Friday January 7, 2011
Return of the tiffin carrier

GEORGE TOWN: Penang will soon launch a campaign to promote tiffin carriers for food takeaways.

State Local Government and Traffic Manage-ment Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said that back in the old days, people would ta pau (take away) food using tiffin carriers instead of plastic bags.

“If we can return to the old habit, it will be a positive move for the environment,” he said at a press conference here yesterday.

The campaign comes in the wake of the state government implementing the ‘No Free Plastic Bags’ ruling which came into force on Jan 1.

Chow said the state would organise “at least one green activity” every week as part of the ‘Cleaner, Greener Penang’ initiative.

He said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had committed to taking part in at least four such activities per month.

“From next month, the local councils will endeavour to organise more green events.

“We would like to hold them more often but getting sponsors and all quarters together is a challenge.

“All the while, we have been organising the activities ourselves so it’s tough,” he said.

Chow said an evaluation would be conducted on the effectiveness of the ‘Cleaner, Greener Penang’ initiative to identify the areas which needed improvement.

“We launched the initiative on May 22 last year so in April, we will conduct an evaluation of our strengths and weaknesses.

“When we started, there was no state allocation but now we’ve been given RM200,000 for 2011,” he said.

On the ban on horse riding and beach buggies (all-terrain vehicles) in Batu Ferringhi, Chow said a meeting with the Penang Municipal Council to review the entire exercise would be held today.

It was earlier reported that the state had directed the council to come down hard on illegal beach touts following a decision to ban horse riding and beach buggies from this month.

Source: The Star Publications - here