Speech by YB Phee Boon Poh, Penang State EXCO for Environment and Welfare cum Vice-Chairman of Penang Green Council on 30th May 2023 at Bilik Nilam, KOMTAR

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!

Once again, we are happy to meet everyone today at this special occasion to celebrate the winners of SPOGOMI World Cup 2023, who will be representing Malaysia in Japan to compete later in November. I would like to congratulate all participants who made time and put your best effort in the competition this morning. It was surely a fun sport and the best way to help our Mother Earth. Penang Green Council is proud to be a part of this competition as this is the first SPOGOMI competition in Malaysia and Penang has been selected as the only state to organise this program. As the co-organiser of this competition, we are happy to see participation of all ages as well as the volunteers that contributed to make this competition happen. It is a collective movement when we talk about protecting our environment and today’s program showed a great example on how we can work together
to save our only planet. We are proud to say that in Penang, there are a few organisations who are actively involved in clean-up activities monthly. For example, the Beach Cleanup Penang and KakiClean groups. We need more attention from the public to combat trash littering issue because attitude is a small thing that can make a big change. Instead of cleaning up, we should stop littering instead to help improve our environment and living quality. We hope that through today’s activities, we can inspire more people to take action not only to only clean up the environment, but also to educate and influence people around us to stop littering.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Penang has a waste per capita of 1.04kg per day? A total of 2300 tonnes waste gets sent to our only landfill Pulau Burung every day. 31.83% of the waste are recyclables (glass, metal, tetrapak, plastic,paper), 50.96% consists of organic waste while other wastes includes unrecyclable, green waste, and household hazardous items.

We are responsible for our own waste and reducing the amount of waste generation is an important way for us to secure the lifespan of our landfill. It is sad to know that food waste remains the highest amount of waste generated by Malaysians, while there are many people around the world are experiencing hunger and food security issue. It is time for us to look into this matter in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for a better world. Do not waste your food and only buy what you need.

Picking up the trash is not an ultimate solution for a cleaner world, but we need to start somewhere. Our daily habits in reducing waste such as segregate your waste, bringing own container and shopping bags, say NO to single-use items, and practicing a zero- waste lifestyle will make a big difference when we keep it as a daily to-do thing. I hope through today’s event, our participants and volunteers are able to understand that it is a must for us to take action together to make a change for the Mother Earth. Let’s inspire others to do the same too. Please continue to join the cleanup teams in Penang to continue the efforts and together we can create a stronger green community in Penang.

Last but not least, once again I would like to thank the organizer, Pink Hibiscus Club for inviting Penang Green Council to co-organise this meaningful event. Thank you MBPP, CEMACS, partners and our sponsors for supporting SPOGOMI Cup Malaysia and it is surely a great success today. Good luck to the winning champion team which will be representing Malaysia to compete in Japan later.

Thank you, Love Penang!