Eye-opening project on rubbish menace

TINY Pulau Gazumbo located off the Penang Bridge has been given a thorough clean-up in an effort to preserve its natural environment.

The island with its seagrass meadow is due to be gazetted as a marine sanctuary.

Almost 800kg of rubbish were removed by 35 volunteers from Penang Green Council (PGC) and Penang Swimming Club (PSC) as well as researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies (Cemacs).

As the low tide exposed all the rubbish washed up on the shore, the group filled up 174 sacks.

PGC general manager Josephine Tan said a total 768kg of rubbish were collected for data analysis.

“We collected 366kg of plastic bottles, 251kg of non-recyclable trash, glass (78kg) and ghost nets (73kg).

Rubbish-filled Pulau Gazumbo getting a major clean-up by volunteers. — Photos: LIM BENG TATT/The Star

“The team also collected 300 slippers and shoes, 196 cigarette lighters, 21 fishing buoys and traps as well as 26 helmets.

“Most of the rubbish found on the island were plastic bottles,” she said.

The group, upon landing on the island, divided themselves into teams of trash and data collectors before getting to work.

They spent over three hours cleaning the shoreline before working their way into the island’s dense copse of trees that hid waste washed up on the island.

Every piece of rubbish collected was sorted according to recyclability, counted, weighed and packed into large sacks.

So much was collected that it took the volunteers multiple boat trips to get all the sacks off the island.

Citizen science

Cemacs senior lecturer Abe Woo said the operation was not just about collecting rubbish but also about creating citizen science, a practice of public participation and collaboration in scientific research to increase knowledge.

“We encourage ordinary citizens to contribute not just by cleaning up places but also to collect data and raise awareness on problems.

“They can be ‘scientists’ who contribute data we can study,” he said.

Woo added that cleaning up the island was not the end goal but only the start of a long-term plan to reduce waste and turn it into something of value.

The operation’s co-organiser Yeoh Tze Ni hoped that efforts would continue.

“What we collected is not even 1% of all the rubbish on the island.

“Some of the plastic bottles had been there for more than 30 years, and they make up most of the rubbish found.

“I really hope this operation will enable better policy-making by the government to regulate waste management,” she said.

Meanwhile, Penang environment and welfare committee chairman Phee Boon Poh said the effort was an eye-opener on the need to reduce waste and its threat to the environment.

“This operation is the first official environmental project this year within this seagrass meadow called Middle Bank, which is the largest in the Straits of Malacca and home to various marine life,” he said.

The 50.6ha seagrass bed, located between Penang Bridge and the Sungai Pinang river mouth, is the second largest in Peninsular Malaysia after Merambong in Johor and visible when the tide is lowest.

Phee said the state would continue to pursue waste segregation at source as well as conduct recycling programmes to address illegal waste dumping.

“Only paper waste will be collected on Monday, while plastic waste will be collected on Wednesday, and glass waste on Friday.

“This will reduce the amount of rubbish sent to the Pulau Burung landfill,” he said.

Also present were Penang infrastructure and transport committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari, who is Tanjung Bungah assemblyman, as well as Cemacs director Datuk Dr Aileen Tan.

The volunteers were later treated to lunch at PSC for their efforts.

In November last year, it was reported that the 3ha Pulau Gazumbo, formed from sand build-ups while the bridge was being built from 1983 to 1986, had so much rubbish that it looked like a landfill.

The litter poses a danger to the marine environment in Penang and in the Straits of Malacca as a whole.