By Justin Lim Kok Ming, INTI International College Penang
INTI International College Penang’s Centre of Pre-University Studies joined, with 29 students and staff, Malaysia Biotechnology Students’ Association (MYBIOSA) in a nationwide beach clean-up campaign involving 4 states – Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Sarawak, on 17 September.
The event was in conjunction with Malaysia Day and the venue for Penang’s beach clean-up was Adverlabs Beach, a short 10-minute hike from the entrance of Penang National Park.
Following a brief introduction by Mr. Ru Shen, the organizer’s representative, participants began their journey to the beach for a cleaning activity. Despite the scorching morning sun, all participants diligently scoured around the beach looking for every single piece of waste their eyes could see.
In addition, participants were given a list of “side quests” to complete, such as photographing monkeys and photobombing other participants. By doing this, it added the element of fun and gave a pleasant twist to the mundane activity of picking up trash.
The waste collected was weighed and separated into recyclable and non-recyclable categories. Although the beach appeared relatively clean at a glance, participants were able to collect 5kg of waste.
Before the cleanup activity ended, a game of tag was held as a team building exercise. Everyone’s faces were certainly tired but much more prominent was their look of satisfaction from knowing that they had contributed to making the world a cleaner place, one place at a time.