SOLID waste and public cleansing provider SWM Environment Sdn Bhd is targeting to collect about 30 tonnes of glass bottles through its Let’s Recycle Glass Bottles contest in Johor this year.
The concessionaire’s corporate general manager Mohd Norlisam Mohd Nordin said the contest was introduced in September last year and ended in January this year with participation from 30 primary schools in the state.
He said the company planned to hold the contest annually after seeing that participants managed to collect 24 tonnes of glass bottles for recycling.
“Our initial target was to collect about 10 tonnes of glass bottles but participants managed to collect 24 tonnes, which is impressive.
“We will increase our target to between 25 and 30 tonnes,” he said when met by reporters at the closing ceremony of the recycling contest at the Johor Tourism Information Centre in Johor Baru.
Mohd Norlisam said the programme was a good indicator of how it can attract family members and the community to work together and at the same time win prizes for their effort.
The collection of 24 tonnes of glass bottles also helped to reduce CO2 emission which is in line with the Johor government’s “Clean Johor” initiative, he added.
The winner of the contest was SJKC Chung Hwa, Pontian, with a collection of 4,646kg of glass bottles. They took home RM500 and 3,000 KITARecycle points (RP).
Second place went to SJKC Ping Min, Kluang, which won RM400 and 3,000RP for collecting 3,101kg of bottles while SK Seri Mendapat, Batu Pahat, emerged third and got RM300 and 3,000RP for collecting 2,968kg of bottles.
SJKC Chung Hwa headmistress Ong Chiew Ai said her school would continue to hold its recycling programme even though the contest has ended.
“The programme was well- received not only by the pupils but by their parents as well, who cooperated closely with the teachers by sending the glass bottles to the school for our programme.
“It is also a good way to educate our children on the importance of taking care of our environment and how we can play our role through recycling,” she said.
SWM Environment also gave 3,000 recycling points to two schools, SK Penyabong in Mersing and SJKT Taman Tun Aminah in Johor Baru, for their efforts in involving parents and non-governmental organisations in recycling.
According to SK Penyabong pupil Aina Batrisyia Khuzaimi, 12, the glass bottles were collected from the island resorts and from the public beaches in Mersing.
“The bottles were collected together with environmental NGO Trash Hero Mersing during weekend beach cleanups.
The island resorts collaborated with us by sending all their glass bottles to our school for free,” said Aina Batrisyia.
SJKT Taman Tun Aminah pupil, D. Tharani, 12, said they collected the bottles from the eateries near their school.
“There are a lot of food and beverage stalls near our school so we informed the stall owners about our campaign.
“We asked them to separate unwanted bottles from their trash. During the weekends, we went over to the stalls to collect the bottles,” she said.
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