12-month plastic pollution pilot project in Sandakan to be expanded

 By Olivia Miwil - December 1, 2020 @ 11:17am

Littre traps are installed to collect floating rubbish off Sandakan sea. - Photo courtesy of Future Alam Borneo.

SANDAKAN: Stakeholders in the district are embarking on a pilot project to address plastic pollution off the Sandakan sea.

Dubbed as Sandakan Plastics Solutions Project, the 12-month pilot project involves communities from Kampung Berhala and Kampung Rumah Murah Sim Sim.

"The goal is to collect the floating plastic at sea, record and sort it for processing, whichever is feasible.

"We will be getting our plastic processing setup this month. So, we hope to have it running maybe in January," said Future Alam Borneo spokesperson Anton Ngui.

He added that the plastic processing would convert rubbish into other useful products.

According to the non-governmental organisation, an initial study showed that the waste situation had shown worrying pollution trend along the district coastline.

Ngui said the project involved many partners including Yayasan Hasanah to provide financial support as its 'community partner'.

"Our litter trap is designed by Clear Rivers in the Netherlands which they are also working tirelessly to reduce the trash going into their rivers and canals.

"Our plastic processing machines are built from open source blueprints provided by Precious Plastics.

"We are uncertain how long they will last, as the original designs were built for freshwater conditions,"he said, adding the pilot project would test the shelf-life of the RM6,000 littre trap.

Ngui added that the Sandakan Municipal council had also approached them on commissioning more units for other areas in the district.



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