BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE Beach Bunch is hoping to cooperate with the Department of Environment, Parks and Recreation under the Ministry of Development, the Brunei Tourism and the Ministry of Health in the effort to at least get one of the Brunei beaches to achieve the “Blue Flag” award.

This was voiced by Rizan Latif, secretariat and co-founder of the Beach Bunch during a talk entitled “Plastic debris and its impacts on the coastal environment” held at the Ministry of Development.

The talk which was opened to public, was held last night in conjunction with the ministry’s Customer Day.

He said, ” we would like to get the government agencies (cooperation). We are promoting this and we like to spearhead this award to one of our beaches.”

Blue Flag award is an eco-label for beaches runs under the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). It is given to beaches that meet specific set of criteria concerning environmental information and education, water quality, safety and services, and environmental management.

A non-governmental organisation, the Beach Bunch’s mission is to protect Brunei’s beaches from pollution particularly plastic bottles and bags. The group had collected a staggering 872kg of waste, out of which 140kg were plastic, within two hours during the Jerudong beach clean-up in April this year.

Why is plastic harmful to the environment? asked Rizan. “Plastic never degrades completely. Some say plastic degrades after 400 or 1,000 years but in truth, they degrades until they become little pallets, which is as small as plankton. So they are never actually gone,” he explained.

The direct impacts include visual amenity and harms to animals and plants. “Animals affected by plastic include sea turtles, birds and fish. They cannot differentiate between a jelly fish and a plastic bag,” he said.

Moreover, the cost of recycling is high. “It is not cheap to recycle and it is labour-intensive as well. Brunei do have recycling plants, but there are no pure recycling plants,” he said, adding, “we know what are the problems. Now we have to ask ourselves what are the solutions. There is no one solution, but multiple.”

“The most effective one is to eliminate it. Stop at the source of plastic generation. Ask yourself, is it really necessary to use plastic bags or bottles? Substitute them with reusable and normal bags. Bring your own bag,” Rizan urged.

Finally, use law to regulate. “This is the least effective but the final action. Use law and penalty to punish litterbugs ,” he added.

The Brunei Times

• Working mothers get advice
• Programme to strengthen students religious knowledge
• Massive campaign to highlight environment initiatives
• QCC as platform for excellence
• Shards of glass in a jar of coffee