KUCHING – Swinburne recently launched the 5Rs Green Campaign with the aim to spread awareness of sustainable lifestyle practices and ultimately, to create an environmentally-friendly community and campus.
Professor Wilson and Dr Melvin signing the pledge to practice the 5Rs – refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle.
Pledging to practice the 5Rs – refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle – Swinburne’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer Professor John Wilson and Guest Speaker Dr Melvin Gumal, Director of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Malaysia Program launched the campaign by signing the Pledge that was created by the Swinburne Sarawak Green Club on a reused bunting.
In his speech, Professor Wilson stressed the importance of practicing environmentally-friendly habits in our daily lives. The University’s first step to encourage staff and students alike was to ban plastic straws on campus from 1 February, and plastic bags and Styrofoam boxes from the food and drink operators on campus from 1 May this year.
Invited to give a talk on the 5Rs and a Sustainable Lifestyle in the 21st Century, Dr Melvin Gumal, the 2014 Whitley Award winner for the conservation in ape habitats, urged the audience to be aware of their own impact on the Earth. Every effort, from using cloth bags instead of accepting plastic bags when shopping to bringing along tiffin carriers instead of expecting hawkers to provide food in Styrofoam or plastic containers, makes a difference.
Dr Gumal also showed the audience some of the rubbish that had been collected during beach clean-ups conducted by WCS and the Sarawak Eco-Warriors and whose volunteers include members of the Swinburne Sarawak Green Club. The rubbish included a huge light bulb that was still intact, and slippers, string, tin cans, and plastic bottles, some of which have been made into artwork that is displayed at awareness booths and events to show people what kinds of waste wind up in our natural waterways or by the roadside when not properly disposed of.
At the Swinburne’s Sarawak campus, recycle bins have been placed at strategic points on campus, allowing staff and students to separate their waste and dispose of plastic bottles and aluminum cans so that they can be recycled appropriately. The Swinburne Sarawak Green Club has also created drop-off boxes for paper waste. Paper that has been used only on one side will be repurposed to create paplets (notebooks) that are donated to children in needy communities, orphanages and non-governmental organisations.
For more information on the Swinburne Sarawak Green Club, email to cyin@swinburne.edu.my or message the Swinburne Sarawak Green Club on Facebook.
For more information about Swinburne, visit www.swinburne.edu.my, Facebook page (@swinburnesarawak), Instagram (@swinburnesarawak), Twitter page (@Swinburne_Swk) or YouTube channel (Swinburne Sarawak).