"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."- John Dewey.
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Tuesday, January 08, 2008
No more non bio-degradable styrofoam at USM
At last, some positive news at one of your public universities. USM has banned the use of non-biodegradable styrofoam food containers. Kudos to USM's VC Prof Dzulkifli for this move. Our public universities should embrace these kinds of socially responsible activities instead of policing its own students for taking part in political activities or engaging in chest beating banner raising activities.
KM, you forgotten about the ' cheap red plastic bags' that are used to carry the polystyrene container. They are worst!
ReplyDeleteOr for the matter the thousands of black garden trash bags used to clean the campus.
dear anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI think you're taking this the wrong way. Instead of pinpointing out all the things they are 'not' doing, it might be better to focus on the things that they 'are' doing to help the situation.
Even with the decision to ban the use of styrofoam/polystyrene, I can imagine the surprise and protests coming from the students who have grown used to it. Cutting out the use of polystyrene is, thus by far, not only reducing the amount (or volume) of non-biodegradable trash being produce, it's also a change of habits and mindset.
And in regards to THAT, consequently redusing the amount of black trash bags being used due to the decreasing amount of trash.
Instead of going 'cold turkey' on the students by banning everything, they've made a big leap by trying to reduce the causes, one by one. Maybe they will even provide recycled paper bags in exchange for those 'cheap red plastic bags' sometime in the near future.
It is probably wise to try and take a look at this matter from a more optimistic and positive POV and you'll realize that, in the long term, it IS a good effort. I, for one, am in support of this.
-Eliyana-
I don't know if this is the case in public universities, but I'd like to see more recycling bins in place not only on campuses, but also in society at large. The new Monash campus (my alma mater), thankfully, has this in place.
ReplyDeletePerhaps someone could enlighten me as to whether other campuses have similar policies in place?
Malaysia has a deep sh*t problem. Look at the whole issue : and the awareness did not start from the student.
ReplyDeleteMalaysia don't care to build civic society? Perhaps.