Wild Asia - From Bottles to Diapers - National River Clean Up Postmortem

The National River Clean Up held recently saw volunteers not only enjoying time outdoors with families but also being part of a collective effort to safeguard Malaysian rivers. Volunteers share their experience with SHARYN SHUFIYAN.

On June 6th, 2010, a group of 468 civic-conscious Malaysians gathered together to collect trash at various picnic river spots across Peninsular Malaysia for the National River Clean Up (NCRU). The group comprised of corporations, high school alumni, rotary club, sport fishing organizations and many more to celebrate the recent World Environmental Day. Organized by the Kelah Association of Malaysia (KAGUM) the event aimed to heighten environmental awareness and stewardship among the public.

The successful event resulted in a total of 2,807 kg of trash, made up primarily of plastic mineral bottles, cans, glass bottles and baby diapers. Some of the volunteers even picked up underwear, clothes, lunch box and food wrappers left by irresponsible visitors.

The biggest felon is plastic mineral bottles with a total of 1446 bottles collected. KAGUM President Aznir Abdul Malek was not surprised. "Plastic bottles, especially mineral water bottles, posed the biggest polluter. This seems to support the current scenario, where some 68 million mineral water bottles are discarded worldwide everyday!"

Many of the volunteers were first-time participants of a river clean up. Aznir adds, "It was certainly an eye opener for the first-timer to see the extent of the rubbish problem at our river picnic areas and the general attitude of the public regarding environmental conservation. At the same time, they discovered how fun it was doing a noble activity like river cleaning whilst enjoying a group picnic at the venue."

For volunteer Lim Chin Yung, 37, the clean up has heightened his awareness of conservation and he was amazed at how much trash they picked up within an hour even though the area looks relatively clean. Helping out at Sungai Tua as part of the Chung Hwa Alumni, he adds that, "Education is the key. We should encourage schools to organize these events to promote ideas on environmental conservation and instill awareness at a young age."

Participating in a collective effort to safeguard the environment proved to be not just a fun activity, but one that is fulfilling and satisfactory. The groups were cheered on after they finished the clean ups and the piled up trash hit a sense of reality of the state of public rivers in Malaysia.

Not a stranger to environmental conservation, Ili Amira Zolkifli, 24, says it is heartbreaking to see the condition of rivers in some places. Helping out at Sungai Kedondong in Batang Kali which hailed as the river with most trash at 584kg, she found out that baby diapers are a common find in river clean ups. "I thought diapers were the worst but actually I had to pick up shredded polystyrene which was very hard." In her area, a total of 85 diapers were picked up. Not only are diapers unhygienic, but the materials are not degradable and may have negative effects not just on the environment but to the people that frequent the picnic spots.

Being one of the younger participants, Ili Amira thinks that there is a lack of youth participation. "A way to appeal to young people is to team up with other influential sponsors that specialize in youth activities and to promote this event through media and education institutions like schools, universities, colleges. It's a fun activity and they will love it because I did. With the right way and approach I'm sure more young people would love to participate."

KAGUM first initiated a River Clean-Up (RCU) activity in 2005 with only 5 people participating to clean Sungai Tekala in Semenyih. Since then, RCUs have been a regular monthly activity among members of KAGUM. The RCU activities were a way to address these issues and getting the public involved in stewardship. Inspired by Ian Kiernan who pioneered the Clean-Up Australia Day and Clean-Up the World, KAGUM eventually spurred the first National Clean-Up Day (NCRU) in June 2009.

With the collected data, the second NCRU will pave the way to an engagement with regulators and manufacturers about the impact of these items on the environment, and to collaborate on how to resolve the problem.

Ultimately, it is hoped that this event will spur Clean Up Malaysia where all Malaysians join forces to not only clean up the rivers, but also beaches, side-roads and drains. KAGUM has also set a new target for next year's clean up to attract 1000 participants and to include participants internationally.

Public awareness on environmental conservation in Malaysia is still considerably low as opposed to other Asian countries such as Thailand and Philippines but the National River Clean Up is a step forward towards achieving a proactive and vanguard nation.

Break Down of Trash Collected

Total weight collected: 2,807 kg

Plastic bottles: 1446 (mainly mineral water bottles)

Cans: 632

Glass bottles: 628 (mainly beer/spirit bottles)

Diapers: 438