If you are one of my "regulars", you'd know that I am a little bit of an environmentalist, particularly here, in Malaysia where according to latest reports, we recycling something like 1 - 2 percent of our garbage. Garbage is a big problem in Malaysia and dumping goes on literally everywhere. Just have a look at our streets and you'd know what I mean. A clean country, we are not.

Certain members of society here have no qualms whatsoever in dumping their waste into our rivers (just have a look at the Klang river when it is raining heavily.. there is a continuous stream of garbage right down the middle). A couple of years ago, I was in Langkawi on a company trip. I managed to get one snorkeling trip in and despite what the Langkawi tourist department would like you to believe, I can tell you that it was one of the worst trips I'd ever been on. Why? Well, we were LITERALLY swimming in garbage. Turns out that due to the rain the previous night and the subsequent currents, garbage was washed into the sea and ended up in the lagoon where we were. It was DISGUSTING. There was a boat going around picking up the garbage, well, what they could pick up anyways. They didn't have a swimmer in the water though, to pick up the garbage that was stuck between the rocks and semi alive corals. This, I helped them with.

In my last job, I became totally disillusioned with the IT industry and have been looking for a way out and so when the opportunity recently came for me to get into saving the environment, I kind of jumped at it. Right now, I am in the negotiation process.. hey, I can help save the environment and pay some bills in the process why not right? To me, that would be the ULTIMATE job !! When people ask me what I do now, I tell them that I am a garbage collector . In the process of doing some research, I came across the following facts and figures and whilst the article is a bit long, it is a GOOD read, very informative and interesting.. so please read it and if you have children, pass along the facts, make them aware as I am sad to say a large majority of my generation and my predecessors aren't environmentally conscious.. it is the future generations that will be the ones who will HAVE to clean up our mess. We have to understand that we cannot keep exploiting our precious planet the way we are currently doing. In the long run, the planet cannot sustain the abuse. Also, in schools, religious classes, even our parents teach us to "not be selfish", always give and take. In the case of our planet, we are constantly taking and almost never giving. Isn't it about time we return something back?

Anyways, the source for this article is YES! Youth For Environmental Sanity. YES! is a non-profit organisation that educates, inspires and empowers young people to join forces for social justice and environmental sanity. FYI, the facts and figures were not conjured up but intensive research was done and there is an extensive bibliography which I am too lazy to include, but you can get it on their website.

On to the sorry facts

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