Datu Dr Penguang Manggil
 

 
SIBU: The Ministry of Local Government and Housing may implement the ban on the usage of plastic bags in stages – starting from the city and municipal council levels.
In this regard, Assistant Minister of Local Government Datu Dr Penguang Manggil believes that self-discipline is vital in ensuring the success of any green initiative such as the ‘no plastic’ campaign.
“We are trying to implement this initiative in stages, starting from city and municipal councils, of which the smaller councils are encouraged to emulate from,” he said in a statement yesterday, made in response to a question about the ministry having any plan to encourage other councils to follow the examples set by local authorities such as Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) in implementing the ‘no plastic bag’ policy.
It is known that since the ‘Say No to Plastic Bags 2.0’ campaign kicked off on Jan 1 this year, many retail operations here are no longer providing customers with free plastic bags.
“The responsibility to protect our environment is a collective responsibility; hence, we must adopt a first-world mentality.
“Informal education in changing our attitudes of not using plastic bags or avoiding it altogether, is very important. It is cheaper to do it now before it is too late,” said Penguang, who is Marudi assemblyman.
Based on a survey conducted in 2010 involving major towns across Sarawak, food and food perishables accounted for 35 per cent from the total tonnage of waste, followed by paper at 19 per cent, soft plastics (11 per cent), hard plastics (five per cent), garden waste (five per cent), disposable diapers (five per cent), glass (three per cent) and wood (two per cent) – the remaining percentage comprised discarded metals and construction waste.
It is also known that environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO) Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) has made similar calls on doing away with single-use plastics as the first step to deal with plastic pollution.
SAM president SM Mohamed Idris was quoted in a statement on Thursday as saying that one of the most visible impacts of plastic pollution on marine life was the ingestion of plastic debris, as well as suffocation and entanglement of hundreds of marine species including birds, turtles, fish, mussels, crustaceans and marine mammals.