It doesn't take money to solve our environmental problems. It only takes you and me to make all the difference in the world. If everyone of us took action today and changed the way we think about things and how we live, the environment can heal.

Think we're talking crazy? Just listen for a minute. If you recycled one aluminium can today, you'd be saving enough energy to run your computer for 3 hours. And that's just ONE can, mind you. If you saved on one plastic bag a day, you'd be saving 365 plastic bags from ending up in the landfill in a year. Imagine if you got 2 or 3 other people doing the same thing? Or imagine if everyone in Malaysia started doing the same things? Just imagine.

By using less of everything and reducing your impact, you contribute in many ways to a better environment. Recycling, conserving water and electricity, composting and other activities are not specific to the issues they tackle - collectively, they help in the battle against major environmental issues like climate change, water scarcity and pollution.    

Okay, so enough imagining! Let's put it into reality and let's start today! Here are a few things you can do at home or in the office to contribute to a sustainable future for Malaysia!

Start recycling!

Paper (receipts, flyers, notices, cards, envelopes), Aluminium Cans, Tins (pet food, canned foods), Plastic bottles (shampoo bottles, detergent bottles, oil containers), Glass bottles (sauces, wine bottles), Cardboards (toilet rolls, tissue boxes, packaging, boxes) and Tetrapaks (milk cartons, juice cartons, box drinks) can all be recycled!

Recycling in Malaysia? Yes it exists! And one of the most conveniently located buy-back recycling counters by Alam Flora is situated on the P1 parking level of Midvalley Shopping Mall (Gate A entrance, under the Metro side). Never noticed it have you? Well it's there and it's usually manned by 2 people everyday from 10am to 6pm, except Thursday. So when you're out shopping, you can bring your recyclables along and drop it off there. They collect everything and they will weigh them and pay you on the spot!

A simple way to begin recycling at home or in the office is to place a few cardboard boxes next to your rubbish bin to collect the different recyclables. If space is an issue you can have just one box to put all the recyclables then seperate them out later. Just by allocating these boxes, you have established a mechanism to start recycling.

There are different prices for different items so please make sure you sort them out properly! It would also make life a lot easier for them if the items were prepared for recycling, so please click here for information on the 'Art of Recycling'. Recycling is not as easy as it sounds. We know it might be tedious and troublesome, but once you make a habit out of it, it's just like second nature. And why should you trouble yourself? Just think about what kind of future you want for yourself and your loved ones.

To downlaod the full list of recycling locations and details for the Klang Valley, please click here!

Conserve water!

Did you know an average person in Malaysia uses up to 500 litres of water per day when the recommended amount by the United Nations is only 165 litres per day? Don't think it's you? Well did you know that a 5 minute shower uses 75 litres of water? What about your 10-minute or 20-minute showers? Water is not as readily available as many people think it is. Sure it rains, and 75% of our Earth is covered with water. But out of all the water in the world, only 0.01% is suitable and available for our drinking purposes.

In Malaysia, water is so cheap that we don't feel the need to conserve it. I mean a household water bill of RM20 is already considered 'exorbitant'. But it should not be this way. The water we're drinking today is the same water the dinosaurs drank. It's like energy - it cannot be created nor destroyed. However, it CAN be polluted and that is the problem. We are contaminating more and more of our water sources and therefore reducing the amount of water available for our use. 97% of our drinking water comes from our rivers, and in Malaysia, 50% of our rivers are considered polluted. And how are you contributing? Well all drains big or small eventually feed directly into a river (without any treatment or cleaning!) so if you've ever thrown anything out your car window or into the drain, it has ended up in the river. So what, you may say? Well think about your children or loved ones and all other future generations who will have to fight over water.

So what can you do? There are many simple things you can do in your daily life to reduce the amount of water you use. You could try to cut down your shower by one minute (time yourself). In that one minute you will be saving many litres of water. You could also try washing your car less, making sure there are no leaking pipes or taps in your house (a leaking tap wastes hundreds of litres of water in a year), not letting the tap run when you are washing your face or brushing your teeth or washing the plates. You can also install water-saving devices like a dual-flush system for your toilets and flow-rate adapters for your taps that will reduce the amount of water coming out at any one time. 

One of the more fundamental things you could do is to start practising rainwater harvesting at home! While this can involve installing an entire system for your home where rainwater will be channeled through pipes to be used for flushing the toilet, and all gardening/outdoor purposes (you can hire a plumber for this), it can also be as simple and putting a few pails out in the open to collect rainwater when it rains! With the rainwater, you can use it to wash your cars, water the plants and wash the outside areas. Yes, it takes more effort to do this, but does it really make sense that we use clean, treated water (that is drinkable once we boil it) to water plants?? What have plants been surviving on before we came along? Good ol' rainwater right?

So start saving water today to ensure our future generations have a shot at living!