Greener Ipoh by KOHIJAU - Ipoh Echo

For the love they have to make Ipoh the most liveable city in Malaysia, Associate Professor Dr Richard Ng, the President of Ipoh City Watch (ICW) and his team founded the Koperasi Alam Hijau Perak Berhad (KOHIJAU) with a mission to promote recycling for a sustainable environment as part of the Social Business City adopted by Ipoh.

Within a year, ICW managed to collect over 7000kg of recyclable items under its collaborating programmes with Perak SWCorp involving 250 houses in Jelapang. As they earned about RM3000, Dr Richard believes in the potential of making recycling an opportunity to promote social enterprise.

 “After a successful campaign at Jelapang Tambahan, we gathered all our members from ICW and set up KOHIJAU to further improve the livelihood of the people while we do our part in keeping the environment clean,” said Dr Richard during the official launching of KOHIJAU on September 17.

The launching was attended not only by the dedicated members of ICW and KOHIJAU, but also the ADUN of Hulu Kinta, Datuk Aminuddin Md Hanafiah who applauded KOHIJAU. “I would like to congratulate Dr Richard, my former teacher, on his hard work and dedication to create a greener Ipoh.

There is only so much Ipoh city council can do but we hope with the help of KOHIJAU and ICW, Ipoh will perhaps one day, be once again, the city known for its cleanliness,” said Aminuddin. To further enhance the recycling business that will definitely benefit both state and public, KOHIJAU has partnered up with ICycle Malaysia. iCycle is providing a business system which allows recyclables collectors and contributors to earn Recycling Points which can be exchanged with cash or products, a system that is similar to Bonus Link.

The system will be first tested at Ipoh Loyal Apartment, courtesy of KOHIJAU in partnership with Winland Resources Sdn Bhd, the developer of the property. Aside from the apartment, Jelapang, Desa Tambun Indah and SMK Raja Chulan will also be part of the programme. Participating parties will receive account numbers and special bar-codes to stick on their recycling box or bags for tracking purposes. Their collection will then be updated into their personal account which can be checked via internet.

By Ili Aqilah