Plastic bottle ban in the works for Sabah

A ban on plastic bottles at all marine parks in Sabah is in the works.

State Tourism, Culture and Envi ronment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said the parks which came under his ministry’s jurisdiction had been asked to set a deadline to enforce the ban.

“We know that such a ban is difficult to implement so we need to have a time frame to gradually work towards a complete ban,” he said, when launching an environmental campaign in Pulau Mamutik, which is part of the Tunku Abdul Marine Park yesterday.

The Project Aware plastic bottle reduction and coral reef conservation campaign was organised jointly by Sabah Parks and Borneo Divers Sdn Bhd, a local diving firm.

Masidi said Sabah Parks officials would be holding meetings with tour and diving companies to see how the ban could be implemented.

“We have had enough of plastic bottles being dumped indiscriminately around the islands,” he said, adding that his ministry was also looking at limiting the number of visitors to the Marine Park islands to protect its environment.

In this regard, Masidi said Sabah Parks had been told to do a study to find out the ideal number of visitors in accordance to the capacity of these islands.

“At the moment, there is no ceiling on the number of visitors to any of the islands.”

“If 10,000 people want to go to Pulau Mamutik, which is only 12ha in size, there is little we can do about it,” said Masidi.

He said his ministry was looking at the situation in Pulau Redang where it was reported that the environment including coral reefs had been adversely affected by the excessive numbers of visitors.

“So, we have to look at ways at controlling the number of visitors to the islands especially the more popular ones like Mamutik,” he added.

Masidi also announced an immediate ban on visitors feeding fish at marine parks.

He said the practice introduced by tour companies could affect water quality at the islands.

courtesy of the Star