BY JACINTHA JOLENE & NEVILLE TIMOTHY SANDERS
KUCHING: Littering persists despite the presence of bins and facilities.
It is believed it is a question of people’s behaviour, understanding, and influence, said an environmentalist.
Co-founder of Reuse Or Refuse Borneo Kelly Hiu said that the attitude can simply be a careless and ignorant behaviour where people might think there are no consequences for littering, pertaining to whether it affects themselves or the environment.
“Granted that there are heavy fines for littering, it can possibly turn the situation for the better by a percentage.
“Take our neighbouring country, Singapore, for example.
“For first time offender who throws small items like cigarette butts or candy wrappers, they are fined 300 Singapore dollars, which can be a huge sum for such a mindless action,” she told New Sarawak Tribune yesterday.
Hiu further reiterated that littering debatably could be seen as pack behaviour amongst the public, where one person litters because another is doing so.
“In addition, littering can also come off as a habit for those that are not properly educated about it since young, from their earlier education, or from family upbringing.”
Meanwhile, project coordinator of Sahabat Alam Malaysia Sarawak Jok Jau Evong thinks that the reason why people litter is because either they are not bothered or out of convenience.
“For those who litter, especially in the rivers and roadsides, this is out of apathy, convenience, and lack of waste disposal infrastructure in their locality.
Although strict enforcement of antilittering law by imposing penalties and fines may be effective, education for the young ones and raising awareness is essential for long-term behavioural changes, Evong said.
“People need to be educated as to the consequences of their own actions,” he pointed out.
He further profound that community clean up could also be an effective way for spreading anti-litter message.
“When communities are involved in the clean-ups, they would be less discouraged to litter again.”
Multi-prong approaches with community participation are thus needed to resolve the littering issue, he said.
On the other hand, leader of Kuching Beach Cleaners Alcila Aflin felt that the people’s awareness and perspective on waste management is a little bit behind of what the people should have been practising.
“I do agree in some ways, we have to do better, especially in urban community and even rural community, we still have this out of sight, out of mind kind of perspective.
“So we have to be more responsible towards our waste and change our perspective towards the way we treat our waste,” she stated.
Their action plan is to create more awareness among the public, especially through beach cleaning activities, webinars, and school activities and our outreach programme, she revealed.
She then further explained that even though there are rules and regulations, these were not fully enforced.
“I’ve been cleaning beaches for the past eight years and they are not getting better based on my observation; most of the trash left over there is by picnic-goers and beach-goers and it’s getting more rampant.”
Aflin also thought that although it’s good to have more clean-up events be more organised, it is also not enough as she mentioned earlier, as it has to be done in more of holistic approach.
“It’s not only beach cleaning, but also other events to be happening at the same time, such as beach cleaning and awareness programme to be held simultaneously, and also stricter enforcement on the same day. Everything must be working together.”
She then further profound that bigger impact would happen if all sectors, including the state government would come and work together in solving the littering issue.
“People must understand that it’s affecting all of us, and we are responsible in producing our own trash. I would like to see more emphasis on waste management and I’m glad the higher ups have brought light about this,” she said.
She then felt thankful that the council has been stepping up in cleanliness and do further enforcement on it. At the same time she hopes that members of the public have full awareness of the importance in keeping their environment clean and avoid littering.
