DBKU determined to make city plastic waste-free — Director
KUCHING: Kuching North City Commission ( DBKU) is working hard to ensure the city is free from plastic wastes, says its director Morshidi Ahmad.
He said efforts need to be taken by all parties to not only reduce the use of plastics bags, but also create awareness on the importance of protecting nature and the environment.
“There is a need to create awareness to ensure that the environment, especially the Sarawak River, is clean from plastic wastes.
“Each and every one of us must play a pivotal role as agents of change to ensure our city, environment and waterbody are free from pollutants – plastic bags. Please be with us, DBKU, to ensure our environment will be very clean,” he said during the ‘Say No to Plastic Bag’ talk and sharing session held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of both DBKU and Hilton Kuching at the hotel yesterday.
The objective of the one- day event was to inculcate best practices among students and create awareness among city dwellers on the importance of protecting nature and the environment.
“We would like to reduce the usage of plastic bags. As we know, plastic is non-biodegradable, but there are now plastic bags in the market for wastes or plants that are biodegradable.
There is a need to create awareness to ensure that the environment, especially the Sarawak River, is clean from plastic wastes.
“When sent to the landfill, these bags will disintegrate. With this awareness drive, we hope we will be able to reduce and stop usage of plastic bags. One of our initiative and master plan is how to make Kuching a great city – a clean city. With the input from the change agents, we can do it together and achieve that cleanliness status,” he added.
The talks were presented by Wildlife Conservation Society director Dr Melvin Gumal and Hilton Kuching general manager Hamish Watts, and moderated by Rudzaimeer Malek.
Meanwhile, in the treasure hunt event held in conjunction with the ‘Say No to Plastic Bag’ programme held yesterday, 10 teams walked home with prizes for solving challenages and quizzes.
First placea went to Team Little Miss Sunshine while Team Never Say Never and Team Kumpulan CPS A won second and third, respectively.
The remaining seven teams – Team Chickaboom, Team Magnificent 4, Team M4, Team Puer Group, Team McDougall Pirates, Team Black Pegasus and Team Finders Keepers – were named consolation prize winners.
The participants were flagged off from the entrance of the hotel at 6.45am by Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, accompanied by Datuk Bandar of DBKU Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai, DBKU principal assistant director Haidir Abang and Hamish.
Morshidi Ahmad, DBKU director