SHAH ALAM, 4 Dec; The Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) has taken the initiative to hold a Used Cooking Oil Management Seminar in efforts to educate and expose the community about the management of used cooking oil and the effects it has on health.
The half-day seminar was attended by about 200 participants comprising of representatives of Locl Authorities, representatives of the Ministry of Green Technology and Water (KETTHA), government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGO) and representatives of the Shah Alam Residents’ Representative Council.
The Mayor of MBSA, Datuk Mohd Jaafar Mohd Atan, said that the seminar, which is the first in Malaysia, is held because the cooking oil issue is a global issue and is closely related to environmental pollution and health.
He said that MBSA hopes that the seminar will provide education on the management of used cooking oil which is not effective and would in turn cause interference to sink channels, pipes and clogged drains.
“We do not want these things to be interrupted because MBSA will take out a high cost to maintain infrastructural works and cleanup of areas, especially drains.
“Therefore, we are working together with Kris Biofuels Sdn Bhd which runs a used cooking oil waste collection programme to be recycled into biofuel,” he said after inaugurating the seminar at the Bluewave Hotel yesterday.
Jaafar said that MBSA is actively involved in the collection of used cooking oil through the appointment of a contractor to collect the used cooking oil since 2007.
He said that the collection is done at food preparation and factory canteens, and sent to the recycling centre which is located at Sections 6 and 17, and another recycling centre will be open in Section 2 at the end of this month.
“Through this new partnership, we encourage consumers of members of the public to come personally to the recycling centres and the used cooking oil will be bought by the company by kilogrammes (kg),” he said.
For the record, in January, MBSA’s collection of cooking oil is as follows; 378kg, 431 kg (February), 485kg (March), 508kg (April), 415kg (May), 493kg (June), 39kg (july), 460kg (August), 520kg (September) and 505kg (October).
MBSA has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Kris Biofuels Sdn Bhd to carry out the Cooking Oil Recycling Pilot Programme in areas under its administration and the programme is coordinated through an allocation of RM200,000 from KETTHA.
