SIBU: All eateries within the Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) area are prohibited from giving plastic drinking straws to customers beginning January 1, 2020.
During a meeting of the council today, chairman Datuk Tiong Thai King said the council will make it mandatory for eateries to support its “Say No to Plastic Straw” campaign which will be a condition for licence renewals and applications starting next year.
The campaign, he said, will be launched during SMC’s annual green event, the “Love Earth Day Campaign”, on April 29 this year.
These campaigns, according to him, are part of the local efforts to reduce plastic waste to help mitigate climate change.
The council is giving all eateries until December this year to clear their stocks of plastic straws.
On the Love Earth Day Campaign 2019, Tiong said this year the council and co-organiser, JCI Sibu, will continue to spearhead it in collaboration with the Education Department.
“Under the global theme, ‘Protect our Species’, the council is taking the lead to educate locals through a variety of awareness programmes about the importance of protecting nature’s gifts by actively participating in global environmental protection movements,” he said.
On the smoking ban, he said the council will enforce it at all eateries starting March 1 as directed by the Local Government and Housing Ministry.
