Let’s together protect the environment: Lo

Lo (centre) presents a prize to the winner of a ‘Two-Minute Video Competition’ prior to the EatUp Festival.

KUCHING: Environmental protection begins with oneself, and from there to the family and friends, said Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) chairman Lo Khere Chiang.

Lo said it is important that everyone helps to protect the environment because not only does a well-protected environment ensure healthy air but it also keeps down costs.

To elaborate, Lo cited how the city struggles with its garbage.

“According to statistics by Solid Waste Corporation Management (SWCorp), Kuching produced nearly 500 tons of garbage a day in 2017, to be buried into the soil.

“From that number, 40 per cent is food residue,” said Lo during the opening ceremony of EatUp Festival at Giant Mall Kota Padawan today.

He added that the council had been paying around RM250 per tonne to Trienekens to transport rubbish to Mambong sanitary landfill.

“Let’s say the water we produce is charged at RM200 per tonne. If we produce an average of 200 tonnes of water a day, then it would cost the council RM40,000 on food waste alone.”

The Batu Kitang assemblyman also said that the improper disposal of food waste would cause serious environmental problems.

“When we throw away the remaining or unfinished food into a trash can, it will be taken to the landfill and the decaying process will release a gas called methane (a kind of greenhouse gas). The gas released will then cause air pollution and lead to global warming and other possible environmental disasters,” he pointed out.

Therefore, he urged everyone to participate in the event to counter the environmental problems together.

The EatUp Festival 2019 is a social event organised by WormingUp, a non-profit organisation, to raise awareness and improve public attitude on food wastage.

The event aimed to educate members of the public on how to properly discard decomposable food waste from the kitchen and reduce food waste the right way.

The two-day event included a series of activities consisting of workshops on proper disposal of food waste, exhibitions of special species animals, and a dry snack exchange booth where members of the public were encouraged to come and bring along their food waste for an exchange of organic fertiliser.

In addition, the organisers also provided 1,500 packs of free food to those who came to the festival.

With the theme “The Forgotten Food”, EatUp Festival was organised for the second time after receiving quite an amazing response in last year’s event.

Worming Up started in 2016 when 11 students from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas)’s Faculty of Resource Science and Technology led by Jeff came into contact with the problem of waste disposal and came out with effective scientific methods to properly dispose of waste and food residues.

During the opening ceremony, winners of a Two-Minute Video competition also received their prizes and token of appreciation were also presented to the sponsors namely Sarawak Energy, Giant Mall and UCSI University.

The event which started today will conclude at 6pm Sunday.

Also present were MPP deputy chairman Datuk Ahmad Ibrahim, MPP secretary Elizabeth Loh, WormingUp president Jeff Wee, and Giant Hypermarket manager Robert Tadong.

Sarawak Tribune: 16 March 2019