ALL FOR GREEN EFFORT: Lai affixes his signature on a giant poster for the mass signature exercise to support the ‘Say No To Styrofoam’ campaign while Dennis (second right), Ting (third right) and others look on.
MIRI: Mayor Lawrence Lai is happy to note that the green campaign conducted by Miri Municipal Council (MMC) has received good support from various sectors.
He said that the council is grateful that it has achieved a breakthrough in their efforts to promote Miri as a vibrant and green city.
“Since the green campaign was initiated, we have received firm commitment and support from various sectors,” he said when officiating at the ‘Say No To Styrofoam’ campaign and ‘1Malaysia Food Fair’ at MMC’s field yesterday.
Lai explained that the campaign started with the ‘Say No To Plastic Bag’ campaign on August 30 last year and the campaign has been extended to every Friday, Saturday and Sunday beginning January 8 this year.
In view of the good public response towards the green effort, the campaign was finally upgraded to ‘Say No To Plastic Bag Every
Day’ campaign from
May 1 this year, he said during the launching of Miri May Fest.
Thus far, he said the council has received firm commitment and support for its ‘Say No To Plastic Every Day’ campaign’ from three schools although it is on a voluntary basis.
The three schools are SJK Chung Hua Miri, SMK Pujut and SJK Chung San.
For the 3R campaign of reduce, reuse and recycle, Miri Hospital and Miri Marriot Resort & Spa (MMRS) have given their total support.
“Today we are going to launch ‘Say No To Styrofoam’ campaign which is another green effort in protecting our environment. The ‘Say No To Styrofoam’ campaign is the continuation of ‘Say No To Plastic Bag Every Day’ campaign which we started with,” he remarked.
He further said that the campaign was being undertaken by ‘Say No To Styrofoam’ campaign sub-committee from the Solid Waste Reduction Implementation Working Group of Miri Local Agenda 21 Unit which was set up by the council to work closely with local communities and non-governmental organisations to promote sustainable development and implement community projects with special emphasis on taking care of our natural environment.
This campaign has received total commitment from seven quarters which are SMK Lopeng Tengah, SMK Chung Hua Miri, canteen operator of SMK Lopeng Tengah, canteen operator of SMK Chung Hua Miri, Ve-G King Vegetarian Restaurant, Puma Sera Restaurant and canteen operator of Curtin University of Sarawak.
He thanked Petronas for its support to the campaign through its environment protection and community support exercise.
Petronas contributed 3,000 eco-bags which were given out to members of the public who participated in the mass signature exercise to support the ‘Say No To Styrofoam’ campaign.
Commenting on 1Malaysia Food Fair, Lai said it was initiated by the council’s standing committee for Tourism and Heritage to promote local dishes and delicacies, including native dishes, prepared by various communities.
No styrofoam containers were used by the food sellers during the fair.
“We encourage food sellers and vendors to use paper boxes and green paper containers. I would like to express our sincere appreciation to Steady Packaging Products Sdn Bhd and Gotake Paper Packaging Industry for sponsoring a total of 10,000 paper containers for the campaign,” he said.
Also present were Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau, Datuk Sebastian
Ting, the political secretary to Peter Chin and councillors.