McEnvironment
June 8th, 2007
upon return from their weekly midnight jaunt to McDonalds, my brothers kindly presented me with an Oreo McFlurry, with extra Oreo bits, just the way i like it. despite the fact that it was a tad too well-done on the melted side, i was nevertheless grateful.
but for the longest time, i sat on the couch sloshing my thawing mcflurry around, thinking of polar ice caps that are suffering the same fate as my ice cream. such big thoughts eh, for someone sitting in a heavily air-conditioned living room, holding a mass-produced plastic cup in her hand, while all the lights in her bedroom have been indolently left on, none of them energy-saving lightbulbs at that. also, once again, yet another day has gone by where i did not succeed in my little personal pledge of cutting back on usage of tissue paper. i swear that despite all my best intentions, it is so difficult to use just one tissue to blot your face when you get out of the shower – i have to use, like, 5. and i take 3 showers a day. that makes 15 tissues just from post-shower wet-face blotting.
and do i really have to waste that much water taking 3 showers a day??? i think of the 80% of Ethiopian population who don’t have clean drinking water, and my wealthy aunt in Melbourne who cant wash her luxury cars due to the water crisis in Australia, and i feel a little bad. when the environment is in trouble, even the rich are poor.
it was World Environment Day a couple of days ago. someone said to me, “aiyah i’m just one person wat, why should i do anything about environment? not like other people care oso.” and all i did was playfully ask her to wear something green that day. i dont know what makes me sadder, the ignorance or the apathy. or the arrogance. i saw someone spit out of his car window this evening. i sincerely wish people would stop this fucking disgusting habit of theirs.
i know like, maybe, 6 other people in my life who actively try to consume less fossil fuels, refuse to use styrofoam or berate restaurant proprietors for running an environmentally unfriendly facility. if you count the guy at my gym who complained very loudly at the front desk about all the plastic bags that the gym management generously (or so they think) leaves in the lockers for their patrons, then 7. if you count the gay couple behind me in the supermarket queue who were bitching about Carrefour’s ridiculous entrance policy where they bag all your non-Carrefour stuff in Carrefour plastic bags, then 9. if you count the Cathay Pacific air stewardess who lightly told a passenger that the airlines prefers not to give out decks of playing cards because they want to save trees, then 10.
so collectively between the 11 of us, if we all use both sides of the paper when we print, we’d probably be able to save, i donno, 10 trees a year or something. or a 100. and assuming each of us drink 3 can drinks a week, that makes 33 a week, and 1716 aluminum cans recycled a year. not too bad for just 11 people eh.
not exactly pertaining to the environment, but here’s a blog tangent before i forget it : i want to work in McDonalds. not because i’ll get free Oreo Mcflurries with extra cookie bits (though that is undeniably a very big perk), but because i wanna see the look on my McCustomers’ faces when i gleefully tell them that their Chicken McNuggets should really be called Corn McNuggets, because they’re made out of corn (almost 60%) more than they are made out of chicken. isnt that funny! hahaha!
okay everybody go plant a tree today. i’m gonna go turn off all the indolently left-on non-energy saving lightbulbs in my bedroom :)
and i want one of those ‘I’m Not A Plastic Bag’ bags.
on another note, sometimes i cannot get over how unbelievably lucky blessed i am.
Entry Filed under: Rants
38 Comments Add your own
1. soundwave and megatron | June 8th, 2007 at 6:43 am
i recycle half my garbage. anything made of paper glass or has the recycle logo goes into the recyling bag. half my home’s garbage is now recycled. i used to have 2 black bags a week. now it’s one. the rest is recycled. but then again, i live in london and the council actually encourages recycling.
2. Jeff from LA | June 8th, 2007 at 6:45 am
You take 3 showers a day? Why? Is it really that humid in Malaysia?
3. pinkpau | June 8th, 2007 at 6:49 am
soundwave and megatron : i think that is very, very cool of you. my mere city alone, KL, generates 3000 tonnes of garbage a day, and yet more and more land is being claimed to make room for more landfills. it is unbelievable how little people here recycle. i do wish our govt was more like yours, maybe that would get some asses moving. but then again, execution is one thing, and apathy is another.
jeff : it isnt, i just really like my showers. i’m terrible when it comes to wasting water; my boyfriend has to constantly come into the bathroom and turn off the tap while i’m brushing my teeth coz i always leave the water running =(
4. Artificially Tim Tam | June 8th, 2007 at 8:38 am
1) go buy the green village grocer reusable shopping bags so you don’t need to use plastic bags at super markets
2) the ‘i’m not a plastic bag’ bag is only rm55 so go reserve la.
3) stop drinking beer from a bottle or can. get it on tap so you don’t waste containers…
5. pinkpau | June 8th, 2007 at 8:41 am
1) one step ahead of u! already have it
2) I KNOW I CANNOT WAIT OH MY GOD GOING TO GO RESERVE TODAY btw how u know abt it wan ur not even in kl
3) hahahahha clever clever. i will tell my bartender that the next time i see him
4) stop reading blogs when ur supposed to be working
6. Johann | June 8th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Think global, act local. :)
I think it’s going to take a while to get the whole recycling message across in many asian cities. I only started noticing people recycling in HK in the past year, and even then it is only in a very small number of places. And they do have the once monthly (?) no-plastic-bag day.
7. hw | June 8th, 2007 at 10:11 am
It’s quite appalling how ignorant the people in Malaysia are about recycling. What happened to all the recycling PSAs that were everywhere a few years ago? Well it’s not like they help much but still better than none now.
In the States, everyone recycles. Heck you see beggars on the streets reusing plastic bags and junk that were thrown away by other people. When I was staying/studying in Berkeley, California, there were recycling bins everywhere. The trash bins on the street had recycling ‘compartments’ in them where you can throw your plastic or glass or paper junk. And when people take out the trash from their homes, there’s always a pile for paper, one for glass/cans, another for the usual trash you don’t recycle. Quite a number of department stores / supermarkets only provide paper bags, while some give customers an option for either.
While I do agree that the govt should do more about recycling with all the taxpayer’s money, we could start getting our friends/families/grandpa/grandma/neighbors to recycle.
8. Az1 | June 8th, 2007 at 10:33 am
I recycle. Good thing that there’s a recycle centre near my house, so at least once a week I send all the recycleable items to be recycled and most of my neighbours recycles too.
I’m abit concerned about all the trees being chopped up in our rural areas. Development is one thing, illegal logging is another. No wonder it’s so hot in Malaysia nowadays. You know it’s hot when you go to Genting and you’re not freezing cold anymore. *sigh*
9. Lisan | June 8th, 2007 at 10:45 am
see. you shud have went for p2p. tsktsk. im setting up a campaign about saving water. will update you more on that. then mebbe you’d do more than just turn off the taps while you are brushing your teeth. lol.
10. Kevin | June 8th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Hahah I really don’t understand people who leave the tap open when they brush their teeth.
I on the tap…wet my toothbrush then turn it off…brush my teeth
Spit them out…open the tap to wash them away, turn them off and then bring my cup over…turn it on..fill it, turn it off and gargle my mouth..then turn the tap on again..refill it and turn it off
Man..like damn a lot of work like that hhaahah.
In mas, I actually have a big plastic pail to collect some water which i used it to ‘flush’ after I pee..instead of using the toilet’s flush.
So i think i save quite a lot of water over my lifetime hahaha
I always try to turn off the lights whenever possible but that’s more to saving on my electricity bill hahahaha but I’m still a nature lover =)
11. Jeff from LA | June 8th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I agree with hw, in the US, the gov’t pretty much forces us to either recycle or pay for it. All plastic bottles, i.e. soda bottles, milk bottles, etc. have a redemption value, i.e. a recycling tax put on it which you can get refunded if you recycle the bottle afterwards. It adds up pretty fast too, since its about U.S. $.08 each bottle in CA, and I love to buy bottled water in packs of 36.
Also another smart thing our local community does is that we are given two trash cans – a regular trash can and a recycling can to use, so it makes it somewhat easier to recycle, i.e. you can just leave your recyclables to be picked up on the curb, just like your regular trash.
On the other hand, we still have very far to go. Plastic shopping bags are still common at groceries. Many people are too lazy to walk the few feet extra to find a recycling can instead of using the trash can, but hopefully things are slightly improving.
Good for you for being environmentally conscious though and for bringing up this interesting topic.
12. rae | June 8th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
er..what’s wrong with using a towel to wipe ur face everytime u get outta shower?
then u wont use that much tissues anymore.
wont blame u for the showers tho. the weather’s too hot.
13. aya | June 8th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
i get very paranoid when friends litter. even ashes from their cigarettes! i’d pick up and find the nearest bin nearby. i get accused for being paranoid and i alone can’t change the world. >=| and also the infamous “alaa… look at that *points at the cleaner sweeping the floor* if you picked up everything, that aunty’d be jobless.” :(
but i feels good reading that someone actually feels the same.
and im also annoyed by the fact that people leave their trays at McDs in malaysia. somehow, i think… its… uneducated. especially when its university students my age. :( but i do know its a malaysian culture. am i contradicting myself? O_o
14. entwined | June 8th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
i pre-ordered my “i’m not a plastic bag” but i tak nak already la :P i honestly don’t think i’m gonna use it for grocery shopping if i got it, so i’d rather save the money and get a nicer bag. heehee.
are you working out at fitness first? their plastic bags are bio-degradable (according to the words printed on it) :P
and why do you use tissues to blot your face?! whatever happened to the good old face towels?
err…i brush my teeth the way kevin does, but i damn cannot tahan not flushing. all the germs and bacteria. eww. so i flush. bleh…all my water savings from brushing gone down the loo.
and MCCHICKEN is made of CORN?! what?! but they taste so delicious. :( *cheated*
i can’t live without air conditioner! sorry ozone :( :( hahah after exams i’m going to move into MPH. hahah free books *cough* and free air cond. bliss.
*scrolls* wah i just realised my comment is shitass long. er. okbye. heh.
15. jane | June 8th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
why do u use tissue for post-shower wet-face blotting? don’t you have a face towel? or hanky?
16. sheon | June 8th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
why tissue to blot? why cant you just use a face towel? js wondering….
17. k0k | June 8th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
There’s still Mars when Earth goes down in smoke. Martian won’t mind, right?
Most of the shops in my town in India here uses paper bags anyway. Plastic is sort of like some state-of-the-art, cutting edge technology to them.
18. nisha | June 8th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Yea time to do something for our environment! :)
Taiwan is doing pretty well in recycling and the ’say no to plastic bags’ movement! :) I’m sure we are able to do tt too ! :)
19. Lalita | June 8th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
We recycle all our paper (non-confidential ones le) and glass. We are also trying to recycle our alli cans but you are right, it is much easier here in England compared to in Malaysia. BUT it can still be done!
I know everyone else has commented on the post shower tissues and brushing teeth and it’s not very nice of me to add my two sen worth but I am curious lah!
Why don’t you have a designated face towel? Using less tissues does make a difference. I am ashamed to admit I used to leave the tap running while I brushed teeth but don’t do it anymore cos I watched a documentary on how much water you waste. And water is so precious, we should try to conserve as much as poss. Try it slowly – you will get used to brushing with turning on and off like Kevin. =)
20. lishun | June 8th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
i steal the discarded wrongly-photostated papers near the photostating machine and do my notes on them. hehe.
and large handbags are good. not only can you proudly tell the cashier “cik, tak perlu beg plastik’, you can also help your friends carry their stuff too. good thing large bags are still in fashion. whee!
21. Ken | June 8th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
mabbe you can try sheryl crow’s suggestion… use 1 toilet paper square per visit…
22. Mich- | June 8th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Hi pinkpau,
I used to stay in Malaysia. I moved to Australia-Melbourne. I have been here for bloody 4 years but i still can’t change the habit of having heavy shower everyday. I should learn to appericate the water more.
I like your blog. =) so, keep it up =)
Cheers,
mich
23. BENevolent Ben | June 8th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
hmm oddly this mich seems like the one i know….
anyway i also unintentionally do my part in saving the environment by leaving all empty plastic bottles in my room rather than disposing of them( i have like 10 perched on my desk). Well that’s just cause i’m lazy to dispose of them after consumption. But hey polluting my own room is better than polluting the outside world. Maybe i’ll bring them back to malaysia for u to personally send for recycling to atone for your past environmental errors.
24. qaswedfrt | June 9th, 2007 at 3:00 am
i’m a malaysian studying in melbourne… and i also have heavy showers everyday but luckily my car dun get dirty that fast. it’s expensive to wash ur car in melbourne. hafta go to water stations and pay for the water by mintues. more expensive than those hand washing service back in jb. lol.
25. Albert Ng | June 9th, 2007 at 3:43 am
I quote http://www.ibike.org/encouragement/benefits.htm:
A bicyclist burns about 25 Calories per mile. One large egg supplies 80 Calories. A cyclist can travel about three miles on the energy of one egg.
0 (symbol for one egg)
A person walking would require three eggs to go the same distance.
000
A loaded bus requires the equivalent of two dozen eggs for each person it carries three miles.
000000000000000000000000
A train requires the equivalent of three dozen eggs for each person it carries three miles.
000000000000000000000000000000000000
A car that gets 12.5 miles per gallon requires the equivalent of seven dozen eggs to carry one person three miles.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Even if you double the miles per gallon and double the occupancy a car will still use the equivalent of twenty-one eggs to make the trip — more than twenty times a bicycle.
000000000000000000000
I walk. That’s why I got sexy legs. ;D
26. lishun | June 9th, 2007 at 9:26 am
albert: no wonder you’re always so egg-cited about life. ha.
27. Asyraf Lee | June 9th, 2007 at 10:14 am
I bring boxes when I do grocery shopping, lagi senang like that, at least tak koyak.
I generally write with mechanical pencil instead of wooden pencil though unfortunately some pencil grades only come in wooden pencil.
I don’t mind cycling as I used to on weekends up to Bukit Tunku. Problem is, I dont want to break my back like I almost did before and train system wouldnt allow me bring my bicycle. WTF
28. Koobz | June 9th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I think that the majority of people in the world are blessed in one way or the other.
More people should count their blessings, and then start to help other people who don’t have so many, get as much.
I’ve only manged to finish my inventory. I’m trying to drum up the courage to stop making excuses to actually take the next step.
Koobz
29. TheRealAnonymous | June 9th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Wah… so very the eco-friendly-blog-post. So world environment day was the day u tried dressing up like a tree and took family photos rite? =p hahaha…
My response to people who says something like “aiyah i’m just one person wat, why should i do anything about environment? not like other people care oso.” , is “two wrong don’t make one right”, we can’t control what other people do but we CAN control what we ourselves do… so at least u’d know you’re doing your part right. Its a start. =)
I’m not a big consumer of soft drinks at home, but nonetheless I still do put aside my aluminum cans for recycling. =p Even if its only 2-3 cans a month. Its not much, but, and i quote myself “at least i know i’m doing my part right”. =)
30. ashleighhhh | June 9th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
you never fail to amaze me. just dropping by to say i love you!!1 lawl
31. Voonkiat | June 10th, 2007 at 1:58 am
Su Ann!!! we’ve all ruined the world :( :( :(. its supposed to be summer now but just last week it hailed.
32. martian | June 11th, 2007 at 1:27 am
baby remember to turn of the tap when ur brushing your teeth okayyyyy?
33. ashleighhhh | June 11th, 2007 at 11:50 am
off?
34. ongdoodah | June 11th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
hi pinkpau, i started reading your blog not long ago and find it real entertaining and insightful. i’m just curious about one thing, are u situated in Malaysia or something? the reason im asking is based on that 7-11 rice bowl post, because i’m quite sure malaysian 7-11s do not sell pork rice bowls..haha..so im just curious. and btw which part of malaysia are u from?
35. Gary | June 11th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Here’s a green hug …
(( hugs ))
Smothered in dirt and all :D
36. Sammy | June 12th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I wish everybody thought about the environment the way u do (=
Btw, were you serious about the corn in the nuggets? S=
37. lan | July 7th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
i am man who dont know anything and care about handbag. but my receptionist could not leave the office so i queue up for her. i queue up since 730. my receptionist bought me orange juice for breakfast while im in queue. then at 1120 am, people in front said no more bag. but at least i make two friends and got their friendsters. hihi. finally my receptionist paid my lunch that day. i wonder why women so crazy about handbag haaa. i would give the bag to my grandma and tell her to use it when going to fish market.
38. lan | July 7th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
i am a man who dont know anything and care about im not a plastic handbag. but my receptionist could not leave the office so i queue up for her. i queue up since 730. my receptionist bought me orange juice for breakfast while im in queue. then at 1120 am, people in front said no more bag. but at least i make two friends and got their friendsters. hihi. finally my receptionist paid my lunch that day. i wonder why women so crazy about handbag haaa. i would give the bag to my grandma and tell her to use it when going to fish market.
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