STUDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CARE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Feb 10/Ecobricks/Soccom Tawau

by Soccom Tawau

TAWAU: The youth should be the one who must take the environment seriously because their future is at stake if no actions are taken to tackle the degrading environment. It has direct implications for their well-being both now and in the future.

Msgr Nicholas Ong, the parish priest of Holy Trinity Church, launched the ECOBRICKS HTC organized by the Creation Justice Committee (CJC) at the parish hall on 26^th January 2019. The event attracted 64 participants including students and teachers from SM Holy Trinity, SM Konven St Ursula and SK Holy Trinity.

Msgr Nicholas hoped that schools will be more proactive in educating their students to care for the environment. He said the much talked about plastic rice, plastic noodle and many more artificial foods are quite disturbing.

The organizing chairperson, Magdalind Gabriel said the earth needs to be preserved and protected. Attendees were given a demonstration on how to make ecobricks.

You need to put into 500ml or 1500 ml plastic bottles with clean and dry plastic material such as styrofoam, bags, packaging/food wrappers, straws, cellophane and etc. A stick is used to compress all the discarded plastics into the plastic bottle. The mixture of soft and hard plastic will maximize the density of an ecobrick. A quality ecobrick must have a minimum weight of 200 grams for a 500/600ml bottle and 500 grams for 1500ml.

The campaign is meant to

1) Provide a solution to the habit of disposing plastic rubbish indiscriminately such as littering.

2) Stop the community from polluting the river as it is the main source of water supply.

3) Trap plastics out of the biosphere. Thrown away plastics will break down into tiny pieces and contaminate the area where it is disposed. Degrading plastics will also emit toxic gases which are harmful to the environment and all other living things.

It is an on-going campaign and the public are encouraged to participate. The incentive offered to those who make quality ecobricks according to the standard as follows:

·         5 x 1500ml ecobricks will receive 5kg rice (each 1500ml must weigh a minimum of 500 gm)

·         12 × 500ml ecobricks will receive 5kg rice (each 500ml must weigh a minimum of 200 gm)

The heaviest ecobricks was made by a woman with 5 plastic bottles with a total weight of 2.5kgs to exchange for 5kgs pack of rice from Magdalind.

Ecobricks can be used to substitute bricks and build things and structures for indoor, gardens and parks by using creativity and imagination. Further info, go to www.ecobricks.org.

Agustina Alo (second left/Asst. Secretary), Sr. Julita Joseph FSIC (Spiritual Advisor), Deacon Dafrinn Diwol(second right) and Roland Henry (right/Regional Creation Justice Commission Member of Malaysia-Singapore-Brunei) with outstation parishioner from St. Francis of Assisi Mile 8 checks the ecobrick weigh.