SWM Environment Sdn Bhd (SWM Environment) organised a beach cleanup drive involving 361 volunteers along Saujana Beach in Port Dickson yesterday, in conjunction with World Cleanup Day and World Ozone Day 2023.
Its corporate general manager Mohd Norlisam Mohd Nordin said the initiative, in collaboration with Great Eastern Takaful Berhad (GETB) and the Department of Environment (DOE) Negeri Sembilan, aimed to raise public awareness about preserving and conserving the environment.
He said during the activity, volunteers from various agencies and educational institutions collected 10,651 cigarette butts, plastic spoons and forks (636), plastic bags (592), plastic bottle caps (203) and plastic bottles (178).
“We at SWM Environment are very excited about the response to this year’s beach cleaning programme, and through collaboration with GETB and DOE, it signifies the success of our community coming together to protect the environment.
“Besides cleaning the beach, we also want to raise awareness about the importance of preserving the earth’s ozone layer, which is getting thinner, and our responsibility to the environment,” he said in a statement today.
World Cleanup Day and World Ozone Day, celebrated on Sept 16, are global initiatives that unite communities in cleaning the environment, with the aim of reducing carbon emissions and raising awareness about critical environmental issues.
In the same statement, GETB chief executive officer Shahrul Azlan Shahriman said that the collaboration with SWM Environment aimed to promote environmental sustainability and reduce the negative impact of plastic waste pollution on the environment.
“We also had the opportunity to demonstrate a 2-in-1 upcycling machine to the participants to show that used plastics can be recycled and turned into new, better quality items,” he said.
He also hoped that more corporate organisations could unite to preserve the environment for a better quality of life, as preserving nature is a collective responsibility.
In another development, Mohd Norlisam said that until last August, there were 8,757 KITARecycle members and a total of 8,000 tonnes of recycled goods were spared from being sent to waste disposal sites, thanks to the KITARecycle programme in Negeri Sembilan.
He said the amount was not only from the contributions of members who used the KITARecycle Drive-In facility but also involved various parties, including government agencies, the private sector, educational institutions and the local community.
The public is encouraged to recycle by participating in the KITARecycle programme, which offers reward points that can be redeemed for cash online by downloading the KITARecycle application on their smartphone or visiting https://portal.kitarecycle.com, he said.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency
