Recycling: some grievences

I have a discussion on recycling initiative with a group of Japanese researchers yesterday. While they observed that a lot of activities have been carried out to raise public awareness on 3R and to get them to implement some of the programmes, the response was not automatically forthcoming. I have to admit that getting people on board to start something is difficult, getting them to sustain the initiative is equally hard. Many of the community organisations do not consider 3R is on top of the list in their neighbourhood concern. Many thought safety and security is much more important, and even those with less worries about safety have not shown much interest on 3R.

Another interesting point brought up was the gathering of data on rubbish collection and recycling rate. While figure showed PJ area generated about 145 thousand tonnes of waste annually, the figure does not take into consideration illegal waste dumped elsewhere or recyclable items that collected by recycling vendors or organisations. We simply do not have a figure showing exact waste generation, and even the recycling rate. Having said this, all agreed that recycling rate is much more higher as many confessed that we keep newspapers, bottles, aluminium cans and even car battery for collection by door step vendors.

We have also noticed that charitable organisations have done well in collection of recyclable compared to other stakeholders. We reckoned that this might be due to effective marketing of the organisations. Many recycling boxes bearing the contact number are placed in strategic location. Apart from that, these organisations provide home collection service for bulky waste. I think the convenience, perhaps made the difference.

During the discussion with Petaling Jaya Community Centre officers, we were informed that there are people who is willing to make extra efforts to bring over the recyclable items and without asking monetary reward. However, there are people who brought in the "waste" without doing segregation. Sometime, unwanted personal care items were found. While, this indicates 3R concept is prolonging into some people's way of life, the other example also shows that much need to be done in educating people.

In discussing effectiveness of 3R and factors contributing to the weaknesses, many success stories elsewhere showed that Human Factor is the most critical one. The attitude of people without carrot or stick is the winning formula. Of course, with stick mentality will change faster. The No Plastic Bag Campaign in Penang and Selangor for example is welcome by every people with right mind set, although few .