You don't have to be a rocket scientist to recycle paper

I usually walk to the Red House for my "vegetarian" lunch - half portion of rice and three types of vegetables. And I have to pass this spot on the road side near my office which is a designated drop-off point for rubbish to be collected by the garbage truck. In fact, I can see it from my window. Everytime I pass by, I sigh. What's so difficult about recycling paper? So, today, me and my sidekicks decided to look inside the bags.

Abe and I really sad to find perfectly reusable and recyclable envelopes and paper in the thrash. I know, the garbage men will retrieve the recyclables right there at the roadside but it's just not right. Abe is an aqua biologist, who does deep sea diving, is going on a 1-month top secret scientific voyage (oops, not secret anymore) soon, who's agitating for action on climate change.

It does not take a genius to know which department did this. Don't worry, they are just empty envelopes. Zol told me about the case of another local university in the Shah Alam which caused a hue and cry when the public discovered that some applications for places at the University was not even opened - the whole application was just thrashed.

Michael Peter Foo - Christmas came early. We took the bag of "thrash" back to my office to put in the recycle bin at Korporat. And then discovered there was left-over durians and food packaging mixed together. So, we just took out the used envelopes and some recyclable paper. BTW, Michael is a chemist, budding scientist and a self-acclaimed "Kah Poh Chee" (busybody) - guy behind the proposed revival of the USM clock tower.

So, here's the deal. The University at our retreat the previous weekend had agreed to make our Green Office (Pejabat Alamiah) an APEX project. Something which everyone from the VC right down to the clerks and cleaners can take part. One of the things we will target is paper. Every department and school will have to : i) demonstrate reduced consumption of paper (show us how you did it, supported with statistics); ii) make sure not a single piece of paper goes to the landfill (zero waste); and iii) increase the use of recycled unbleached paper.

Honestly, recycling isn't so difficult. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to do it.

1. Get hold of any box, such as a cardboard box from you last purchase of a computer or equipment. Stick a label that says "Recycled Paper"
2. Everytime you are about to throw out a used piece of paper or envelope, ask yourself "can this paper be used?" - can you write on the other blank side?. If yes, keep it in a drawer near to you. If not, ask "can this paper be recycled?" - almost any paper can be recycled. Even the tissue which you blow you snuffy nose in.
3. Put the used paper in the recycle box.
4. When it is full, bring it to your department's central recycling bins or box. If your department does not have one, ask you BOSS why NOT? On second thoughts, don't ask him. Just DO it yourself.
5. Call the "old newspaper" man (or woman) to come collect. You won't make alot of money. Used to be you can get 45 sens for one kilo of old newspaper. Now it's only 15 sens. DO IT for your children. Do it for the future. Do it for Mother Earth.
   

Eggs to die for

Five meals a day. Breakfast, morning tea (usually accompanied with kueh and bee hoon and stuff), lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. That's how much we eat whenever we are at a hotel doing official business. Been here at the Hydro Hotel since Friday and leaving on Monday morning. I am lucky. Some of them will leave here on monday and check in straight into another hotel for another round of working and shopping, err, make that workshopping.

My poor family (wife and three children) took two hours to travel from Teluk Air Tawar, via the broken ferry service to Batu Ferringhi to have dinner with me last night. We went to the Ship and everyone's food was good. By the time we finished dinner there was a long queue waiting at the door. Penang is being invaded by tourists, local and outstation, everyone heading for Batu Ferringhi. Don't we have any better attraction than the pasar malam?

Oh, in case you are wondering, I am multi-tasking, listening to the presentation on talent mismatch and blogging via the WiFi (cost RM30 for 24 hours; I insisted that the organisers pay for it; the pipe is a little slow). I did my presentation on "people-centred sustainable development" yesterday afternoon. I thought it was well-received.

Ah, eggs to die for. Eggs have been getting the bad press. Especially if you are a little older (like me). You got to watch your cholesterol! But half-boiled eggs is a weakness for me. I don't do it at home. I usually don't go to the coffeeshop for breakfast. Yesterday I went to the egg station and asked "do you have half-boiled eggs?". "Yes", the chef said and walked to the other end of the counter and opened a food warmer and I got a shock. "Is this half-boiled?", I asked, quite incredulous. Of course, a whole container; must be several hundreds in it. Wow, must be a popular dish.

Simple. Put eggs in a container, pour boiling water on to it (careful, the eggs can crack). Cover and leave for 3 minutes - too long and it becomes too firm. Crack the egg and put into dish. Add a little light soya sauce and some paper. Just eat it straight or with bread (below). Emmmmm yummy. We used to have this for breakfast when we were school kids.

Plain porridge with a preserved bean, pickled vegetable, spring onion and fried garlic in oil. Another simple dish.

I went for a walk on the beach in the morning before breakfast and saw plastic bottles and polystyrene foam discarded on the beach. Met three monkeys, really, monkeys. They we eating the food in polystyrene containers thrown away by some idiots. You can see the corners and hole, probably bitten and ate by the monkeys. My wife told me there was a news item in The Star that the Penang Government has given a directive that all government departments and events are banned from using polystyrene containers. Ahem, I can claim a tiny bit of credit for triggering that initiative.

This are the top shots of the University at the Hydro Retreat.

Had lunch with four of my side-kicks at the Jetty Gau Lam Koay Teow (Beef noodles) on Friday after my not so inspiring talk at the SP Setia World Environment Day event. They promised that the projection would be clear in enough but I had to abandon my slide presentation and go low-tech. So that threw me off. The previous day I was at the Motorola Student Academy Award to celebrate their 35th Anniversay. I was asked to go talk about The White Coffin but they had a slight phobia but I managed to speak for 15 minutes about "the white coffin" without mention it even a single time. Ah, but my slides had visuals of The White Coffin. That 15 minutes was inspired and fun, just looking at the faces and reactions and attention of the young faces.

I thought I should put this up too. My SIL came some 7 years ago and still remembered this special fried bean-paste and fried banana (pisang goreng) and other fried stuff. Opposite Heng Ee School along Jalan Hamilton (near Convent Green Lane School)

You are not Hired to Think!

NCH pointed out that ISO9000 is not environmentally-friendly because it forces you to waste paper. ISO's also makes the staff brainless. It trains and requires staff to just follow procedures even though the procedures are downright stupid. Don't follow the rules and you lose your ISO certification.

This is not my first encounter with Maxis' red tape. Went with my wife to switch my line to her Family Plan line (you can call family members for free). My wife is right in front of them and they have to fill in a form, get her to sign and then photocopy her IC. Straight forward, right? Bureaucratic but not too bad. Then I told the staff, "make sure you keep my international roaming". "Oh, in that case I need your passport", she looked at my wife. That's when I got really annoyed. I said you fellas are worst then a government department (offence intended). She repeated and continued with the response she was trained to give. "This is procedure. I am just doing my job". I said, "I have been a customer for 11 years and WITH international roaming". My wife also has international roaming. Why do you need a copy of her passport. "Oh, now we allow you to fax the passport to us", she said. I said that is not the point. Note that they are not asking for MY passport but my wife's - oh, didn't I say she already has international roaming for 11 years? The clerk stood her ground and say, "you go to any company also it is the same".

I asked to see her superior. I think she was trained to try to resolve the issue herself. She ignored me and repeated the standard response - "this is procedure". I think I asked three times before she brought her senior officer. The officer came and click around the screen. I asked if she can see my 11 years of unbroken record of prompt payment using my credit card. I doubt they have those information on demand. The senior repeated that it is a requirement. I repeated that they are worst then a government department. And I said if they don't want my business, I am happy to take it elsewhere. She mumbled something, disappeared behind the door, came back a few minutes later and instructed the counter staff to activate the account. She must have consulted HER superior.

What does that tell you? We don't allow the staff to think. We don't train them to think. We don't empower them so that there can be a higher authority who supposedly do all the thinking. So, down the line, they just follow instruction and then all hell breaks loose like what happen with the "uploading" of the list of successful applicants to USM. We don't make them part of the decision-making. "You tell me to upload, I upload. I am not required, or allowed, to ask whether it is the correct list. Someone else is responsible for making sure it is the correct list. I just upload. I don't have to think." And like me at the Maxis office, the customers get bloody mad.