Green projects by Ipoh City Council to make Green Cities Mayor-Council a success, says mayor

IPOH: Various green projects involving the community are being held by the Ipoh City Council as part of its aim to make the Green Cities Mayor-Council (GCMC) a success, says Datuk Rumaizi Baharin.

The Ipoh mayor said the GCMC project was first acknowledged during the 12th Indonesia - Malaysia -Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT) summit in 2019, which aimed to steer green city developments in line with Vision 2036.

“With GCMC as our task, the city council as the lead city for the circular economy activities has implemented various projects involving schoolchildren, non-governmental organisations and entrepreneurs.

“Among the projects are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3R) project among schooling children, collecting e-waste, recycling used tyres, collecting used cooking oil and automated drive-through recycling kiosk (ADTrec),” he told reporters.

Rumaizi said this after accompanying delegations from Hatyai Municipal Council and Acheh District Council to visit SMK Raja Perempuan here on Tuesday (Nov 21).

Among the delegations during the visit included Hatyai deputy mayor Assoc Prof Dr Wichai Kanchanasuwan and Acheh commission head II Khairil Syahrial.

Rumaizi said the 3R project that involved schools started on Aug 28 last year.

"We selected 10 primary schools for the project and they have successfully collected 10 metric tons of recyclable items to date," he said.

He also said the city council had signed memorandums of understanding with four circular economy strategy partners to help them become the cleanest city by 2023 and low-carbon city by 2030 earlier in March this year.

“One of our strategic partners is assisting us in collecting used tyres from workshops around town, with more than 900 metric tonnes of recycled tyres collected in the city as of Oct this year.

“These used tyres will undergo a pyrolysis process to produce oil that can be used as fuel at ceramic factories, carbon and steel wires used for raw materials,” he said.

"By disposing of the tyres in a safe manner, we were able to reduce open burning in public areas, minimising breeding grounds for Aedes mosquitoes," he added.

As for the ADTrec project in Manjoi, Rumaizi said it has collected 17 metric tonnes of recyclable items.

“The project is a public-private partnership between the city council and Majuperak Utilities Management Sdn Bhd where residents send their recyclable items and get paid accordingly,” he added.