The Plastic Bag Dilemma

"There is no solution in sight for the plastic bag menace as the material is still freely issued, then carelessly discarded, each day"-So says Hilary Chiew in the Startwo on 25th February, 2009.

How can there be a solution when everyone simply thinks that he is not responsible. There are signs at the hyperstore and supermarkets for customers to reduce the use of plastic bags but the cashiers are not told to remind them on checking out. In fact the tellers dish out the bags so generously to separate the wet purchases from the dry ones, often wasting the bags.

If these stores were to collect unused or usable bags upon entry at the store and give out a credit note that could be accumulated and later used as a discount upon payment of the purchases at check out, I think the problem of plastic bags could be solved. Everyone wants to be rewarded for a certain deed. So giving a token reward for returning usable bags would definitely go a long way. The stores should also train their front end personnel to save the environment too. Some form of compensation should be given to them as well as in the practice of awarding the best employee of the month award for selling the most mobile reload for the month. The campaign should be on a long term basis instead of on an ad-hoc basis as usually done for environmental issues.

Tesco has a Green Clubcard reward programme for using the green bag brought from home, but it is not being publicised enough. It is also inconvenient to bring so many bags from home if you want to shop one whole month of groceries. That's why the "No Plastic Bag Campaign" can only succeed in pharmacies, because you don't buy a cartload of goods at a pharmacy.

Plastic bag manufacturers maintain that it is not the bags that pose a problem but what consumers do with them. The plastic bag industry would certainly not support a programme to reduce plastic bag usage as the industry in Malaysia amounts to RM1.6 bilion, 20% of which caters for the domestic market (RM360 million).

So it is up to the customers, the retailers and Municipal Solid Waste Managers with the support from the ruling government, to devise a scheme to stop the landfills from being completely degraded by the plastics. The official statistics show that plastics constitute 24% of the landfill volume, second after food waste.

Imagine how much land is saved from being converted to a landfill if all households, hotels, restaurants, canteens, grocery stores and wet markets were to recycle their plastics and turn all their perishable and food wastes to compost.

Disposable Diapers

Disposable Diapers



Cloth Diapers




When my eldest daughter was born in 1979, one could only get disposable diapers from a small shop in an exclusive neighbourhood in Damansara Heights where foreigners lived. Nowadays, they are easily available even in remote villagers.

When my children were babies, I used disposable diapers only when travelling. We stopped using diapers in the day when they are toilet trained at about 12 to 15 months. When not travelling, I used cloth diapers.The baby slept on a cloth sheet placed on top of a plastic sheet. I had to change the diapers several times throughout the day and night and then had to wash a lot of diapers.

Nowadays, parents do not used cloth diapers at all. The babies use disposable diapers till they could talk. Sometimes, up to 3 years old. I personally feel that once they could communicate, toddlers should be toilet trained.

Which is better,"cloth or disposable"? While using disposables means that lots of plastic and human waste ends up in landfills, cloth diapers use a lot of energy in washing and drying them, whether you do so at home or through a service.

Which method you choose will depend on your personal preference. Some baby nurseries and day care centres prefer children to be in disposable diapers, making that the preferred method for working parents. Lots of parents employ both, switching between cloth and disposables depending on work and travel schedules.

Cloth Diapers: Cloth diapers, laundered at home and line-dried, are the cheapest and greenest way to go. There are greater up-front costs than your other diapering options because you have to invest in diapers and diaper covers, but these investments pay off over time, especially if you plan to have more than one baby.

In the West, there are diapers made of organic cotton, which are more expensive than conventional cotton diapers, but help reduce pesticide use. As organic cotton products are too steep for the budget, used diapers are used as a way to avoid contributing to pesticide-intensive cotton production. Used diapers are not sold in Malaysia.

Alternative Disposable Diapers: For the environmentally concerned parent who prefers disposables, they should look out for brands that use less water, responsibly harvested wood pulp and recycled or compostable or biodegradeable plastics;

Diapering is arguably the most important decision parents could make for the environment and their young children, who are usually in diapers around the clock for at least up to two years.

The average baby goes through 5,000 diapers before being toilet trained. Because 95 percent of these diaper changes are disposable diapers, most of them end up in landfills.

Diapers made up 3.4 million tons of waste, or 2.1 percent of U.S. garbage, in landfills in 1998 -- the last year this information was collected, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Diapers in landfills in underdeveloped countries are especially problematic because they often aren't properly disposed, and excrement leaks into the local water supply.

And contrary to popular belief, no diaper -- not even biodegradable ones -- can break down in an airtight landfill.

As if that weren't enough to keep parents awake at night, cloth diaper services and some researchers bombard the public with news articles on the harmful chemicals in disposable diapers. While it is true that the waste water from washing cloth diapers is benign compared with the sludge of dioxins, solvents and heavy metals in waste water from manufacturing disposable diapers, there is no evidence that sufficient traces of the chemicals remain on the diapers to harm babies. As for the primary feature that gives disposable diapers their appeal -- their ability to absorb a large volume of liquid -- no studies indicate that sodium polyacrylate, the gel-like absorbent substance used in disposables, harms babies wearing the diapers.

The one study that does give cloth diapers a leg up in health benefits for baby boys appeared in the October 2000 issue of the Disease in Childhood medical journal. German researchers found that the scrotal skin temperatures of baby boys were significantly higher when they wore disposable diapers than when they wore cloth. While the scientists called for more research, their article suggested that prolonged use of disposable diapers as infants was an "important factor" contributing to the decline of sperm production among adult males. Proctor & Gamble conducted its own study and also found that scrotal skin temperatures increased for boys in disposable diapers.

Thus for new parents, it may be difficult to decide whether to contribute less to the landfills or to opt for convenience.

Inferno Down Under

All the heat went to Australia this last week, leaving Britain freezing in white snow all over. Scorching temperatures, tinder-dry leaves and strong winds saw huge bush fires engulf parts of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia.The number of human casualties numbering around 180, and counting, could be accounted for but the flora and fauna victims, only God knows. How many kangaroos, possums, kookaburras and wallabies have perished apart from the koalas? The Australians may also need to estimate the destruction to the eucalyptus trees and whatever flora indigenous to Australia.


I found the video and subsequent news flashed all over the world on the Aussie fireman, Dave Tree feeding the wild koala very cute and touching. Isn''t it a coincidence that Tree is seen trying to save the burning trees in Victoria county?

I find it also kind of amusing that the wild koalas have been christened Bob and Sam. A native Australian name like Billa and Bong (as in Billabong)would be more apt. Or Murray and Darling (Rivers)would be more Australian,don't you think?


(Photos and a video of Tree, 44, approaching Sam while talking gently to her, and feeding her water from a plastic bottle as she put her burned claw in his cold, wet hand quickly hit video sharing website YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XSPx7S4jr4), making her an Internet sensation.)

My Ideal Home

My ideal home will have the following features:

• able to harness solar power
• be energy efficient
• can earn cash by supplying electricity to the National grid
• is very cool yet no air conditioning required
• windows and doors to face north or south
• optimises use of natural lighting
• harvests rainwater and recycles it to prevent wastage
• generates minimum solid waste because everything is recycled
• has a beautiful garden using compost from kitchen and garden wastes

The "Building a Green Future" story quoted in the Star yesterday would make my dream achievable in Malaysia now that the Green Building Index to steer architects, building owners and developers towards sustainable construction has been launched. The Index drawn up by the Architects' Association of Malaysia and the Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia, evaluates the eco-friendliness of buildings based on 6 criteria:

1. energy efficiency
2. indoor environmental quality
3. a sustainably managed site
4. optimal use of materials and resources
5. water efficiency
6. innovation

Such certification would benefit the developer as he can use it as an effective marketing tool and if the trend of green building continues, the country would score green points and the task to reduce global warming would be much easier.

It is heartening to note that the Government has introduced fiscal incentives which include import and sales tax exemption on low energy equipment or machinery for companies involved in renewable energy or energy efficiency. There are not much takers because people are still in the dark about such incentives and many feel that it would be a hassle to apply for them.

The National “SURIA 1000” PV programme (1,200 kWp): to catalyse BIPV (Building Integrated Photo Voltaic system)market by targeting the general public and property developers to install BIPV at their premises (homes/buildings), was launched in 2007 and is ongoing. The Suria 1000 project is under the auspices of UNDP. From the report submitted to UNDP in April 2008, it seems that the project is progressing satisfactorily towards achieving its targets.

The ZEO (Zero Energy Office) building built in Bangi is a showcase for sustainable commercial building that is independent of the National grid. ZEO is part of the Suria 1000 project.

I am also happy to note that this project under the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communication and coordinated by a Danish Consultancy firm has been well received and there are now many new residential buildings which are not only aesthetically acceptable but very environmental friendly.

Wish me luck that I would join the league soon and live in my eco-friendly house in an eco- friendly neighbourhood.

No Plastic Bags Campaign

I could not help noticing a lady carrying a bag that says,"Say no to plastic bags" on her shoulder when her other hand was holding a hypermarket plastic bag. She must have got the Say no bag at a pharmacy during one of those campaigns to discourage the use of plastic bags.

In fact this week alone I have declined the plastic bag three times when shopping. I wish the pharmacies will do a year round campaign instead of a short monthly one. In this way, the charity organizations will get steady incomes if the campaign succeeded as the pharmacy will contribute a small portion of the sales to them.

The campaigns by Jusco, Tesco, Giant and Carrefour is on a long term but the idea is not passed on to the customer by the cashiers. They dish out the plastic bags generously despite the notice at the till that plastic bags are precious and should be sparingly used. Even though Tesco gives Green Clubcard points to customers who decline to use the plastic bags, yet the cashiers never give the customer the option.

Maybe these companies should come out with a Green reward system for their cashiers to promote the idea like the reward system for the cashiers for selling mobile reloads.

Meanwhile, I will continue to bring the green bags when I go shopping. But I would be challenged when the bags won't be enough to bring home a whole cart load of groceries.

When Gold Beckons

The Star on 3rd February, 2009 quoted an AP report of how gold miners in Indonesia use mercury to extract gold in polluted ponds. Tens of thousands of remote mining sites have sprouted in Asia, Latin America and Africa where enforcement is lax. Small scale gold mining is the second worst source of mercury pollution in the world, after the burning of fossil fuels.

Since the price of gold has tripled in the last 7 years, these small miners have forsaken their own health in search of wealth.

The tropical rainforest landscape in Kalimantan in Indonesia has been turned to a virtual desert with dots of mercury laced mining ponds.

The continuous use of mercury is a cause of concern as mercury is a neurotoxin. Because it is a slow killer, users are skeptical of its side effects. Toxic effects include damage to the central nervous system, brain, kidney, and lungs and adversely affects the mouth, gum and teeth. Mercury poisoning can result in several diseases, symptoms of which include numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect foetuses in the womb and infants. Exposure over long periods of time or heavy exposure to mercury vapor can result in brain damage and ultimately death. Women who have been exposed to mercury in pregnancy have sometimes given birth to children with serious birth defect.

A small scale mining problem may well add to the global pollution problem if governments concerned remain apathetic.

At Last The Engineers are Looking at Sustainabilty in their profession.

I attended a talk at IEM (Institution of Engineers, Malaysia) on the role of Chemical Engineers in the Biotech Sector. It was a refreshing talk considering when I studied Chemical Engineering, I thought it was not environmental friendly as the petrochemicals which form a large part of the syllabus was a depleting resources. The talk was very interesting, although not many turned up maybe due to the pouring rain. It turned out that the speaker was my junior at University who is now a professor and Dean at the Faculty of Biotechnology Engineering and Biomolecular Sciences at a local university. I was proud that an alumnus of my University is now an expert in Bioprocess Engineering and Environmental Biotechnology who started out as a Chemical Engineer and continued his postgraduate studies both in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.He is in the right place as a source of expert reference in the Malaysian government's plan to include biotechnology as another engine of growth.

Malaysia has a great potential of harnessing energy from agricultural biomass especially from palm oil and at last, finally the government has come to realise this. It may take a few more years for plans to actually work out. I understand that bioethanol for biodiesel can also be extracted from the empty fruit bunch instead of from the fresh fruit bunches only. This would allay the fears that edible oils should not be used for biodiesel.

Another interesting point I learn from the talk is local innovation is necessary for the palm oil industry as we are the pioneers. Even Indonesia is learning from us. An example given was when a machine imported from Germany used in the Wood Industry to shred hardwood fail miserably when used for shredding oil palm empty fruit bunches because of the oil content. A local fabricated machine saved the day.

It was recommended that old processes has to be changed for sustainability. Biosubstitution using natural or synthetically produced bioresources should be employed to improve industrial practices and processes. Engineers will have to work with biotechnologists towards lowering the costs of production and increasing performance using the appropriate technology that is environmental friendly and at the same time profitable.

That is quite a challenge for the engineers attending the meeting when some were trying to learn new terms such as DNA, Genomics, Proteomics, and everything Bio such as bioplastics, biosensors, biocompost, biosugars, bioacids, biofuel and even the reactor is now called a bioreactor!