source from : TheStar ( SABAH & SARAWAK Saturday, 17 Jul 2021 )
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/07/17/plastic-free-sabah-school
KOTA KINABALU: When school reopens and face-to-face classes resume, teachers in SMK Balung Tawau hope to see most of their students adopting new environmentally friendly practices such as going plastic-free.
Its principal Arbin Setta said this is in response to a “challenge” from NGO 1StopBorneo Wildlife that is trying to push for a plastic-free community in Sabah, starting with schools.
“1StopBorneo Wildlife asked if we would be interested in participating in its programme to realise this vision.
“Seeing how important the issue of environmental awareness is for children, we decided to take up the challenge,” he said when contacted.
He said there are three main aspects to this including to stop the use of plastics and to put more emphasis on wildlife protection via the Wildlife Chapter adoption programme.
Arbin said they will get details on how to go about it including encouraging students to bring proper water bottles or reusable ones to school instead of relying on single-use plastic bottles and instal ling water dispensers.
“We will start by doing away with sales of bottled mineral water in the canteen,” he said.
While doing that, the school will push for minimal use of plastics in its daily operations and gradually get it to zero-plastic use in school.
“This of course would take years but we have to start somewhere,” Arbin said, adding that online classes are still taking place so teachers will be tasked with getting the message out first before its implementation later when physical classes resume.
As for the Wildlife Chapter adoption, he said this will be managed by their wildlife and environment-related clubs.
About 2,000 people including 1,850 Forms One to Six students and school staff members are expected to participate in the programmes.
1StopBorneo Wildlife founder Shavez Cheema said these programmes are done in partnership with Now No More Plastic in Our Waters (NOW).
He said their aim is to have 20 schools go plastic bag-free.
A petition at https://www.change.org/p/minister-of-tourism-sabah-borneo-tanpa-plastik to support this initiative was created and has now garnered over 20,000 signatures.
“In Malaysia, school children know more about African lions, zebras and giraffes than their own native animals so we hope to create a generation of children and young adults who are more aware of this and want to protect the flora and fauna in their home towns,” he said.