DID you know that the 14.125 billion cigarette butts Malaysians toss away annually could actually be the secret ingredient to more energy-efficient housing?
A research has shown that adding just 1% of these butts into clay bricks can slash the energy needed to fire them by 10%.
Similarly, the 5.475 billion face masks we’ve discarded since 2020 have the potential to make our concrete roads significantly stronger and more durable.
Yet, as a society, we rarely see this potential. Waste management is not just a you-and-me problem, but an issue that everyone has to bear. We still categorise waste management as a “throw first, pick up second” concept, rarely thinking twice before binning our rubbish.
After attending the talk “Waste Management: Stories Beyond the Bin – the Past, Present, and Future” by Dr Theng Lee Chong at the Asia ESG Summit last year, I was astounded by how much we are overlooking, that waste management is of utmost important, and why Malaysians needs to take accountability.
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