KOTA KINABALU: After a year of ‘No Plastic Bags on Monday’ campaign since June 7 last year, Kota Kinabalu City Hall is faced with another problem -plastic bottles- according to deputy director general, Joannes Solidau.
The campaign currently participated by 223 retail outlets in the city, has changed the mindset of the people towards keeping the city clean and preserving the environment.
“We do not really see that many plastic bags on the streets now. However, we are dealing with another problem. We have found too many plastic bottles in our rubbish traps in the rivers in the city.
“We are proposing to the Federal government through the Ministry of Health, to control the manufacture of plastic bottles by introducing a pay-back policy to ensure the people do not simply discard their rubbish away,” he said.
Solidau was launching the participation in the campaign of Tung-E Enterprise Sdn. Bhd at Wsima Budaya yesterday.
According to Solidau, despite the recycling centres in the city buying plastic bottles at 60 sen per kilogram, the people are not encouraged to sell them for recycling.
He said, manufacturers should be working together with the local authorities to reduce wastage of plastic bottles by having a pay-back policy at a higher price, like 10 sen per bottle to encourage consumers to recycle the bottles.
With the success of the campaign, Solidau said reducing the use of plastic bottles could be done if every manufacturer were able to set up and comply with the policy.
City Hall will convene a meeting to discuss the matter and how to overcome the problem.