This is the world’s first ever eco friendly environmental campaign purpose-built ship 🚢. Many people would heard of GreenPeace organisation, an independent owned NGO campaigning various world and regional issues in it’s peaceful manner. The alarming plastic pollution topic is one of their key agenda for Malaysia. Rainbow Warrior is their approaching in action of campaigning environmental destruction and their platform to organise dialogues with local authorities, NGOs and public.
It was the first time the ship anchored-at-sea in Port Klang, Malaysia from June 2 – 5 2018. Zero Waste Malaysia was invited to be part of the exclusive tour on the Rainbow Warrior, and be part of exhibitors, in creating awareness Zero Waste Lifestyle 🍃. The exhibition was presented in an interactive manner, with hands-on, and fun activities for the crowd to experience the relevance in their daily life.
We guided participants to experience 5Rs in the following sequence;
- Refuse
- The most effective manner to avoid single use plastic, is to refuse 🙅. By bringing our own shopping bags, food containers, or water bottle can effectively avoid unnecessary plastic packaging. In this station, we demonstrated how to make a bin liner using newspaper, so we can avoid using plastic bags for trash.
- Reduce
- Do we need that new pair of shoes just because it’s the latest in trend? The answer is no. The harsh truth is fashion industry has become the second largest contributor to environmental pollution. There’re many options we can reduce our carbon footprint, such as shop for pre-loved items at second hand shop, share a ride, taking public transport to place, like how we advocate everyone to do to come to this event.
- Reuse
- Our volunteer members showcased various ways on how to make your own cloth bags out from old t – shirts. We could reuse or transform many things at home and turn it to be something practical!
- Our volunteer members showcased various ways on how to make your own cloth bags out from old t – shirts. We could reuse or transform many things at home and turn it to be something practical!
- Recycle
- This stage is quite commonly known to public, yet there’s many misconception about the recycling system in Malaysia. Our team curated some infographics to advocate the plastic categories and the type of plastic waste that are capable to be recycled ♻️.
- This stage is quite commonly known to public, yet there’s many misconception about the recycling system in Malaysia. Our team curated some infographics to advocate the plastic categories and the type of plastic waste that are capable to be recycled ♻️.
- Rot
- This is the part on managing our organic waste effectively than sending them to the landfill. We deep dived into composting method on what can / cannot be composted, and how to troubleshoot a smelly compost pile.
Along with the 5R stations, we had our usual zero waste mini exhibition displaying zero waste on – the – go, and other zero waste alternatives. This section wrapped up with the Malaysia’s zero waste map we’ve created by using Google Maps. This is very handy when we wish to locate for zero waste vendors across all locations, and users may also contribute new vendors to build the coverage.
Aside from that, we also sell some zero waste alternatives such as reusable water bottle, mesh bag and etc. Thanks for the supplies from A Bit Less bulk store 🙇. All the remaining profit from the sales proceed to the organization. We also lucky enough to receive some donation from the public! Thanks guys! You all are awesome!
On the next day of event, we were given an opportunities for opening up few slots for an exclusive ship tour for zero waste community! It was an amazing experience to be on board into Rainbow Warrior, greeted by a team of passionate crew members to show all of us around starting from the side deck till the captain cockpit!
Did I also mention that the ship crew members use white vinegar and baking soda to do all the cleaning on the ship? 😬 #nonastychemical
Contributor: Jun
Event date: 2 June – 3 June 2018