do their part to minimise the continuous surge of the negative impacts on the environment.

“We can see that people are now more aware of the 3Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle – and a lot of initiatives are being carried out at home, workplace and just everywhere.

“The media, as a whole, has an important part to play in the promotion of the go-green campaign and help spread awareness of environment issues. With more knowledge, people will then understand the significance of going green.”