Mayor supports collection for 'no plastic bags'

Kota Kinabalu: The practice by some retail stores to collect 20 sen for plastic bags on no plastic days has received support from the Mayor's office in spite of concerns being raised over the uses of the collection. Mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai on Thursday said he strongly supported efforts that could see a reduction in the use of plastic bags but left it to the goodwill of companies that collected money from its sale to use the monies for charity.

"It is true that only there is a Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry directive to collect the 20 sen.

But it is only for Saturdays," said Yeo of the Federal ministry's 'No Plastic Day' campaign.

"While we do not monitor this, the collection is also not given to anybody but there are possibilities the collection is put into good use like charity.

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"In the meantime, the Environment Action Centre (EAC) Kota Kinabalu has extended the no plastic day campaign to include Sunday and Monday," he explained.

Yeo, who is also the EAC Kota Kinabalu Chairman, said this in reference to the Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) State campaign that was halted in May last year.

This was due to the pending police investigation over the report lodged by the Sabah Environment Protection Association (Sepa) in 2015 involving funds amounting to hundreds of thousands of Ringgit going missing from the EAC account.

Meanwhile, Environment Protection Department Director Datuk Yabi Yangkat clarified that the collection of money from the public by these outlets has no relation to the department and the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry

"It is purely under the Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry's programme.

There are no state ministries, departments or agencies involved," he said. Last week, a social media user, Daniel Doughty, quizzed Sepa over the collection and was told City Hall and the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry had stopped the collection.

However, Yeo clarified that although the State EAC is no longer in operation, the EAC KK is still active, adding that it did not matter if EAC's name is being used to make the collection.

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"We are currently await approval from the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry to revive the 20 sen collection and still in negotiation with them over this.

"Besides it is also not illegal for stores to charge their customers 20 sen for each plastic bags they use," he said.

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