This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 18, 2024 - November 24, 2024

When primary school English teacher Khuzaimah Zaaim dreamed up the Green Recycle House, her focus was not just on sustainability, but also on addressing the trash and food waste generated in her school canteen.

To secure funding for her project, Khuzaimah joined the Green Wira pilot education programme (GWP), which ultimately awarded her up to RM15,000 to build the recycling facility.

“I have wanted to start this recycling project for the longest time but securing funds was a significant challenge. As a member of the Malaysian Nature Society, I learnt about the programme through a WhatsApp message and seized the opportunity to participate,” says Khuzaimah, Green Recycle House project coordinator and an English teacher at Sekolah Kebangsaan Telok Panglima Garang, which is situated the Kuala Langat District of Selangor.

The GWP, organised by non-governmental organisation Zero Waste Malaysia in collaboration with Axiata Foundation, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and endorsed by the Selangor Education Department in 2023, provided training to 50 educators from 30 schools in the Klang Valley through structured online lessons, expert-led webinars, in-person bootcamp and personalised coaching sessions.

Khuzaimah was the first cohort of the GWP, which is aimed at training educators in Malaysia — currently open to primary and secondary schools within the Klang Valley — on sustainability and the implementation of zero waste living. GWP is now registering interest for the second cohort of teachers.

The GWP grant was awarded to Khuzaimah in March this year and it took her about three months to construct the small waste recovery facility. The facility started by collecting food waste from the school canteen.

“We typically collect food waste directly from the canteen during preparation, including eggshells, fruit peels and other raw material waste. This amounts to about 5kg,” she says.

The collected food waste is layered in a bin through a composting method called Bokashi. Bokashi composting is an anaerobic process that uses inoculated bran to ferment kitchen waste including meat and dairy, into nutrient-rich soil and fertiliser.

In this process, food scraps are mixed with the inoculated bran, pressed into a Bokashi bucket, and covered with another layer of bran before being sealed tightly. Once the bucket is full, it’s set aside for over a week to achieve optimum fertiliser quality.

“We use this method because it is one of the most organic ways to decompose waste. The remnants left in the bucket are used as fertiliser or mulch for our garden,” says Khuzaimah.

The facility collects over 10 litres of liquid fertiliser from the Bokashi bucket at least a week after the initial process.

“At the moment, we are using the fertiliser in our garden. We have not started selling or commercialising [the fertilisers] yet, as including the community would require more funds, paperwork and approvals, which we’re not ready to take on,” she says.

While she has found a short-term solution to food waste, Khuzaimah is more concerned about single-use plastics, which contribute significantly more waste than food. “On a typical day, around 40kg to 50kg of waste is produced and only about 15kg is food waste. The rest is mostly single-use plastic and that’s another challenge we are tackling.”

To reduce single-use plastics, Khuzaimah has encouraged students to bring reusable water bottles from home and collaborated with the canteen management to stop selling plastic bottles and serving food or drinks in plastic cups or plates.

“I believe that a little goes a long way. We have significantly reduced plastic waste from 58kg in May to 16kg in June, following the discontinuation of selling bottled water and by adhering to the 5R principles to prevent waste at the source,” she says.

Mohammad Firdaus Abdul Rahman, assistant project coordinator and science teacher at SK Telok Panglima Garang, adds that students feel a sense of responsibility when they see the material recovery facility and have diligently separated their plastic, paper and other waste into designated recycling bins.

“During recess, students come into the facility since it’s an open space, and they throw their trash into the labelled bins. This gives them a sense of autonomy and teaches them not to litter, which is ultimately one of the goals why this facility was built,” says Mohammad Firdaus.

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