Recycling Good Practices

I was invited to share MBPJ's experiences in Eyeglasses Recycling Campaign with more than 150 participants throughout the country in a Recycling Good Practices Seminar at Kuantan organised by the DANIDA-SWMC and KPKT last Monday. The Eyeglasses Recycling Campaign was jointly organised with Lions Club of Kuala Lumpur (West) and residents organisations, shops and NGOs in PJ. The target was to collect 5,000 pairs of eyeglasses and then sent them to Sri Lanka for cleansing, testing and packaging before donating to the needy who cannot afford. The message i am trying to bring to the audiences is try to think out of the box when it comes to 3R. Recycling can be done by relabeling an existing social program or by partnering players in other fields that we might have overlooked. We should integrate sustainability in dealing with 3R program.


Many good practices were presented, be it at the local authorities level, schools, community based organisations or the private sector. I felt excited to know that so many initiatives have been blooming on the ground. Some have started by individual due to their hobby or passion, some have started very small due to the need of solving their daily problems, some have done something else but evolve later to a good environmental initiative, some have started with 3R but later to incorporate other aspect of environmental protection projects. Having said this, common ground for success is identical, the leadership shown by the champion. Dedicated and committed individuals persistence and continually working and improving on the program is the key to success. It is essential to establish and give due recognition to the champion to continue working and to disseminate the good practices.

Having localised champion is a waste if the knowledge and experiences acquired do not reach out to others in other geographical and demographic areas. Thus, it is important to divert a structure and platform for efficient sharing, exchange and learning.

Another obstacles is the high turn over of champion. Champions especially those in the public sector will not continue with their efforts once got promotion or be transferred to other fields. This is a pity considering that champion is not easy to groom and establish. Obviously looking into the mechanism of promoting an officer to a higher grade without transferring them to a new field can be an option of keeping the champion, thus the effectiveness of 3R and sustainable development.