Wednesday 3 March 2010

Short & Sweet: Episode 6 - Environment

Last year, I initiated a “bring your container to tah-pau” exercise and most of my colleagues follow suit. I think I prevented about 100 Styrofoam containers from polluting the environment last year.

Did you do anything for the environment lately?


P/S: Earth hour and pausing for the environment while posing for camera doesn’t count.
P/S/S: Though most of my colleagues have lost the momentum, I have not
.


1 year ago…
12C 4 HE

23 comments:

Dangerous Variable said...

The lack of laws, the lack of enforcement, people will have no will power to change even if they know what damage plastics and poly will do to our planet.

The problem is that nobody cares. If the government doesn't care and big companies are still paying token efforts, nothing will happen.

All these cost money :)

Monyet King said...

Hi Zewt,
The story of the environmental impacts of plastic bags / styrofoam and other "synthetic" materials is actually quite complicated.

The simplistic view is that plastics are bad for the environment - which is obviously simplistic. If one looks at entire life-cycles of a material, the end answers are never clear. Are the environmental benefits offered by plastic bags (better packaging means less spoilage meaning less production less use of other materials) more than the problems caused (filling up of landfills)... I do not think anyone has the answers.

In the environmental field, there is a long-standing debate about which is more environment-friendly : disposable diapers or reusable cotton napkins. The jury is still out (although most lay people will say that the disposable diapers are more damaging).

End of the day, the reducing consumption intensities is more important. The No-Plastic Bag Saturdays in Selangor and Penang are actually quite funny to watch. The intentions are obviously noble. But just go to any shopping mall and watch. The tonnes and tonnes of consumer products people buy have thousands of times of environmental impacts compared to the plastic bags that are used to carry them.

Having worked in this field for over 20 years, I have seen that a lot of people have noble intentions about protecting the environment. But unfortunately, due to ignorance or misinformaiton, they tend to do things which have the opposite effects.

Won't bore you with this anymore
Cheers

deus X machina said...

earth hour???huh...stupid campaign i guess...they think switch off the lamp for 1 hour can save the earth....???

Monyet King said...

BTW,
I will be observing Earth Hour.

Terra Shield said...

I don't ta-pau, so I haven't been contributing to polystyrene packs thus far... but that's a wonderful idea. Will do that if I ever have to resort to ta-pauing food.

To Deus: Well, it's not only the lights, you know... it's everything, including electronics. Some countries take it very seriously, you know... even lights from famous landmarks/important govt buildings are switched off. I doubt it's a stupid campaign.

Anonymous said...

zewt, i find this post is rather inspiring... but i guess many ppl out there also doing their own part in helping the environment. like, bringing grocery bag than using plastic bag, walk than ride...etc.

but well done zewt!!!

p/s: how come u didnt post anything about ur new car since u bought it? .... :)

the nurse.

immabastard said...

Again fuckers come up with tiny changes hoping that it'd impact in a big way.

Real impact to environment must come from our own engineering capabilities.

Setakat saving plastik and tutup lampu. Fark it.

TG said...

I always shake my head, when I see in supermarket every single apple wrapped... we use too much bags and boxes for a very small product. Such a waste, governments should regulate such nonsense.

TG said...

@immabastard

Exactly!

jam said...

I do car pooling today going out to the town with colleagues for office matters. Does that count?

missironic said...

Shamelessly guilty. Didn't do much except, try to recycle papers when possible and say no to plastic bags when possible. Boohoo!

Huei said...

dun eat sharksfin considered or not? =P

i always dun take plastic bag when i buy my food...but my food is wrapped in plastic wrapper (bread..sushi from jusco..)!! heheh

never turn on lights in the afternoon (unless it's raining n all dark)..use less tissue..reuse paper..buy biodegradable rubbish plastic bags (i hope they r really biodegradable!) hehehh

j_yenn said...

the country needs more "green" zewts around....

Anonymous said...

Since this year began, I have killed trees.

doc said...

does thinking of a hybrid car count??

Unicorn Girl said...

Good idea eh zewt & typical Malaysian - must tau pau after makan besar ! :)

Jo. said...

Earth Hour is to raise Awareness to Save The Earth.So no, its not a stupid campaign :)

Shaun said...

Do not reproduce more than required.

zewt said...

Dangerous Variable - yeah, just like CSR, if it means more cost with no publicity... no way.

Planet of the Monyets - thanks for the info. i certainly need to learn more from you, the expert. yeah, sometimes, i see some of the things ppl do for the environment, the actual result actually backfires.

deus X machina - precisely, it's just a glamour event.

Terra Shield - i think it's all about the result of the campaign. too much effort in making it a glamour event. and remember to do that next time you tah pao!

anon aka the nurse - i think we shuld do our part no matter how small it is. hmmm... the nurse? my car? nothing great lah...

zewt said...

immabastard - it's a start. tutup lampu maybe not there... saving plastik means a lot.

MKL - yeah man!! i think that is so wasteful. the amount of plastic and paper we used!!! i just dont know why they have to do all that.

jam - certainly mate!

missironic - better than nothing lor.

Huei - that's not for environment leh... that's preserving animals. ok lah... sort of too. biode plastic bags... nice!

zewt said...

j_yenn - you can be one too!

The Envoy - sigh...

doc - hahaha... yeah man!

Unicorn Girl - why after makan besar ah?

Jo. - never said it's stupid.

Shaun - kids? or sp**m? haha!

Jo. said...

sorry, that was for deus X machina :)

ANYWAY.good work on the blog :)

zewt said...

Jo. - opppss... my bad...