By Amiera Dayana Hilmy Zaki - 6th October 2019 @ 6.00 pm
PENANG: Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was once again called by Penang state government to be part of the volunteers of Penang Trash Free Hill. It is a programme where hikers would hike Bukit Bendera and collect trashes all along the route until the top. The trashes then would be weighed by the volunteers of USM and data would be collected. This year, there were eight routes opened for the programme - Moon Gate (Station 5), Moon Gate (Bukit Cendana), Botanical Garden entrance (Botanical Reservoir), Botanical Garden (Station 46), Lower Station (Temple Road - Heritage Trail), Hye Keat Estate (Middle Station), Air Itam (Middle Station), Taman Rimba (Teluk Bahang - Laksamana Trail).
After a series of meetings and discussions between the representatives of Penang Hill Corporation and Centre for Global Sustainability Studies (CGSS), Kampus Sejahtera was honoured by the second opportunity to be in the same programme, this time around, in 2019. The programme was held on 29th September 2019 at Bukit Bendera, Pulau Pinang.
Penang Trash Free Hill 2019 was joined by 40 volunteers from Kampus Sejahtera and five staff from CGSS, including Dr Suzyrman Sibly, the Director of CGSS. They arrived at Bukit Bendera station at 7.50 am, with their breakfast and Penang Trash Free Hill shirts were also distributed that morning before they went to the top by funicular.
The first group of hikers came from Route 6 (Hye Keat Estate - Middle Station) and contributed to the most plastic waste collected. The total amount of the plastic waste data for Route 6 was 144.0 kg which was the largest contributor in plastic waste data which the round total from all routes was 249.50 kg. Plastic was ranked first in the waste collection table with the heaviest weight, which came from bottles, wraps, plastic bags and containers.
As plastic was the most material collected, materials in Others category came in second. The materials included dry leaves, sticks, fruit peels, and latex, which weighed 89.30 kg. Paper became the third most collected waste with the weight of 78.20 kg, meanwhile Alumininum came in fourth weighed 43.80 kg. Glass became the least material collected with the total weight of 19.80 kg. The process of waiting the hikers, and segregating and weighing the wastes took about 4 hours as it ended before lunch time.
The volunteers were also helped by the experienced staff of Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang (MBPP), whom helped to remove dangerous animals such as scorpions, spiders and centipedes from the segregating area which were released back to their habitat. Even though those animals found were hazardous, it was still important to place them back in the forest to maintain the sustainability and biodiversity of Bukit Bendera.
It is hoped that after joining this state-level programme, the volunteers would open-handedly join other programmes and events by Kampus Sejahtera as there are a lot to expect from the student organisation for this year. Huge thanks to the state government for the second opportunity in Penang Trash Free Hill Programme, MBPP staff for their help, and also to the hikers for contributing to the cleanliness of Bukit Bendera, Pulau Pinang.
