The Green Ramadan Campaign (GRC) by EcoKnights in partnership with River of Life (ROL) Public Outreach Programme: Phase 3A sees a distribution of 2,500 eco-friendly bags and food containers to the Kampong Bharu Bazaar visitors. The campaign was held in the span of 2 weeks from 10th May until 24th May 2019, while River of Life Ambassador, Maya Karin had made an appearance on 31st May to help promote the campaign and encourage the public to reduce plastic waste.
During the appearance, Maya distributed reusable bags and food containers to the Bazaar Ramadan visitors at Jalan Raja Alang, Kampong Bharu while interacting with the visitors and her fans. She then joined officers from the Corporate Communication Division of Ministry of Federal Territories, members of media, and visitors on fast-breaking session at the Halaman Rumah Warisan, Kampong Bharu. Interview sessions with the media were also carried out there.
In its third consecutive year, the GRC aimed to encourage Bazaar visitors, vendors, and collaborators to reduce single-use plastics and practice a proper management of used cooking oil. Supported by Department of Irrigation and Drainage (JPS), Malay Agricultural Settlement (MAS), and Touch-n-Go E-Wallet, 25 volunteers and 11 Bazaar vendors had participated in this campaign actively.
“We are doing the campaign on a larger scale this year. There are two components in the campaign which are CookingOil4Cleaning and Beg2Bekas. This campaign particularly, we are targeting the top two contributors of river pollution – food waste and plastics pollutions. Our primary goal is to educate and encourage Malaysians to reduce the usage of plastics bags and practice the habit of using reusable bags as an alternative,” said Tuan Haji Md. Khairi, Director of River Basin Management, Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia.
“Ramadan is the time of reflection, spiritual, refocus, and self-improvement. We think it is the proper time for us to be disciplined, practise good deeds and also have a new set of good behaviours that can be dedicated throughout the whole year,” said Fadly Bakhtiar, EcoKnights Programme Director in a previous interview.
In addition to the distribution of reusable bags and food containers, EcoKnights carried out lucky draws to further advance the campaign by encouraging all visitors to use the given items when they purchase food at the Bazaar. 300 Bazaar visitors were actively involved in this campaign as they joined the lucky draws and even brought their own reusable bags, food containers and tumblers to pack their takeaways. In total, more than 200 litres of used cooking oil were safely collected by EcoKnights to be repurposed into soaps and biodiesel, while between 3100 - 3600 single-use plastics were successfully refused.
