8/4/2010

Maktab Sains Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan (MSPSBS) officially launched the 'Bring-Your-Own Awareness and Fundraising Week' , a pilot project designed by the students for the benefit of the school and the community.

While the concept of recycling has long been an important issue for the school, with an abundance of recycling bins around the campus, the students took it upon themselves to spur the cause further, by actively including the entire school population.

Following the launch, students, teachers and staff are encouraged to bring their own containers, mugs, plates and cutlery to the school canteen and forgo the use of plastic bags and utensils on every Thursday for the term.

"Littering of disposable cups, containers and plastic bags have been seen everywhere around campus and the use of plastics should be reduced," noted the Acting Principal, Dk Sarimah Pg Hj Ahmad, as she addressed over a thousand students while strongly advising them to make use of recycling bins.

She was not discouraged by this sight but instead used the opportunity to urge the school community to play an active role in taking up the challenge of 'Reducing, Reusing and Recycling'. "Let us start fresh and continue to make a small change for our cleaner, greener college and environment," she added.

Meanwhile, one of the main organisers of the event, Ms Rodziah Haji Abdul Wahab, revealed the club's intention to extend the campaign to two days a week in the upcoming term. "We might even introduce a charging system for every use of disposable plastic items from the canteen," she said.

For this week's campaign, however, she stressed that all students say `No' to plastic bags and to 'Bring your own'. "We want this campaign to be a huge success but we need the full support and cooperation from everyone in the school," said one of the students,

Siti Nurul Nadiah. The 15-year-old is part of the group of students responsible for pioneering the campaign. "1 believes it is simply just a matter of time for responsible behaviour such as this to be well-adapted to everyday life, but today, nevertheless, is definitely an accomplishment.

Another proud member of the team is 17-year-old Mohammad Fazrul Wafiy, who hopes that the newly introduced BYO programme will make the community more environmentally conscious and raise the level of awareness in regards to their actions.