By Amira Syafiqa
GOMBAK, 13 March 2019 – Stories that showed pictures of turtles and fishes suffocated by plastic bags and oceans polluted with heaps of garbage have been widespread on social media, thus has brought these issues on the spotlight.
Disposal of plastic-based materials into the oceans has caused death to the aquatic life especially turtles and other marine mammals such as whales and dolphins.
Waste materials, particularly plastics, are known to be the major environmental hazard to the world including Malaysia. Plastic materials cannot be easily decomposed and it can affect not only aquatic livings but also human beings.
A brief talk conducted by the President of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences Students’ Society (IRKHSSS), Amirul Nazmi Bin Azrymi, on Monday (12 March) on the topic “Waste management and single-used plastic”, was to raise awareness among International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) students on how to help reduce usage of the waste .
Waste management is a process of organising and proper handling and disposing of garbage and other wastes produced by human activities.
This talk also focused on domestic waste which is generated as a result of day-to-day use either from the person who produced the waste or collected on the behalf of local government as a part of waste collection and disposal system.
Amirul Nazmi Bin Azrymi said, “Reducing plastic usage is a heavy encouragement by university, so we should try to get metal straws to reduce the use of plastic straws which could harm the environment.”
He added, “Taking steps to use metal straws instead of plastic straws is important as we cannot prevent the danger of plastic usage without our own efforts.” Moreover, he stated, “We should try our best to take care of this amanah to preserve the good environment.”
Even though it was a brief talk, the information was successfully conveyed by the speaker to create greater consciousness among the students to take steps to sustain the environment by making efforts to reduce the waste materials.
The talk, organised by Students’ Representative Council (SRC) 2018/2019 in collaboration with International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Eco Club, took place at HS dry area.. ***