By LIM CHIA YING chiaying@thestar.com.my Photo by M. RAJAN
THE Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has started its campaign of recycling used cooking oil into biodiesel with a competition for schools and the community.
The competition, which started on June 27 and ends on Aug 12, is divided into three categories — schools, residents associations or Rukun Tetangga and MBPJ departments.
Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman said so far 13 schools and 10 residents associations had registered for the competition.
Innovative: The Sahabat Komuniti Sungai Sungei Way and residents of Desa Menteri demonstrating how used cooking oil can be made into by-products like soap and candles.
"We have also collected about two tonnes of used cooking oil. Our target is 200 tonnes," said Mohamad Roslan during the official launching of the campaign at 1-Utama last Saturday.
"Those under the three categories who manage to collect the highest weight of used cooking oil will be the winners. They will receive attractive prizes."
CGV Industries Sdn Bhd will be collecting the used cooking oil from participants while also providing recycling bins of 50kg to them. After that, Sime Darby will be converting the used oil into biodiesel.
Although the campaign runs until Aug 12, Mohamad Roslan stressed that it would be an on-going campaign to encourage the public to minimise the disposal of used cooking oil into drains to save our water resources and the environment.
Participants and the public will also be rewarded with RM1.20 for one kg of used oil collected.
"This latest campaign further underlines MBPJ's commitment towards its 5R programme which is reuse, recycle, reduce, refuse and replace which comes under the council's environmental health department.
"In the past, MBPJ has launched various recycling programmes that include collection of drink packets that is still ongoing, recycling of old spectacles, and also collection of obsolete computers in partnership with Dell," said Mohamad Roslan.
The campaign was launched by Selangor tourism, consumer affairs and environment committee chairman Elizabeth Wong, who first mooted the idea of recycling used oil into biodiesel.
She said the state wass formulating a new policy to monitor and control the use of recycled cooking oil, especially on complaints received.
"There was a report by the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry about an illegal syndicate in Pandamaran, Klang, that recycles used cooking oil collected from hotels and restaurants in the Klang Valley, and mixes them with new oil which is then bottled and sold in the markets.
"Therefore when this new policy is out, the guidelines will at least be clear as we want to create public awareness and a crackdown on such illegal activities," said Wong.
It is learnt that 40,000kg of cooking oil worth RM200,000 were confiscated during a raid on the syndicate.
Wong said while people knew about biodiesel, not many were using it.
"Hopefully in future, the state could lead the way where vehicles belonging to the state government and local councils use biodiesel," she added.
The campaign is also carried out with the smart partnership of the Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (LUAS) which had been conducting the programme on a small scale with CGV Industries.
Mohamad Roslan added that MBPJ officers were now patrolling Taman Jaya using electric bicycles.
The council is also planning to use biodiesel on all the vehicles of the enforcement department.
He said MBPJ would also be looking to endorse at this month's full board meeting to provide rebates to residents in Petaling Jaya who show environmental initiatives like installation of the solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems.
For developers, incentives is in the form of their Infrastructure Service Fund, which is a charge imposed on developers like building a flyover or maintaining the road under their development condition.
Meanwhile, Wong also said an initiative was being carried out to elevate the Penchala River in Petaling Jaya from Class 4 (badly contaminated) to Class 2 (clean but needs treatment, at least drinkable) within the next two to three years.
Wong, Mohamad Roslan and MBPJ councillor Chan Chee Kong later went on a tour of the various booths displaying and demonstrating the different uses and by-products made from recycled items, including the used cooking oil.
For the collection of the 5kg bins, participants could call 03-7955 2381, email localagenda21_mbpj@yahoo.com, or visit the secretariat of education and local agenda 21 unit, Environmental Health Department, Level 9, Menara MBPJ, Jalan Tengah, Petaling Jaya.
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