Plastic bags, straws banned in UMS cafeteria

KOTA KINABALU : The Faculty of Medicine and Health Science (FMHS) Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) yesterday launched the concept of Bring Your Own Container (BYOC) in conjunction with the faculty’s annual Chinese New Year (CNY) Potluck and Celebration 2019.

“BYOC is a unique concept whereby we encourage all the faculty students and staff to bring their own containers daily for their meals. In today’s CNY celebration, all lecturers, students and supporting staff brought their own containers to contain their food. We want to raise awareness to our faculty members and the nation that one plastic bag takes 500 years to degrade completely. Malaysia is the eight largest producer of mismanaged plastics in the world,” said Dr Yeap Boon Tat, deputy dean of Students Affairs and Alumni in a statement.

“We had slowly informed all faculty members since February 2019 regarding the need to reduce unnecessary plastics at our faculty, followed by this BYOC implementation in April 2019. I am proud to announce that FMHS UMS is the first faculty in the campus to implement BYOC and ban the usage of plastic bags and straws in the cafeteria,” he added.

The annual CNY Potluck and Celebration 2019 at FMHS UMS was graced by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Datuk Dr. D. Kamarudin D. Mudin, and Dean FMHS Prof Dr Mohd Saffree Jeffree, lecturers, students and supporting staff. A 20-minute lion dance performance from Kawasan Rukun Tetangga (KRT) Pekan Menggatal and cultural performances from the students and staff made the CNY atmosphere lively.

“The faculty is thankful to the VC and Dean for their continuous support towards FMHS Eco Campus activities. We hope all other UMS faculties will implement this BYOC and we will share our experiences in handling unnecessary plastic bags.”