Kota Kinabalu: Blu Hope co-founder Simon Christopher commended Daily Express for being an ardent supporter of Blu Hope’s “Water is Life” (WIL) and Sabah Plastic Neutral Education and Awareness Programme launched at the Sabah International Convention Centre recently.
Combined with safe drinking water from Orisa water purifier filters, Blu Hope is introducing stainless steel water bottles for students to move them away from single-use plastic bottles.
“The stainless-steel water bottle is a super-durable reusable water bottle for all students, teachers, staff at each school,” that has signed up for Blu Hope’s ‘Water is Life’ (WIL) and Sabah Plastic Neutral Education and Awareness Programme. Simon praised the Education Department and Ministry for their support.
“They reduce the need for single-use plastic water bottles. The stainless-steel water bottle carries a personal name tag with individual serial number on every bottle,” said Simon. Every bottle comes with an all-important “Top Plastic Tips” messaging.
Blu Hope’s stainless-steel water bottle is expected to be the lead visual or physical “centrepiece” of its “Water is Life!” – Rethinking Plastic mission with printing space on the bottle for branding or visibility options for all core partners with logos.
Among the many sponsors, partners, supporters for Blu Hope’s efforts, four foreign embassies in Kuala Lumpur were listed – the British High Commission, Embassy of France, Embassy of Belgium and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Simon Christopher regrets that the current spike of Omicron variant of Covid-19 has set back the start of Blu Hope’s activities in March 2022 with a focus on Gaya Island as a test case for a success story with Sabah Parks’ support and schools under the care of Ministry of Education and the Education Department on the island. YTL Corporation Berhad, which operates a resort on the island is also a mission partner.
He said there would be a grand inaugural clean up of the city’s beaches.
“Each item of plastic waste that is collected will be categorised, counted and weighed,” Simon said. UMS is a partner to Blu Hope’s mission.
The scientific data collection would enable formulation of better waste management policies to be created and facilities provided to be improved.
“The investigation will be divided into, a pilot phase and a complete survey phase.
“The snapshot of data that will be collected can be compared to the TRACC Pom Pom dataset in order to anchor it to the overall situation in Sabah,” Simon explained.
In future with funding, it was suggested that plastic litter on beaches etc., if given a higher remuneration value than such litter found elsewhere, it would be possible for a collector with a daily 50 kg collection to earn RM100 a day.
The reason why the population living in water villages are not bothered by the littering under their homes and around the coastal vicinity, is because such debris has no value.
Simon said currently why people hardly find metal pieces like aluminium cans littering around beaches or coastal areas probably due to the resell value these scape metals can command at the scrap metal recycler collection depots.
So they are collected for their value. Put a value for plastic and other rubbish, there would be collectors incentivised enough to collect such debris for income.
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