Category: News

Published: Tuesday, 09 July 2019 19:50

by Ler Wei Rong

28th June 2019, Kuching – EcoKnights was chosen to be one of the 4 recipients for the 11th Shell Malaysia Sustainable Development Grants with the project, Cooking Oil for Cleaning (C4C). The ceremony was held at Tegas Digital Innovation Hub and was officiated by the Deputy Speaker of the Sarawak Legislative Assembly, Yang Berhormat Dato Gerawat Gala. Together at the ceremony was Simon Durkin, Vice President of Shell Malaysia Upstream, and fellow grant recipients, Sabah Cheshire Home and Services, Tropical Rainforest Conservation & Research Centre and D’Athirah Enterprise.

         C4C is a cooking oil recycling programme initiated under the big umbrella of River of Life (ROL), a Malaysian Government project led by the Ministry of Federal Territories and the Department of Irrigation & Drainage (DID). ROL aims to transform the 8 rivers within the Greater KL and Klang Valley region following the 3 principle of river cleaning, river beautification, and commercialisation & tourism. EcoKnights is appointed to its public outreach programme (ROLPOP) that functions in engaging, educating and increasing awareness of the general public, local communities, and learning institutions towards river care and preservation in order to improve water quality & reduce pollution.

         “We aim to engage with B40 communities living within Sungai Klang and Sungai Kerayong catchment and educate them about the impact of oil pollution to the river and environment. Through this initiative, our goal is to reduce 1000 liters of used cooking oil from being improperly disposed into the waterways, while empowering the communities to repurpose it into dishwashing soap. Our long-term plan is to develop a social enterprise which EcoKnights and the communities are able to generate additional income by selling the artisanal soap to consumers and continue the collaboration with Shell to sell it at Shell petrol stations,” said Fadly Bakhtiar, Programme Director of EcoKnights.
         Other than local communities, C4C also plans to recruit volunteers from learning institutions to be part of the river conservation programme. Local businesses and organisations that are interested in making this programme a long-term sustainable business are also welcomed to join. EcoKnights and the C4C team can be reached via info@ecoknights.org.my or their social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.