Plastic Recycling

Three plastic compactors were delivered to the respective community organisations last two days. It marked the beginning of the Plastic Recycling Campaign organised by MBPJ, MPMA and residents organisations supported by the DANIDA SWMC Fund. It is part of the Local Agenda 21 Petaling Jaya Initiative in encouraging wider scope of 3R. Presently, when it comes to 3R, automatically people are talking about paper, aluminium and glass. Not many talked about plastic recycling simply because it is not economically for the recycling vendor. At time, we blamed the plastic for chucking our drains and rivers. We discarded the plastic bag as if it is the main and only culprit for river pollution.

Not many have looked into the root cause of the problem. To me, the major source of problem is unneccessary, widespread and excessive use of plastic. Basically the presence of plastic is seen and felt everywhere and in every corner of our work place or house. We are not able to disassociate ourselves from the plastic, be it in large quantity or smaller amount. Plastic is becoming part of our life. Hence, magnitude of this problem is also huge, if not managed properly.

The plastic compactor is placed and managed by the residents groups and school. The convenient of placing and accessible by every local people means it is no more an excuse of not doing plastic recycling. People passionate about environmental protection will not mind to practise recycling if it is not that troublesome. Hence, providing an option for these groups are hopefully able to attract higher number of recyclers.

It is a campaign to raise awareness of people on the possibility of plastic recycling. In a way, showing people it can be done, a mind set change makes easier and more convincing.