Council’s no plastic bag campaign met with many challenges since inception, says Miri mayor

MIRI (July 29): The ‘No Plastic Bag’ campaign first introduced by the Miri City Council (MCC) back in 2009 has not been progressing well, said Miri Mayor Adam Yii.

Responding to an enquiry by The Borneo Post after a full council meeting today, he said the campaign was launched with good intentions to discourage the public from using plastic bags but met many challenges, including miscommunication between vendors and the council.

“One of the ways to dissuade the public (from using plastic bags) is charging RM0.20 per plastic bag and over a certain period of time, the accumulated amount from the sale of plastic bags was quite a lot.

“The collected money was actually used by the council on events and activities to promote awareness against using plastic bags,” he said.

However, he said what followed was disputes between the council and vendors on the use of the money, and allegations of vendors not sharing the money which distracted from the original purpose.

“I feel we should not get too distracted by the money, which became the reason the collaboration between the council and vendors became very acrimonious,” he told reporters during a press conference for the ‘Bring Your Own Bottle’ campaign.

In the battle against single-use plastic bags, he emphasised the importance of getting people to identify, recognise and make the effort to reduce the use of plastic.

“The more effective way is to bring this matter to the Sarawak Assembly Meeting and have our government pass a certain restriction against the use of plastic bags.

“This would empower the local councils with bigger authority to prohibit the use of single-use plastics,” he said, adding he would bring this issue to the state assembly soon.

Yii also announced at the press conference that MCC is partnering with Sar-Alam Indah (SAI) Sdn Bhd, a wastewater management solutions provider, for the ‘BYOB’ campaign.

The campaign aims to encourage people to bring their reuseable bottles to any events or activities to reduce the dependence on single-use plastic bottles, which are non-biodegradable and contribute towards land and river pollution.

He explained the campaign was inspired by recent studies by the National Institute of Health, which detected the presence of microplastics in drinking waters posing potential risks to environment and human health.

“It is crucial to protect our rivers from these pollutants and ensure their sustainability and safety for future generations.

“The partnership between MCC and SAI marks a significant step towards protecting our environment and promoting sustainable practices citywide,” he said.

With the rollout of the campaign, SAI will be distributing stainless steel bottles featuring prominent tourist landmarks in Miri to MCC staff members, which Yii commended for instilling sustainable practices within the council, and this initiative will be extended to the wider community in subsequent phases of the campaign.