A Reporter Reporting from Field

I have heard about sandwich man on the street but I have never seen one before. Not until today when a member of the campaign was walking in the Ramandan Bazaar at Kuah town, holding a cloth bag which read, "GO GREEN". While holding the green bag, he was chanting, "GO Green; no plastic bags; use containers and Langkawi Indah (Beautiful)". He was not exactly a full sandwich man as I expected, at least it served the purpose of advertising the campaign.

Selva, the "sandwich man"

We didn't have a radio deejay this time to help us with the announcement. Therefore, any technique will do. I thought this was fun and so I joined him. Being an absolute introvert person, I was not as loud as Selva, not much of chanting and just busy taking photographs.

How did the crowd respond?

Selva and me "harassing" the crowd ... hee hee

They thought we must have gone mad. Only a handful of traders smiled at us. Some of the locals were either frowning at us or gave us some awkward stares. 

It started off with the gathering of a group from a local college, MRSM, led by Kak Zuraidah and MNS Langkawi chairman, Eric Sinaya. Having to see some support from a group of expatriates was a positive sign. The college students were briefed by Kak Zuraidah and Eric before they distributed those pink and yellow bags. They were to bring the "no plastic bags" messages across especially to those who wants a free bag.

Briefing by Kak Zuraidah to the college students

Vanessa and TC were the handful of "Mat Sallehs" raring to go with their food containers

Students wearing creative looking tags to carry the messages across

Less than forty of us headed into the Ramadan bazaar with our food containers. 

A lady choosing the colour of the bag. May she make good use of the bag.

A victimised plastic bag - Someone was carrying a plastic bag with a bag of syrup, dropped it and the water spilled on the ground

Iris "bungkus" her favorite dish with her food container

A student with a tiffin carrier

What did I bungkus for dinner today? There were so many choices to choose until I didn't know what I wanted to eat. In the end, I opted for nasi campur - rice with ikan keli sambal and a vege dish.

From of the number of participants who turned out for the campaign, minus the college students, the adults there were mostly mainland people working on the island and Mat Sallehs. Whatever happen to those local Langkawians?? I didn't see any authorities joining our campaign today.

It is not an easy habit to change. We grew up with the convenience of using plastic bags and polystyrene to pack our food. I must admit that it was a bit difficult for me initially. In the beginning, I tend to forget to bring my food containers and ended up using plastic bags and the "white coffins" (polystyrene). And feeling guilty after that. 

Langkawi have a long journey to go before the mentality of the locals here can be changed. It will take some time. Therefore, the campaign must continue for at least once a month and may this group grow larger to show the local Langkawians that we are serious about this.

To Kak Zuraidah and team, Chayoh! Chayoh!

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"Ingat Bungkus; Ingat Bekal...PART TWO"

After the success of the first public campaign on "NO (NEW) PLASTICS" which was on 30th March 2011, both of us agreed that this effort must continue on. One campaign is never enough to create an effective impact to change the lifestyle and habit of people asking for new plastic bags.

Here we go again...Kudos to Kak Zuraidah! She is making this happen. This time, she is targeting the Ramandan Bazaar in Kuah town.

Good spot, Kak Zuraidah! A lot of plastics and polystyrene are being used and thrown around there.  

WHEN?

MONDAY, 8TH AUGUST 2011

TIME?

5:30pm

WHERE?

TAPAK RAMADAN, KUAH TOWN

MEETING POINT?

Front of JAI CAFE, KUAH TOWN 

(directly across from the Tapak Ramadan)

 EQUIPMENT TO BRING?

Lots of Food Containers and of course, $$$

A simple suggestion, the first priority is to REDUCE usage of new plastic bags and polystyrene materials. By reducing, then REUSING is possible by bringing your old plastic bags or any reusable bags (eg cloth bag). Lastly, "RECYCLE" those existing plastic or glass materials once their usage are exhausted.

As easy as All Bring Containers (ABC). Please spread the words/emails around for the benefit of making Langkawi a greener island to live. Keep these in your car; old reusable plastic bags, 

food containers or cloth bag or anything you can use to take-away your lunch/dinner. It is not easy to change one's habit or lifestyle, I know. Remember, "Ingat Bungkus, Ingat Bekal".  And this time will be Part 2. 

See you all there for the yummy, delicious food (kuih muih, ikan bakar, ayam golek, murtabak, roti bom, etc), along with your containers.

Link:

"Ingat Bungkus; Ingat Bekal..."

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A Journey of A Thousand Food Containers Begins With A Single Step

Wet, wet, wet. Langkawi had an unusual weather pattern for the month of March 2011 as the month ended with three days of rain. The island needed the rain as I believe this would be a compensation of a very dry spell in year 2010.

Rain or shine, the show must goes on as this little girl in the picture demonstrated how to jiggle in the rain.

What was the turn up like on 30th March 2011?

When Mandy and I arrived at the Tapak Ramadhan in Kuah town, a bus from Kolej Kommuniti was parked there and lots of people were taking shelter from the rain under two huge canopies. The sound system was setup with the radio deejay from Langkawi FM making announcements before the event was officiated by Kak Zuraidah and Dario of ToptoTop.

 Kak Zuraidah with a lady who came all the way from Singapore for this event

Kak Zuraidah, the woman who made this happened and Dario (right) from ToptoTop

Dario gave a short briefing to everyone with a message about plastics should be eliminated, blah... blah... and Kak Zuraidah delivered her message in Bahasa Malaysia. A quick short briefing was followed by giving out cloth bags which were sponsored.

Dario showing a handful of cloth bags to be given away while Kak Zuraidah looked on

The march to the pasar malam after a group photo!

The "gung ho" team

Do you notice a tiffin carrier clamped in her arms?

Some of the participants came unprepared and they "bungkus" (take away) the food bought from the stalls wrapped with those new small and medium plastic bags before tucking them away into those pink cloth bag. Oh well... I guess this kind of event must be done more regularly so that they will eventually get the point.  

This picture below is my highlight:

Amongst the crowd, this lady was spotted carrying an old fashioned rattan basket (my grandma used to have) with the food stuff in the used containers. She is Mandy!

Kak Zuraidah has given me an update that the Langkawi Town Council has suggested to do this similar gathering once a month starting with the pasar malam in Kuah town. Apart from the individuals who practice "Reduce or No Plastics", there are four companies which are doing so: 

1) FOS shop in Langkawi Fair - no plastics given on every Saturday

2) Barkath (book shop) - no plastics given DAILY

3) Wildlife Park - Same as Barkath

4) Petronas Station in Telaga Harbor Park - on every Saturday 

Kak Zuraidah said this in her email to me, "Switzerland took 20 years but with Penang in the lead, I am sure Langkawi will take less than that."

Well, Kak Zuraidah, I totally agree with you on that. One reason being that Langkawi is a lot more smaller than Switzerland. 

Congratulations Kak Zuraidah! Once again, thank you so much for making this event happened. I hope this does not stop here. With regular gathering such as once a month will be a good start in getting the Langkawians to create a clean island. And of course, the love for nature.

To end my post here, please watch this. I love those stick figures cartoon!

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"Ingat Bungkus; Ingat Bekal..."

Simply means "Remember container (referring to a food container) when you think of take-away".

I gave this idea to a five-star resort last year in conjunction of the Environment week and they did it. It was a very easy task to do and zero cost. The staff gathered at a pasar malam (night market) armed with their own food containers, used plastic bags or cloth bag for storage bags, tiffin carriers, etc. In a troop, they marched down the lane of the night market and took away their dinner using their containers. That was only for one day and how effective or impactful can that be?

A pasar malam stall

Not until last year when I met this amazing local lady, Kak Zuraidah; through an invitation to their Raya open house by her brother, Razak.  Kak Zuraidah is currently an active committee member with Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Langkawi chapter. As we chatted during the open house, she spoke with passion of her dream to see Langkawi people doing green practices which led to our idea about gathering an army to march down the pasar malam lane with food containers. She was keen about this and not only we spoke about it but she did all the work to materialize this event.

Why pasar malam (the night market) is the target? 

On those pasar malam days, I observed that most littering on the ground left by the public mostly came from all those small to medium sized of red, green, yellow or white plastic bags. It is the "D-day" when a lot of NEW plastic bags and polystyrene boxes (Styrofoam) were utilised. I don't have the statistics or plastic usage count now but I am sure you can imagine this. Each time a different kind of food is purchased, a new plastic bag will be used. For example, a person walks to a stall that sells an assortment of delicacies. He will chose a few pieces of fried chicken and a NEW plastic bag is used. Then he picked up RM2 of keropok lekor (fried fish crackers) and second NEW plastic bag is used. Hmm... how about a pack of nasi lemak kukus? And a NEW Styrofoam box is used. The list goes on. Imagine he walks to the next store, he does the same thing and together with hundreds of other people doing the same thing too. That is hell of a lot of NEW plastic bags and Styrofoam boxes used in one night! The worse part of it is when some of these irresponsible people threw these NEW plastic bags and Styrofoam boxes onto the ground, into the nearby river, into the drain or even next to a tree after they had filled up their tummies. This is not an unusual sight in Langkawi for I had seen this many times and had seen enough of it!

Also, pasar malam is the spot where most of the Langkawi locals congregate and "lepak".

The green, red, yellow, white small or medium sized new plastic bags

Kak Zuraidah has knocked on doors of NGOs, government agencies and other stakeholders of Langkawi. She has been getting positive response from most of them. Bravo, Zue!!

And so, this event will happen on Wednesday, March 3oth in Kuah town where the pasar malam is happening. Here are the details:

Date: Wednesday, 30th March 2011

Time: 6:00pm-6:30pm

Meeting point: Tapak Ramadhan, Kuah Town

Our society has been dependent on plastics since an Englishman, Alexander Parkes invented the first human-made plastic in 1855. Surprisingly, polystyrene was discovered earlier than plastic, which was in 1835 by a German, Eduard Simon. Plastic is inevitable and it is impossible to create a plastic-less society within a short span of time. Not in my lifetime, at least. 

Most of us would have known about the 3Rs (Recycle, Reuse and Reduce) and there is no need for introduction here. With the 3Rs, which "R" should come first? This is my personal opinion.  The "R"s lining up with the utmost priority should be "Reduce"; follow by "Reuse" and then "Recycle". 

With this pasar malam event, I hope this will create awareness to the locals that the first priority is to REDUCE usage of new plastic bags and polystyrene materials. By reducing, then REUSING is possible by bringing your old plastic bags or any reusable bags (eg cloth bag). Lastly, "RECYCLE" those existing plastic or glass materials once their usage are exhausted.

Bring any kind of containers. As long as new plastic bags or styrofoam boxes can be avoided

Kak Zuraidah's wishlist on this day will be having lots and lots of people participating together with a perfect weather. In order for this effort to be effective and impactful, this gathering ought to be done continuously, for example, once a month or even twice a month. An once off event tend to make a purpose to be forgotten; homosapiens' habit. Best of luck to you, Kak Zuraidah and thank you so much for making this happen.

As I mentioned earlier, this effort is the easiest task for the public to do and zero cost. As easy as All Bring Containers (ABC). Please spread the words/emails around for the benefit of making Langkawi a greener island to live. Keep these in your car; old reusable plastic bags, food containers or cloth bag or anything you can use to take-away your lunch/dinner. Remember, "Ingat Bungkus, Ingat Bekal". 

Links:
1) Wikipedia about Plastic
2) Wikipedia about Alexander Parkes
3) The History of Polystrene

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Green "Bungkus"

Found! Hawker stalls that are still practicing the old fashioned way of "tapau"-ing or "bungkus" (take away) the food.

We were taken by Yvoone, another raptor counter, to the old hawker food center next to the taxi stand or the morning market area in Taiping town, Perak. It was  tough for me to decide what to eat and which stall to choose from. Upon seeing this "uncle" (stall owner) scooping the fried noodles into a green leaf with newspaper to wrap the whole thing, I was excited.

And so I ordered his fried kuey teow (flat noodles).

I must admit that I was hungry as well and so I didn't manage to take any pictures of the fried noodles. Sorry.

So, what was so special about the old-fashioned "bungkus"?

From the picture above, there are only 2 pieces of items: one is the green leaf inside and the outside is the newspaper. The green leaf is not banana leaf as most of us perceived. Banana leaves are commonly used to wrap food especially our nasi lemak. For this case, this leaf is from Simpoh Air tree (Dillenia suffruticosa). Please see the bottom of this post for the tree information.

As the tradition method of takeaways is slowly losing out due to the convenient of polystyrene boxes and plastic bags, I was glad to see that these stalls are still around.

With a filled and happy tummy, I was up and about taking these pictures and the local grannys were curious if I was a Myanmar because I didn't speak Mandarin nor Hokkien. I told them that I am a Japanese and they laughed.


After taking the picture of this "uncle" (below picture), I realised that not only his stall is practicing this method. Most stalls in this center was doing the same (only for fried or dried stuffs). Finally, it was good to eat from these stalls that serve you food with real plates, bowls and cutleries. Thanks, Yvoone for taking us there. We will be back there!

Links:

1. Naturia.per.sg: Simpoh Air

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There is Light at the End of this Long Tunnel

I was walking towards the stationery shop during the heavy downpour this afternoon. I was passing an eatery shop and then I started drooling over those "evil looking" curry puffs on the metal seive above the big wok with hot oil. Then something else caught my eyes. Brown paper bags!! Wow! I couldn't resist... I couldn't...

This may be an old story but this is my first encounter in Langkawi with a "goreng-goreng" trader using paper bags for takeaways instead of those light green small plastic bags. I have patronised this shop many times and they decided to opt the green way. Good on them!

If you are coming to Kuah town and graving for tasty curry puffs, take a drive to Persiaran Bunga Raya, Langkawi Mall and look for Pustaka Su Sian Yen (stationery shop). The eatery shop is "Kafetaria Ikhsan" which sells rice with selection of Malay dishes (nasi campur) is just next to the stationery shop. You can't miss it, it is just next to each other.

The young boy who sold the curry puffs even asked me if I can just do with the paper bag only. He did not even offer a plastic bag to put the paper bag with the curry puffs. Well done, kiddo!

These curry puffs packed in the paper bag did taste better, no "plastic" flavour. Also, the bag absorbed the extra oil.

This may be a common practise on the mainland, for example on Fraser's Hills, where the goreng pisang stalls are using paper bags for takeaways. I really hope more stalls on Langkawi would follow such example. Perhaps there are and I'm not aware of. If anyone here on this island do know of such stalls, please share with us. We would prefer to patronise stalls that are trying their best to be "Green".

Guess what? I'm seeing light at end of the long tunnel.

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