MOTORISTS would hardly imagine that replacing windscreens would result in much environmental waste.
Insurance company Berjaya Sompo recently had a windscreen repair roadshow at 1 Utama Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya to raise public awareness on the environmental issues of windscreen waste and promote windscreen repair.
Through the event, the company aimed to lessen the negative impact of wasteful windscreen glass dumping and encourage users to prioritise repairing their windscreens rather than disposing of them.
Berjaya Sompo chief executive officer Tan Sek Kee said windscreens were made of sand, among others, and it took a lot of energy resources to produce them.
“Disposing of a windscreen, however small the chip or crack, basically means it will land up in a landfill and remain there for a long time.
“Do we really need to replace every chipped or cracked windscreen? The answer is a big no as the technology to repair it has been around for many years.”
“So why not repair your chipped windscreen? We can help reduce global pollution and climate change, and you can save on insurance premiums,” said Tan.
He said a chipped windscreen could take as little as 30 minutes to repair.
Berjaya Sompo has over 42 windscreen panel repairers with 208 branches nationwide.
SWCorp says Malaysians produced 38,200 tonnes of waste daily. In a year, this figure is close to 14 million tonnes with an estimated cost of RM2bil.
Glass contributes 3.3% of waste, which means Malaysians were dumping 460,000 tonnes of glass costing about RM66mil, and windscreens contributed to this.
A repaired windscreen means there is less non-recyclable glass in the landfill as the polyvinyl butyral film between laminated glass takes a significant period to decompose.
The roadshow also saw the support of the Department of Environment.
It was jointly organised with Mobile Windscreen Sdn Bhd, Nanmar Motor Service Sdn Bhd, Dr Cermin Sdn Bhd and DW Windscreen Sdn Bhd, as well as roadside assistance partners EP Ong Associates Sdn Bhd and RSA Auto Network Sdn Bhd.
