JOHOR BAHRU: In order to raise awareness on how to recycle correctly, five boys from SMK Sultan Ismail (SSI) took a bold step to create recycling bins for visitors at Hutan Bandar.

The boys know that the public already has a general idea on the dangers of plastic, but decided that they the people just need an incentive to push them to take action and make a change.

The five, Teo Sky, 15, Ang Chuen Yang, 14, Liviniss Thirumalai Chelvam, 14, Adam Mikhail Zailan, 14 and Wong Voei Ton, 14 went on a special mission to design special recycling bins for the public to dispose their plastic stuff.

The boys are participating in a Toyota Eco Youth competition and they are now in the final stage where they will be competing in the national level in Putrajaya.

Speaking in an interview, the group’s spokesperson Teo Sky said, “It’s a challenge we took and our ultimate dream is to win at the national level and we are leaving no stone unturned,”

The boys chose Hutan Bandar due to lack of conservation and environmental awareness.

Their campaign also involved repainting worn-down facilities with murals about the environment as well as introducing the concept of recycling to visitors at Hutan Bandar where they designed special chicken wire bin in the form of a cactus plant.

“We also added some quality of live improvements such as installing leaf capturing nets on drains and repainting old wooden signs to enhance the overall quality and atmosphere of Hutan Bandar,” said Teo.

He stressed that their main agenda is to create awareness on the impact of plastic waste to the environment.

He also mentioned that they need to instil in the public about the dangers of reducing plastic waste and that the people need to take action and make a change.

“We have made a turtle model where visitors can hang their plastic bags on them and this can provide more interesting experience for visitors and children to reduce plastic waste,” he explained.

Besides the students, parents also chipped in to help collect the plastic waste and also draw the murals.

“The parents were very supportive in our campaign and this goes to show a collaborative effort,” he said.

As for the murals the boys and parents decided to restore the worn-down walls and increase awareness towards environmental conservation.

As for the reduction of plastic waste, they had the idea from the very start that was to increase conservation efforts and improve the quality of Hutan Bandar to bring in more visitors.

He said this in turn gives them a wider audience to spread awareness about recycling and reducing plastic waste.

Not mincing his words, Teo said, the main inspiration though was the current state of the world with landfills filling up and waste pollution that affects the environment.

Furthermore, he pointed out that another part of their project is the increase of conservation efforts in this urban forest.

“We want to improve the experience of visitors at Hutan Bandar as reviews from before has proven that the quality of Hutan Bandar is deteriorating and requires action to be taken,” he said.

With more public satisfaction, he said, they are able to gather more interest towards their project and that is when they can start to instill recycling concepts in the minds of the public.

On their immediate task, he said they are planning to create an app to sustain their project in the long term. The app, he said, will have a point system so that they are able to motivate more people to take part in any future activities.

In their course of work, the boys had some big challenges with low participation rate, high cost as well as the extreme weather which disrupts the planning of their activities.

Awareness without action is unproductive, Tee elaborated.

“We have definitely seen more people being aware of recycling and reaching out to us. But it is not enough, and we need more people to do it,” he said.

“I would like to share a quote, ‘waste is not something you throw away, it is a valuable resource to our ecosystem.’

“We should continue recycling so we have less waste in landfills and oceans, and more forests and marine life.

“Our future generations deserve a chance to see how beautiful Johor is,” he added.

For the boys, the biggest achievement was completing the murals across all the seating areas and walls at the playground in Hutan Bandar.

They are delighted to gather enough interest of the Landscape Office to assist them in their project. The office has sent people to water jet the playground equipment and restore the wooden roofing of the seating areas.

Meanwhile Razali Tamadi, the school’s principal has always encouraged students to participate in extra- curricular events. He believes that learning is not only confined within the four walls of the classroom as learning outside the classroom helps students learn in a more engaging and interactive way thus gaining new experiences.

The young SSI team has incorporated art in preserving the environment. They have embraced creativity by building cactus and turtle sculptures and brought the beauty of nature into their learning activities.

SMK Sultan Ismail was established in 1960 and was recognized as a High Performance School in 2012. It emphasis on excellence in academic achievements and extra-curricular activities with the strong cooperation from parents and teachers.