Written by Annisa Shabrina, edited by Shahirah Anuar

25 February 2023 marked the 2021 – 2022 final activity for EcoKnights’ flagship programme – Guardians Against Garbage (GAG), in collaboration with Coway Malaysia. The programme concluded with 40 minutes of plogging  activity — jogging while picking up trash — around the Sungai Bunus area. Special cheeky volunteers from Nicol David Organisation (NDO) joined the plogging activity, including Datuk Nicol David herself, founder of NDO and Mariana De Reyes,  CEO of NDO. A total of 34 young volunteers, mostly kids aged 8 years old from NDO, and a few staff from NDO as well as Coway Malaysia participated in the session.

The plogging started at around 9.20 am, where the volunteers were divided into two groups with different routes, with each route traversing around 0.75 km. The kids were so excited, leaping around and looking for trash with their gloves, trash pickers, and plastic bags. Their hard work paid off with a total of 7.12 kg of waste collected including mostly  plastics (food containers and plastic cups), aluminium cans, as well as cigarette butts. This engagement included the younger audience, providing exposure and planting the spirit of appreciation for the beauty of nature while keeping public spaces clean should be a common practice in the community.

It had been a productive day, so the team took a short break by filling their empty stomachs with meals and refreshing their throats with cold drinks before proceeding to the next agenda. The kids kept their energy up and finished the day by visiting Kebun Komuniti Bandar Sungai Bunus, where Tn. Haji Ahmad Shamsul greeted them warmly and led them on a tour at the community garden. The children had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the on-ground work at the community garden  as well as the variety of plants,herbs and flowers there throughout the tour. This activity aims to instill love for the environment among the younger generation and teach them the importance of protecting other living creatures, including plants, as it will have a huge positive impact on the relationship between humans and Mother Earth in the end.

The kids were learning about plants in Kebun Bandar Sungai Bunus with great interest and excitement

Since its launch on the 11th of October 2021, GAG, in collaboration with Coway Malaysia, has successfully collected a total of 2085.62 kg of waste from various cleanups, empowered by 101 public volunteers, 86 Coway volunteers, and 30 NDO volunteers. In addition to the cleanup, we were able to hold two hands-on workshops with Coway team as part of our awareness efforts. A bit of flashback to the year 2022, we also took part in Coway Run 2022 as a booth partner. This is a huge accomplishment because we were not only cleaning the public spaces, but it is also one step towards creating more sustainable waste management actions by raising community awareness through effective engagement activities with the public and Coway Malaysia.

We would like to thank Coway Malaysia for the wonderful partnership that has allowed this programme to succeed. Indeed, none of this would be possible without the invaluable assistance by the volunteers, who have been especially helpful in collecting waste and spreading the message to the public that small actions can have a big positive impact on our environment. Hopefully, this initiative will continue to have a significant impact on the public’s awareness of proper waste management.

If you would like to help the environment or learn more about empowering projects, please contact us at info@ecoknights.org.my or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter (@EcoKnights).