The Cloud Appreciation Society

Have you ever looked up in the sky on a bright clear day and look at the clouds?

Aren't they fascinating? The ones in the picture hides the sun, and sun rays beaming out from behind. Such a spiritual sight and also inspirational.

This one looks like a mermaid leaning to the right.

I check out the web and I found the Cloud Appreciation Society website at http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/ I never know such society exist. But after just a few minutes browsing this website, I was already taken....and amazed by the beauty of the clouds photos and as well as their manifesto:

"WE BELIEVE that clouds are unjustly maligned
and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.

We think that they are Nature’s poetry,

and the most egalitarian of her displays, since
everyone can have a fantastic view of them.

We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it.
Life would be dull if we had to look up at

cloudless monotony day after day.

We seek to remind people that clouds are expressions of the
atmosphere’s moods, and can be read like those of
a person’s countenance.

Clouds are so commonplace that their beauty is often overlooked.
They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul.
Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save
on psychoanalysis bills.

And so we say to all who’ll listen:
Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and live life with your head in the clouds!"

---

I read an article on the Star online, not too long ago, about a lady and her children who collects items to be recycled at her apartment. I was impressed by that story and I would like to share it with you.

Nature’s helper at apartment block

By OH ING YEEN

WHILE some of us are still deep in slumber, Chin Chu Lin is up and about at 6am every day, pushing her trusty trolley from unit to unit to collect recyclable items at the apartment block where she lives in Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya.

“There are three blocks and 18 floors per block. My friend gave me the trolley to ease the burden of carrying things around. Before this, I carried all the recyclable items and walked to and from my apartment unit.

“It’s just a daily exercise for me. If I see something that can be recycled, I’ll pick it up. I’m used to it as I’ve been doing it for the past five to six years,” said Chin, a member of the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu-Chi Foundation Malaysia.

She collects the items and sends them for recycling every third Saturday of the month. The proceeds are donated to charity organisations.

Thus, before the third Saturday, her house is filled with old newspapers, old clothes and unwanted furniture. Even the walkway outside her apartment is filled with recyclable items.

Starting young: Twins Qi Fong (right) and Qi Ee helping load recyclable items on Chin’s trolley at the apartment block in Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya, recently.

“At first, my husband was not happy with what I was doing as it cluttered the house. So, I did it secretly. But now he understands and even helps,” she said, adding that her 15-year-old daughter helped her sort out the items.

“At first, I had to explain to neighbours what I was doing as they thought I was making a profit by selling the items.”

Many now understand she is just doing her part for the environment.

Some residents even place recyclable items outside her unit the night before.

In the past four years, Chin’s neighbour Anna Lim has been setting aside old newspapers, bottles and plastic items for her to collect.

Lim supports Chin’s cause as it is for charity and creates awareness on preserving the environment.

“As a teacher, I tell my students to conserve the environment. Recycling helps save trees,” she said.

Aside from collecting recyclable items, Chin’s efforts are a way to create awareness on the importance of environment conservation.

Children at her apartment block are influenced by her green efforts and help her sort out the recyclable items.

Among them are twin brothers Tan Qi Fong and Tan Qi Ee, both seven, who always help load old newspapers on Chin’s trolley.

“They help sort out the recyclable items and pile them up,” said housewife Chan Fong Ping about her twin sons.

Chin is glad that youths in her apartment block are helping her out.

“I hope more people will recycle to conserve the environment. It is just a small effort to aid Mother Nature,” she said, adding: “I’ll continue doing what I’m doing for as long as I can.”

PLASTIC FREE UNIVERSITY!

Hooray for Universiti Sains Malaysia for the their campaign to stop using plastic bags. What better way to practice environmental consciousness beginning from young and bright minds, like this university's students. I think this is one of the many activities that parents should encourage their children to take part in. ( This kind of activity shows more action rather than just only words).

The students found that a campaign to recycle plastic bags was ineffective and opted to not use plastic bags at all in the campus. So to replace the plastics bags to buy groceries and take-away food, the students promote greener ways of shopping like carrying a reusable shopping bag and bringing your own container to 'tapau' food. Good job USM!

I found this very interesting blog from the Healthy Campus Coordinator himself. Read on for the insights of their sustainable campus life at Kampus Sejahtera @ USM

Kilowatt Ours- Trailer. Full Movie in Eco Film Fest 2008

Eco Film Fest 2008 - 1 and 2 November!

If you are not doing anything this weekend, why not attend the Eco Film Fest 2008. This two day event features FREE international and local film screenings, 100% local music performance, expo on latest industry that are environmental friendly. The fest is about empowering Malaysians to be greener and eco-friendly in their daily lives. I cannot write anymore cause I need to experience it myself. So let's take a step to a greener life.

Venue:ASWARA ( National Arts Academy), Jalan Tun Ismail, Kuala Lumpur

Date:1 and 2 November 2008

Time:10 am -7 pm

For more information, check out the EcoKnights website!

Upcoming Event - ISWA 2008

This November, Singapore will be hosting ISWA/WMRAS World Congress 2008. This very important event is organized by WMRAS, the Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore. Basically the event is the place to share the latest tech, trends and business oppurtunities especially for waste management sector throughout Asia, as well as international.

The best thing about the event is that it will be attended by decision makers, policy makers, engineers, consultants, and representatives of community organization and also experts from the waste management factors.

My only hope is that Malaysia would benefit this event, and it could come up for a better solution for the environment especially the waste management sector.

For more information, check out the website. Click here.

Plastic Ice Cream Tubs

Don't you love ice-cream! Mmmmm..yummy...

Having a kid in the house, I always have to make sure that I have some sugar loaded snacks in the kitchen pantry or in the fridge. One of my favourite treats for my kid is some cool ice cream. I usually buy the 1 litre tub to stock in the freezer. Whenever I chose to buy ice-cream, I usually think of of what flavour that I want, which brand is better, a reasonable price, and last but not least the shape of the tub. The ice-cream tub is reusable and is quite useful to store food in the freezer of in the fridge. So I usually choose the ones that has a lasting lid. Other than storing food, some design can be made as a plant container. Or instant organizing box. Just think of fun ways to make use of this versatile container. Keep on saving those plastic tubs, wash them out well and stack them by size.

Recycle Plastic Drop Off

Before the festive month of Syawal, I had a chance to clean up my kitchen clearing up some of my recyclables under the kitchen sink. I decided to give away the plastics since they are the most in my collection.I am saving the rest of the recycle stuff, like aluminium cans to be recycle for cash. Anyways, I packed up the plastics , and surprisingly I had five bags loaded with PET plastic bottles, as well as other plastics as well such as empty rice packs, many unused plastic bags, mostly came from food packaging. I am still not sure whether all the plastics that I collected are recyclable or not, but because I had not much time to think, I loaded those bags in my car boot and off we went to the community recycle bin. This Raya, I did a good deed by recycling. Hopefully God loves me for this.

Welcome to my journey for greener suburban life.

Hi, welcome to my blog. I am Ophie and I would like to share with you my experience of becoming green for Malaysia. I started this blog with a conscience that our urban lifestyle has not been very friendly to the environment. We live in a way that our consumption has contributed to waste- lots of it!! Don't get me wrong, I'm not an eco-freak. Well not yet. What I am trying to communicate is how we Malaysians or anybody reading this can make some difference to the environment by making a few adjustment to our lifestyle.

Here in Malaysia, we are lucky that we have a lot of greeneries to boast about but development will soon take over and transform the greens to concrete walls and turn pristine rivers into murky ones. I hate to see that happen. But the world is constantly changing for progress, so do lifestyles. I wonder what our country would look like for our children in the next 20 years?

Currently, I am not happy with the environment where litters are seen everywhere. Garbage spills creates unbreathable air for residents. Drains are free access for hawkers to throw rubbish into. The cause for such nonsense comes from our attitudes and mindsets, taking for granted that someone else will clean our dirty laundry. As though that the environment needs more litterbugs?!!

Those are a few of the reasons why I started this blog. Another reason is that I would like to lead a very healthy life fill with positive thinking. Through out my whole life I have been whining and complaining of things and people around me and commenting of what should be done. This time around, I will initiate things that I think it should be done.

From the day I started this blog and right until now, I had done little things to make a difference in my life and the environment. I made out a list to track back those little things.

1. Manage domestic waste and recycle. Separate the recyclables from the non-recyclables.

2. Use bio-plastic garbage bag

3. Shopping with reusable shopping bags.

4. Lessen the consumption of polystyrene and plastics.

5. Recycle paper at work. Use both sides before going into recycle bin.

6. Correspond with FOMCA, MPSJ, Nestle and any body that I could discuss about how to clean up our urban mess!

7. Found local eco-friendly products like ECOPAK, SEKOPLAS, BPLAST.


I wish there are more in my list, but now it just have to do. If you like, just browse through my blog and and see whether I can do better. Feel free to comment. Share your thoughts. I would love some feedbacks.

Again, I would like to stress that I am not trying to reverse climate change. But I would like to see that the future generation will adopt lives that are not hazardous the the environment, like how we live right now. Hopefully, I still be around to see these changes, and so does this blog.


Cheers to Recycling and Saving the Environment for Our Children!

Recycle Animation

ART COMPETITION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

MRCB has just launch an art competition with an environmental theme " Our Environment, Our future". I'm thinking of participating. It is open for all Malaysian, school kids, and OKUs. I think it's going to be great. For more information you can check out the site, mrcb.com.my/seni. or click here

I better start on sketching for ideas.

The Recyclables - Cute Video

Energy Saving- It works! Do your tiny bit...for your household bills

Last month I pledged to conserve energy for the betterment of the planet as well as cutting down on my monthly expenses. I concentrated on my electricity and water usage. To read on the post to pledge click here.







This what I did:

1. Turn off all lights and fans that are not in use or when leaving the room.

2. Unplugging electric appliance like hairdryer, rice cooker, washing machine and phone chargers.

3. Set the air-conditioning timer for half of hour sleeping time, let say for 3 hours. But I'd leave the fan on till morning.

4. Iron all that I can within two hours while watching Private Practice and Desperate Housewife back to back.

5. Sleep early and shut off TV all lights!

6. When cooking, allocate a day to blend stuff like chilli, shallots and garlic and store them in a fridge. On other days, chopped or crush, rather than blend.

7. To save water, I run the washing machine on full load but on quick wash. I pretreat stains before washing.

8. Get quick showers.

By doing only those few little things, I already save on my bills by 20%.

CHEAP BIODEGRADABLE PLASTIC -TAIWAN

BIO RANGE

Biodegradable Food Packaging

On previous post, I expressed my surprise about how much we consume and
dispose of waste.And the shocking thing was, our waste mainly come from
our everyday food packaging and mostly,they are non-recyclable and
non-biodegradable. The packaging are mainly made from plastics. You might
think that all plastics can go into the recycle bin. Well, not all
plastics. One example is laminate plastics.  Laminate plastics are the
shinny glossy, metallic, or matte material that is used for most food
packaging because of its attractiveness, and it preserve the food better.
According to the manufacturer of a very popular brand that I correspond
with,laminate plastics are nonrecyclable and it is used to pack the
powdered milk, the 3in1 coffee stick pack, the chocolate fortified food,
the cookie wrappers and many more!

Being a beginner at recycling, I felt that all my effort, collecting all
the recyclables plastic bottles,papers and glasses seemed not worth the
time, because the amount of stuff/waste that I dispose everyday are more
than I recycle! But before I let the negativity bring me down, I decided
to do some research on how other people around the world are seeing this
issue.






A food company from San Francisco, welovejam.com is the first company
in the United States to start packing and labeling food products using
a 100 percent biodegradable plastic bag. Eric Haeberli & Phineas Hoang
are the founders of the company. They felt the need to come out with
eco-friendly products but find it quite tough to find the suitable
material for packaging. They were surprised ( just like I was) to find
that all the plastic bags that pack dry food products such as cookies,
bread and chips are all packaged in plastic that is not recyclable.
Eventually, the found cellophane bags that are 100% biodegradable.
Cellophane is a natural polymer made from cellulose, a component of
trees and plants, like cottonwood trees.The product can biodegrade
in 28-60 days. But the cellophane bag should not be confused with
the non-natural ones.





Ecopak is a Malaysian made alternative to polystryrene and other toxic
food wares and containers. EcoPak are made from natural oil palm fibres.
It comes in natural fibre color as well. The best thing about Ecopak is
that it is biodegradable and it turns into natural soil fertilizer.
Hence it is eco-friendly.



So that there are manufacturers thats are concern with the environment
and there are alternatives other than plastics. I feel better already.
Hopefully these packaging material would reach to the consumers soon.
With the rise of petroleum price , I wonder how much the production of
the petroleum by-product, especially as plastics will cost? We should
be looking for other alternatives to petroleum as well as plastic.

CONVENIENT STICKPACK=NONRECYCLABLE PACKAGING!

Early one morning as I headed for my kitchen and grabbed a 3in1 instant coffeemix to have my pick-me-up of the day, I suddenly looked at the empty stickpacks. I wondered , "Are these plastic or aluminium?" I felt the need to categorized it, so that it will be easier for me to recycle. I even noticed other similar packaging that have the silver inner linings and plastic exterior such as my daughter's refillable pack of powdered milk. Also her chocolate fortified drink. Being so curious, I located the company N*****'s website of the popular product and I wrote to them. A few weeks later, I received their reply. Regarding the stickpacks, here what they wrote:

"3in1 stickpacks are not recyclable as we are using laminate
which is lightweight (reduction of waste) and they cannot be recycled
commercially due to unavailability
of commercially viable technology. "

So this means that not everything are recyclable and this 'laminate' kind of packaging will not go to the recycle mill. Therefore, they will end up straight to the landfill and the will deteriorate, like never!!! Wow! What a illuminating fact or should I say, 'a punch in the nose'! I feel so terrible that I am one of the millions who consume these beverages that are packed with the nonrecyclable material! And another thing, the company consumer service said the material is lightweight, so will it reduce waste? I don't think so!

However, company N assured that they practice the 3R rule ( Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). Here are the list that might be of help.

• display boxes, cartons and cases used to pack coffee are using recycle material
  and are recyclable.
• glass bottle for coffee, cap for coffee, tin can,
  aluminium can for drinks are recyclable.
• To reduce waste, company N promote refillable coffee bag and reuse container .
  
  After discovering this new and very helpful information, I think that we consumers should be more aware of what we buy. The Malaysian recycle slogan "Think before you throw!" should be replaced with"Think before you buy!"
  
  Buying something?
  
  *Think! Consider the material used for packaging. Question yourself: "Can the packaging be recycled?"
  
  *Think! Consider the sustainability of the packaging. "Can I reuse the packaging for some other sustainable purpose?"
  
  *Think! Consider the carrying medium for your shopping.
  "Should I reuse plastic bags from previous shopping?"
  " Should I carry along my own shopping basket? "
  "Should I use reusable shopping bag?"
  
  Back to my stickpack dillemma. Think! Should I consume my 3in1 premix coffee that is oh-so-convenient but yet non-recyclable OR should I just go back to traditional making of coffee-that is to open the lid of the 7 years old glass jar coffee bottle, and to smell the fresh aroma of the beans before making it. That's my pick-me-up already....I'll chose the latter.
  
  All we need is a change of lifestyle. Take a step back and take a look on how you could change yours.

My little garden lover!

Here is my 3 1/2 year old girl in a pink nyonya kebaya, giving a special pose in my mom's vegetable garden. Right behind her, is a cili padi plant in a poly bag. Thought this photo would be nice in this blog. My girl is an enthusiast when it comes to gardening especially when watering the plants. She gets it from watching Dora the Explorer(Nick Jr). Thanks Dora for giving my kid a head start on environmental awareness.

BIODEGRADABLE GARBAGE BAGS

If you are looking for ways to feel less guilty of using plastics, here's another alternative from First Choice. I bought these biodegradable garbage bags at Giant. It comes in different sizes.
So now you can throw your 'wet', degradable rubbish inthis plastic to the landfill without any worries!

A letter to the Municipal Council (MPSJ)

As I accumulate all the recyclables that I can, I wondered whether if it would be a lot easier to have a community recycle bins nearby, especially at my apartment area. I also considered the potential of the 'wet' food waste that could be good compost fertilizers. The only problem is space. Having to live in a compact apartment makes my salvation to the environment, almost impossible!!!. So I wrote to MPSJ, thanks to their helpful website. I made a suggestion that there should be some recycle bins at my apartment and there should be a separation between the 'wet' rubbish and the 'dry' ones. If the rubbish are separated, then waste management would be easier to be handled. The 'wet' rubbish could be collected to make compost while the 'dry' ones could be sorted out for recycling. I had that idea when I was watching TV the other day about waste management on a talk show with Aziz Desa. The guest , an officer from waste management company said that if the household waste are mixed together, then it would be very impossible to separate the recyclables from the non-recyclables. Even the 'wet' rubbish could be separated to organics such as food waste from the non-organics like medicine or toxic waste. It sounded so simple, right? So with that suggestion to the municipal council, I waited impatiently for their reply-hoping that maybe they have some sort of program that are already running that I didn't know of. Three days later, I received not e-mail but snail mail from the public relations of MPSJ. The letter was very brief.

It wrote:

"For your information, the council have already provided recycle bins in places nearby your area, like the one near the park. You may send the recyclables to those places. For making compost, you do not need a big area to work with but you can create compost in garden pots or plastic bags."

I was not satisfied by the reply. Yeah, they did answered my queries, but it didn't solve the problem. The recycle bins are a 5km away! I want it to be just below my apartment so that everyone in the neighbourhood could do their part. Another thing is, I am not interested in making compost, I am interested in giving away my fresh organic food waste to some garden nursery or anyone that would want to make compost. Rather than throwing it all away to the landfill and promote toxic gas emissions. By that letter, I was a little disappointed that the council did not show any extra effort on assisting their fellow residents that are offering ways to help the environment. At the same time, I thought maybe there are not enough awareness in the community or in our society. "Where there is demand, there is supply.."Maybe there isn't enough people that are writing to the council about how to take care of the environment. Maybe individual effort is not enough. We need a community.

For you who have read this post, I would really like to hear your opinion. Is there something else that I should do instead?

Recycle Your Old Dry Cells and Hand-Phone Batteries

This post is in response to the subject brought up by Jo Be, the Go Green Ambassador under UNDP. She asked me where to dispose the normal battery, you know, your dry cell for your remote control and other electronic gadgets. Well, to tell you the truth, I have no idea...!!! Hey I am new to this recycling thing. That's why I writing this blog. But not to worry Jo. I will try my best to find out!

Come to think of it, we are always reminded to be eco-friendly and environmental. Having read the Star article by Joseph Loh, I am now more aware of the household waste that we throw out to the rubbish bin. But I am frustrated that the article did not mention on how to dispose of those HHW. So I will try my best to investigate the best way.

According to Alam Flora, we should recycle used batteries because they contain toxic materials such as lithium, cadmium, nickel, lead and hydrate metals that are harmful to the soil and water if not disposed of properly. The chemicals can seep into the soil and eventually into our rivers and oceans. Throwing those harmful chemicals together with your household rubbish, would mean that you just poisoned your own drinking water and polluted your ocean full of food.

For dry-cell like you AAA batteries, we could send it to the recycling centre. I asked one recycling centre at Sri Kembangan, and the person- in-charge mentioned that he would send the batteries to be disposed at Balakong.

There are a few companies in Malaysia that are helping to promote the recycling of phone batteries by placing special transparent bins on their premises. Alam Flora Sdn. Bhd. and Kualiti Alam Sdn. Bhd. would collect these batteries to be sent to Korea, Taiwan and France.

So if you walk around the shopping malls, keep an eye on special transparent bins to dump your old phone and batteries for recycling. I noticed the special bin at the customer service in Jusco I0I just the other day. And I saw some dry-cells in the bin as well.

If you would like to upgrade your Nokia phones, it is best to go to their care center so that they can advise you for a new upgrade and recycle the old one.

If you are using Samsung products like I do, you can request a pre-paid envelope to recycle your Samsung mobile phone and genuine Samsung accessories by providing your details and email it to : samsungrecycle@sta.samsung.com. For more info visit the Samsung website

But before thinking of recycling, you should make sure that the phone is already useless. If it still can be used, you might want to donate it to someone close to you, or a relative. Other alternative is to resell it to the phone dealer. You might want to read Sony Ericsson take-back and recycle program and the research report on recycling.

There is one other alternative that I found on the web. Check out this website and you could recycle your electronics and get paid!

Wow! I have learnt a lot by writing this post. I would like to thank Jo Be for bringing up this subject. I hope this post would be helpful for you guys. If you can help me build this blog with suggestion, opinion and information, feel free to leave a comment. Thanks.

Polystyrene Tree to save Planet Earth!

Take a look at this picture. See that tree behind the three figures.(Joanna Bessey is center) That's made out of Styrofoam. Did you know that polystyrene have no expiry date? These are the very things that we should eliminate from our lives because they are considered as instant waste.

I wrote to Joanna Bessey about it and I'm waiting for her reply.

"I watched the official launched on the Breakfast Show NTV7. I am not pleased with the tree prop that is made from the Styrofoam. What a way to say "we care for the environment!". When later after all the commotion and campaign is over, we will see this tree, at the nearby landfill, trying to decompose itself throughout eternity.
I think that the organizer should planned thoroughly or should I say "greenly" about the event and campaign. The bloop just indicated that they are not serious...what do you think jo?"

Jo Be replied the next day, here's what she said:

"... In response to your comment about the styrofoam, you have a very good point! Actually, in person, I'm pretty sure the trees were not styrofoam, they were a bit more solid but I was only on stage for a short while, so I could be wrong. I think the ball of the earth MUST have been though! I shall try and confirm! We need more artists like you to come up with more "green" designs and alternatives."

I believe it was made of polystyrene. The reporter from NTV7 even had mentioned it. I think a wiser alternative would be to use paper mache, or just plywood, so that I would last longer. Wood is still natural and it will deteriorate sooner and later. The only problem with the wood issue is that reserved forest are being exploited and while conservation of timber trees are in slow progress.

Eco-friendly Shopping

Top: Biodegradable Plastic Bag. Bottom: Reusable Shopping Bag.

The next time you go shopping, don't just go and bring your purse. Sling your reusable shopping bag. While your at it, stuff up some of plastic bags that you shopped last week and reuse them to buy this weeks groceries. Trust me, you will make a difference. And I don't know if you have noticed, there are now biodegradable shopping bags available. This eco-friendly plastic bag deteriorates and breaks into small pieces you will have guilt free when you send them to the landfills.




Here in these pictures are the plastics and bags that I obtain from Jusco. I don't want to praise them big, but their initiative is okay. I to have biodegradable plastic bags is a way to go and I suggest that all hypermarkets do the same. The reusable shopping bag is okay, but I think Jusco should diversify the design. Not everything can fit into the RM4.90 nylon bag! I think to be more eco-friendly, use bags that are made from canvas or cloth.

Pledge to conserve energy!

My electricity bill

My water bill

This month I pledge to conserve energy as much as I can. My family don't use much. But I know I waste a lot of electricity by leaving the lights on when I'm not in the room. I have four electric fan and all in different rooms and they are not turned off till I wake up the next morning. So this time, I will try to watch out for any lights that are not in use and also the fan. I dunno about the water consumption. But, nevertheless I will try to save. I will announce the result next month, when I get my water and electric bills. Wish me luck...!!!

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ROSES!

One fine morning, I woke up and went out to take some fresh air. It was too late to jog. I saw this rose and it bloomed so perfectly.

The sight of it just made my day....

Go Green Campaign

Did you know how much we throw!

Did you know that solid waste is a big problem in our country? In an article I read from the Denmark Embassy, the danish are working on supplying technology and equipment and know-how about solid waste management. Here are some importants points I have highlighted.

1. In Peninsular Malaysia, the amount of solid waste generated went up from 16,200 tons per day in 2001 to 19,100 tons in 2005, an average of 0.8 kilogram per capita per day.

2. In KL only, the waste accumulates to 3000 tons a day! And it's not getting any smaller...

3. Our modern lifestyle is to blame for. We buy, we consume, we throw away the packaging easily....we don't think of what would happen to the waste. When it's gone from your sight, problem solve....not!

4. Almost half our waste consists of food waste, a quarter of waste generated are plastic. The rest are paper and iron. Approximately 95-97% of waste collected is taken to landfill for disposals. The remaining waste is sent to small incineration plants, diverted to recyclers/re-processors or is dumped illegally.

5. The government aims to have 22% of the waste recycled by 2020. The Solid Waste Management Bill, adopted by parliament in June 2007, is to drastically change the structure of solid waste management in Malaysia and to open up for the development of a completely new business sector.

6. New concessions on domestic waste management will be introduced, as well as recycling, and handling of specific types of solid waste like plastic, paper etc. is highlighted. A number of Malaysian investors are looking into this area, and many are looking for foreign partners with the necessary expertise.

But still I don't know how to really dispose our waste correctly. Should we separate food waste from the other waste....does it matter. You tell me...

Check out this site:
Solid Waste Management – growing opportunities in Malaysia

My Recycling Progress

On earlier posts, I said that I need a recycle bin at home. I bought the bin a few weeks ago at Jusco. I thought that the department store would have a wider choice of recycle bins since they promote themselves as being green, but they only have the normal stepping bin for kitchen use. Alas, I only manage to get a large bin with a flipping top. Yeah, I bought only one. This is because there's not enough room under my kitchen sink or anywhere else in the small apartment of mine. I put all the recyclables in the bin and sort them later when it is full. Sounds like a plan...well we'll see.


And these are the stuff that I acummulated for many years. Plastics! Plastics! Plastics! Yes, I know they can be reused...but how long? If they get dirty or stained... and off to the garbage bin!
So we must opt for reusable shopping bags. preferably made from canvas or cloth.

My Little Apartment Garden

Back in my small apartment garden, there are no flowers, just greens. Want to see my little container garden?

Front: Japanese Sweet Potato Plant.

This plant grew from the basket in my pantry without any help. So I planted it in a good pot mix and some organic compost fertilizers. Every now and then, when the leaves are heavy, I pinch the shoots and boil them.
Usually I will get not more than a rice bowl. Good enough to eat for two with warm rice and sambal telur....delicious!

"My Baby Pandan Plant"
The reason why I started my little container garden. Good for sweet aroma for rice and hot teh 'O'.

Reusable stuff I used for gardening.

" My pride and JoY"
Little Tamarind Seedling is 5 months Old.

Take a break...enjoy nature's gift

Flowers in May

I notice flowers bloom during this time of year in Malaysia. April and May. This picture is taken at my inlaws in Kuantan. Its a red amyrillis. My mother in law didn't even know that the plant has flowers when she bought it last year. Hey, I know this picture is not about recycling but sometimes we must be reminded on how beautiful nature is and we should appreciate them anyway we can.

Happy World Environment Day!

How appropriate...the price hike for petrol in Malaysia falls on the World Environment Day. The UNEP website has come up with a list of 80 ways to celebrate the Environment Day and every other day as well. How did you celebrate the day? With petrol getting expensive, we might experience inflation. And what are our strategy to control our financial situation? I think this is the time for us to conserve energy, not only fuel but electricity and water as well. I'm thinking of lessening my car rides and jog to work instead.....kind of a healthy idea isn't it...but we'll see. I wonder what Malaysia would be in the next 5 years with all the inflation and price hike. Maybe people will start riding bicycles to work. Maybe more efficient and systematic public transportations for commuters. Maybe hybrid electric cars will be introduced to the country...for the ones that can afford them. Maybe people would eat-at-home rather than dine-out. Maybe people would start recycling, and composting, make handmade reusable materials to earn extra money and income. Maybe a whole new greener world. Right now I am vision of many positive outcomes from this situation. If we adopt this positive thinking we might achieve them altogether...

Making things right this time.....

So with this blog I commit myself to recycling! Sounds corny isnt it?

Being me, I wouldn’t make any move till I check the net to find out about how to recycle. I get useful resources from countries that are well aware of the environmental issue such as US, Japan and Australia. Unfortunately Malaysia has not many website that are dedicated to recycling. When I googled the keyword "kitar semula" the first hit is kitarsemula.com website (http://www.kpkt.gov.my/kitarsemula/ ). Eventhough it has a some fancy website with the typewriter thingy going on, I am not impressed or satisfied by the site because it is not updated. The last input was 2002. That’s how old the National Recycling Day campaign was, I think? But at least I have the info of companies and the agency involve in the recycling program…and also the recycling centres.

I found that it the MPSJ website ( please visit www.mpsj.gov.my) , the municipal council for my area is more informative and also active. Kudos to MPSJ for a very compact website! I decided to write in and request for recycling bin at my apartment. Well it won't hurt to ask. Giving the reason there are many housewife that have no transport to travel to the nearest recycling bin. They officer replied my email but unfortunately said that they were out of stock and they will place a recycle bin if any company or organization that want to give up the bin. I was quite disappointed because the reply sounds like they do not have any budgets for recycling bins. But anyways, it didn't spoil my spirit. I just have to find the nearest recycling bin at my home. Thanks to MPSJ again for giving the info on the charts and schedule.

Recycle Bin in My Neighbourhood
From Left: Paper, Glass, Plastic, Aluminium

By now I have collected some recyclables in a large laundry basket.( No, I don’t have specific sorted bins yet) And they are ready to be sent for recycling. I found one recycling bins near the park by the mosque ( see pic below). Funny thing was I didn't notice it was there, when I have passed that area every other day for almost 5 years here. So I sorted them out, and put them in the respective bins. Mission accomplish. Felt better already! Next step...to shop for a recycle bin to put under my kitchen sink.

Rubbish Attitude...Rubbish Minds...

p

pPreviously, the idea of recycling had been in my head but it never launched into reality for me. This is because, I didn’t made enough effort and I was being ignorant. Sure, I did collected empty plastic bottles, empty glass jars and newspapers but I didn’t allocate specific bins to put the recycle materials. They were always on the kitchen floor by the sink. So when I want to clean my kitchen, or any part of my apartment the plastic bottles would go in the black garbage bag and off it goes to the large garbage bin. I also felt that because there were no recycling bin in my area, I made an excuse not to recycle.

pBut lately the issue of lack of landfills and waste increase in our country called Malaysia has got me thinking. How did it become that way? As I take a walk around my neighbourhood, I see rubbish were thrown every where and it gets worse during the school holidays. Aren’t we trained to be clean at all times in school and especially at homes? If we are trained to be clean in the house, what about outside our homes?If we are not trained to care for the cleanliness, then how can we care for the environment??? I wonder if there is no intervention to this habit and attitude, what would the world looked like for our children? This scenario had made me feel bad and formed a lot of negative energy about the place I reside. The lack of civic-mindedness in our children and also adults means there is lacking of education and information about the environment we are living in. If there is, the information is not emphasized or not being updated.

So with this problem at hand, the most logical thing for me to do as an individual and as a member of
the community is to initiate the awareness within my home and family. Nevermind what my neighbours are doing. Nevermind if there is no recycle bins at my apartment. We simply cannot point fingers to the the government for not providing enough or blaming our neighbours for not teaching their children about cleanliness. It must start within the parameters of our home. I have a positive feeling that if I start recycling then others will follow. Well we'll see.

Say no to rubbish Attitude

Welcome to my Blog about Beginners in Recycling...

pHow it started out?

I love to surf the net and searching for useless information. I usually surf the internet to find information or to fill my curiosity about a particular thing. One day I wanted to start a little garden in my small apartment space. I found a site that that showed how to make self-watering container using plastic PET bottles. I liked the idea and searched for more website that offer great solutions and ideas about gardening using recycled materials. While my little garden is still under construction, I have collected many plastic bottles, and other containers as well. Then I realized I consumed a lot of recyclable materials, and yet I did not recycle them. I felt guilty about not caring for the environment and I didn’t even know where the nearest recycling center is. So I guess by writing to this blog, I am making a commitment to recycle! Here goes! And wish me luck...