Some of the recyclable waste collected under the Iskandar Malaysia Ecolife Challenge.
A TOTAL of 170 primary schools in Johor have done their bit to protect the environment by recycling 390,000kg of waste, stopping them from entering landfills.
SWM Environment Sdn Bhd corporate general manager Mohd Norlisam Mohd Nordin said the Iskandar Malaysia Ecolife Challenge (IMELC) recognised SJK (C) Kuo Kuang 2 as winner in the recycling category for collecting the most amount of recyclable waste – 33,500kg.
“SJK (C) Foon Yew 2 is in second place after collecting 25,780kg while third-placed SJK (C) Masai collected 19,250kg.
“Similar to previous challenges, most of the recyclable waste collected was paper, amounting to nearly 258,000kg.
A pupil of SJK (C) Tuan Poon in Simpang Renggam bringing a bagful of recyclable items.
“The challenge also saw a significant increase in the number of glass bottles collected, which was about 40,000kg,” he said.
IMELC has been organised by the Johor Education Department, Iskandar Regional Development Authority and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia since 2013.
This year, Iskandar Puteri City Council, SWM Environ-ment, Ranhill SAJ Sdn Bhd and Sunway Iskandar Bhd were also involved.
Mohd Norlisam said IMELC 2023 saw an increase of nearly 40% in the amount of recyclable waste collected compared to last year, which was a record.
Pupils gathering items at SK Sawah Bahru in Segamat.
“The waste collected by the pupils has been increasing in the past seven years.
“This shows that our communication, education and public awareness initiatives conducted at primary schools throughout the state have been very effective,” he added.
He noted that two new schools taking part, SK Taman Bukit Indah and SK Taman Desa Skudai, made it into the top 15 in this year’s challenge.
Mohd Norlisam also said that the waste management concessionaire had allocated RM30,000 for this year’s IMELC in support of Johor Sustainable Education Action Plan and Iskandar Malaysia Low-Carbon Society Climate Change Blueprint 2030.
