The Ugly Side

We’ve all watched An Inconvenient Truth.

We celebrated Earth Hour by switching off all non-essential electrical items.

We celebrated World Environment Day.

Supermarkets are urging us to use less plastic bags when shopping.

We’ve got more hybrid cars being produced to reduce carbon emissions.

So much is being done for us to save our planet … and we can’t even correctly throw our rubbish away into the right waste recycling containers.

I have seen it with my own eyes … I don’t know if this is the case all over the world but I know for a fact that certain Malaysians (remember the term one bad apple spoils the whole basket) don’t know their plastics from paper from glass from aluminium.

Just walk around any mall in the Klang Valley and chances are you’ll have bins specially marked for recyclable goods. From Ikano Power Center to One Utama to Bangsar Village to KLCC to Pavillion and MidValley … saving the environment by recycling is no longer just a tagline … it’s a regular routine for some (I’m hoping most) of us and I’m glad the malls (where most of us go to most days) provide such facilities to us. Like in MidValley … you can drop off your old newspapers, cardboards, plastic bottles, etc. at the Alam Flora booth at the basement parking area near the autopay machines.

Ikano has some nicely (and clearly) marked bins for your recyclable trash. What did I see just a couple of days ago ? Malaysians (from the selekeh ones to the well dressed ones) were all dumping their plastic bottles in the paper bin, throwing flyers and other paper products in the plastic bin and you got all other manner of things in the glass bin.

What is going on here ? Are we that ignorant to the fact that every little bit helps ? Are we that aloof that we feel “argh … the cleaning staff will sort it out for us” ? Are we that high-and-mighty that we think we don’t need to do anything but everybody else owes us everything ? … including cleaning up the environment ?

Wake up folks … it’s time we watched An Inconvenient Truth again ! At the rate we’re going … we’re not gonna have a planet to call home soon. It’ll be just one giant trash ball !

Do your bit ! Every person has a role to play and every little bit helps. The environment’s not getting any better and with you not recycling only makes things worse. They’ve done their part … they’ve got the facilities to help clean up this ravaged planet … it’s time to change our attitudes because ultimately … we’ve only got ourselves to blame when we complain about the weather and how “it’s not how it used to be”. It’s how it used to be that caused this problem in the first place.

Come one people ! Let’s get to it ! It’s time to save the planet !