I WAS having dinner at a fast-food outlet facing a dustbin. While I was eating, one of the staff members who was carrying a tray filled with used paper boxes and cups, wrappers, straws and chicken bones, moved towards the dustbin to throw all the leftovers in.

The dustbin was already full. She dragged the bin out from the compartment to replace a new garbage bag inside. To some people, that may be very unpleasant because she did not respect the customer who was eating, but it didn’t bother me.

She threw all the waste in, which meant everything was mixed together. Then I started thinking. Just how much waste does this industry produce every day?

I was previously an employee of the same company but at a different outlet. Back then, it was my job to throw all the waste into the waste lodge behind the premises every morning. My outlet was actually among those with a low of volume of customers but I still had to take out 10 bags of garbage or waste every day.

Our Government is very concerned about recycling and waste separation. Millions of ringgit have been spent on campaigning and building facilities, among other things.

And the main target for the programme is domestic waste from households.

The question is, how many of us realise how much waste the fast-food industry contributes? We should encourage this industry to take part in the campaign.

If every single branch separates the waste by its class, such as plastic, paper and organics, we can save a lot.

Please do something about this, don’t just focus on household waste. Save our world.

JOEJOEBINKS,
Kuala Lumpur.

Source: The Star – January 31, 2008