SANDAKAN: Tanjung Papat Assemblyman Datuk Frankie Poon said regular rubbish cleaning work in Sim-Sim Low Cost Housing area has been carried out the past two months.
Poon was responding to a Facebook comment that he should clean up Sim-Sim floating trash before advocating eradicating single use plastic.
He called such posts ignorant and queried if they knew what was going on in the housing area in question, in particular Lorong H.
“It also showed an old picture. The problem is not new.
“The floating trash at Lorong H Sim-Sim was caused by the rising tide that brought all the rubbish from the sea and landed at Lorong H because of the topography in that area,” he said.
He added that the tide would bring floating trash to beaches along the coastal areas.
“For regular patrons of the restaurants at Sim-Sim Lorong G and H, they would know what’s going on.
“That most of the rubbish in that area are substantially one-time use rubbish. Thus, the rising tide is the main agent that brought in the rubbish.
“If we stop the one-time rubbish usage, the sea would have less plastic waste.”
“The responsibility should come under Majlis Perbandaran Sandakan (MPS). I have been urging MPS to resolve this rubbish problem, not just sea rubbish, but rubbish on land as well.
“Until now they have not started this work yet on the sea rubbish in Sandakan. In fact, since October, I have been working with a non-governmental organisation to resolve the sea rubbish issue,” he said.
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