KOTA KINABALU: A group of UCSF students consisting of 12 members accompanied by 2 lecturers carried out a marine sustainability awareness project at Tanjung Aru Beach, Sabah, on May 6, 2023.
The project mainly involved separating trash at the Tanjung Aru Marine Ecosystem (TAME), where the waste materials were sorted into recyclable and non-recyclable materials.
Recyclable materials included plastics, glass, and paper, while non-recyclable materials included food waste, diapers, among others.
They also helped with painting the building facility.
TAME was founded by a Marine Biologist, Japson Wong on December 2020 to raise awareness about the environment.
For this project, TAME was a significant collaborator because they had the facility as a recycling centre that would help teach students to separate the recyclable items to be sent over for upcycling.
They emphasized the need to separate waste materials and dispose of them appropriately to reduce environmental pollution.
Moreover, recyclable items that were sent by the public were going through a slow process of upcycling due to the lack of workforce at TAME.
To ensure that the environmental awareness amongst the public was achieved, this community service group would also organize a talk in collaboration with TAME and Institute Borneo Sabah (IBS) which would take place on May 9, 2023 (Tuesday).
The talk would be given by Michael Yap, a marine biologist from Tanjung Aru Marine Ecosystem. Simultaneously, Institute Borneo Sabah woukd assist this initiative by organizing the talk in UCSF.
The student project leader, Razzsyarizand Pius Rindu said that the community service project involving the separation of trash at the TAME facility centre was a success.
The group of volunteers managed to separate waste materials, dispose of them appropriately, and raise awareness among the public on the importance of proper waste disposal.
The project contributed to improving the cleanliness of the facility centre and reducing environmental pollution.
The supervising lecturer, Mr William Ak Bunyau said “We are proud that our students chose TAME for their project. We also want to thank TAME for this wonderful opportunity and we hope that more students and members of the community will volunteer or join activities at this center.”
The Vice Chancellor, Dr Rafiq Idris congratulated the students and all those who were involved.
“It is recommended that similar projects be carried out in TAME facility center again to improve their cleanliness and reduce environmental pollution, as well as ensuring that more students and members of the community to volunteer in TAME, as UCSF projects are not focused on one-off programmes. Hence, we want to see more TAME-UCSF activities in the future.”-pr/BNN
