KUCHING: Sarawak will adopt and advocate the 3Rs principle of reduce, reuse, and recycle in its waste management system.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said the state had already commissioned a study to review the current policies and legislation governing waste generation and disposal management.
“We want to inculcate the culture of reducing waste,” he said during the eighth Chief Minister’s Environmental Award (CMEA) 2017/2018 presentation at Imperial Hotel on Wednesday night.
He said that the 3Rs principle was an essential component of an environmentally responsible consumer behaviour.
“In advanced countries like Canada, their waste management goes beyond the 3Rs,” he said.
He said in Canada, whenever possible, waste reduction is the preferable option.
“If practicable, if waste is produced, every effort should be made to reuse it,” he said.
He stressed that recycling was the third option in the waste management hierarchy.
“Although recycling does help to conserve resources and reduce wastes, it is important to remember that there are economic and environmental costs associated with waste collection and recycling.
“For this reason, recycling should only be considered for waste which cannot be reduced or reused,” he said.
He added that it may be possible to recover materials or energy from waste which cannot be reduced, reused, or recycled.
Regarding the city, which is currently dubbed as clean and healthy, he said that might not last long due to the fast growing population.
“We are already challenged with traffic jams, waste generation, and rapid growth of urban population,” he said.
Therefore, Abang Johari pointed out that besides addressing waste management, there was a need to look into tackling the challenges before they became major problems.
He said to improve air quality, light rail trains, hydrogen fuel buses, electric vehicles and biofuel vehicles were among the options for mitigation.
“The state government is not promoting diesel buses because we want our cities to be clean for the citizens and tourists,” he said, adding that in order for cities to be sustainable, there was a need to have more green buildings such as the one belonging to the Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB).
“The challenge is for property and realty developers to advocate green buildings/construction or sustainable buildings in terms of design, structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life cycle.”
On the awards, the presentation was organised by the Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) and Sarawak Business Federation (SBF) as incentives to encourage good stewardship in environmental protection and management in the private and public sectors in Sarawak.
