SMC to enforce ban of plastic straws next month

SIBU: SMC enforcement officers will issue the RM50 compounds to eatery owners caught using plastic straws, starting Feb 1.

SMC Public Health, Environment and Municipal Services Standing Committee chairperson Rhoda Ting said they will also confiscate the plastic straws.

“This is the final warning and there will no longer be any grace period. Hopefully, the owners of all the eateries will comply with the rulings,” she said at the press conference after the SMC monthly meeting held yesterday morning.

Since the enforcement on `Say No To Plastic Straw’ campaign ruling went into effect last Jan 1, Ting said they had attained an encouraging compliance rate of 85 percent.

“We foresee the compliance rate to touch 90 percent in due course,” she added.

On the spring cleaning, Ting said they had put roller bins at 18 locations throughout areas under SMC jurisdiction.

“To date, we have disposed off 140 truckloads of trash to Kemuyang dumping site,’ she added.

Ting said they will study the effectiveness of the spring cleaning to assess the cost and other shortcomings before deciding on taking their next course of actions.

In the past, SMC will do the spring cleaning by collecting the bulk items from house to house.

However, this year, it had decided to stop the bulk collection services and instead, put roller bins at certain location so that the people can dispose off their bulk items.

On the issue of stray dogs, Ting said SMC enforcement officers had caught 1,066 dogs in 2019 while in 2018, they managed to catch 1,575 stray dogs.

“For this year, as at Jan 22, we had caught 56 stray dogs,” she added.

She reminds dog owners to keep their pets inside their house compound and should not let them roam free.

“Our enforcement officers will catch any dogs that are left out of the houses,” she added.

She said members of the public can also call SMC hotline 084310808 or handphone 013-8077964 for dog catchers to catch the dogs if any are found wandering along the roads.

Ting also reminded residents to keep their compound clean to curb the spread of dengue.

In 2018 74 dengue cases recorded here and it shot up to 204 in 2019, an increase of 130 cases.

She said most the cases were reported from Taman Rajang areas and Jalan Wong King Huo .

“As such, we hope that the cleaning contractors and the residents in the affected areas take stringent measures to clear their compounds.”