A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl and a 74-year-old man made an indelible impression when they paired up at the “LET’S PLOGGING with Dr Mecherl” at the Straits Quay in Penang yesterday, showing that the young and old can do their part for the community.
They were among 112 participants who spent last evening picking up rubbish along a stretch of the main road and also a portion of the beach near the scenic marina.
Armed with gloves and a plastic bag provided by the organisers, Abigail Boey, the little girl, showed plenty of zest as she collected discarded items like plastic bottles and papers while walking alongside Alan Solley, a septuagenarian from Perth.
“She treats me like I am her grandfather. I knew her family only recently when they came to my house for a party. Since then, she has been very attached to me.
“This plogging event is a brilliant community programme. I love to take part in it and I love Penang,” said Solley, a former finance editor of Channel 10, an Australian commercial television network. He has been staying in Penang for the past four years under the Malaysia My 2nd Home (MM2H) programme.
State executive councillor Chong Eng, who is in charge of Social Development and non-Islamic Religious Affairs, praised Dr Mecherl Lim for organising the event and all the participants for making the event a success.
“This is an important movement to promote a clean and green Penang. The state government believes that any good project for the society must be supported by the society and we need people to participate.
“Plogging is getting popular now; many citizens in Penang are getting more aware of it. This is our environment. Our environment is our responsibility, not just the MBPP (Penang Island City Council) alone.
“Always start with yourself if you want to change the world and change the climate. We have to change ourselves.
“We want everybody to recycle, reduce and reuse and also to participate in plogging and gotong-royong.
“Keep your environment and Penang, our environment, clean,” Chong Eng stressed in her short speech before she joined the plogging session.
She said plogging is a very essential initiative for Penang to continue to organise.
It started in Sweden before the trend went on to sweep the globe, combining sports exercises like jogging and picking up trash that is found along the jogging route.
According to WWF, Chong Eng said a plastic straw takes 200 years while a plastic bottle takes 450 years to decompose.
She added that each year, 380 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally and half of them are from single-use items.
Plastic waste, she said, threatens wildlife, resulting in many on the verge of extinction.
Penang-born Lim, who had previously organised plogging at Penang Hill and Gottlieb Road, said she was saddened to see aplenty rubbish in the sea on her return from Melbourne where she is staying.
“I love to keep things clean. As we have seen, there is much rubbish around, like plastic bottles and face masks.
“Like what YB Chong Eng said, we’ve to start from self. A change of mindset and a love for public health,” said Lim, a therapy and functional medicine practitioner.
In total, the 112 participants collected 200kg of garbage in less than an hour along the 3.5km route.
Tuesday Hash Kakis sent arguably the biggest contingent of 35 participants.
The event concluded with a dinner and a lucky draw for the participants.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Alissala Thian