Mr Alex Yee( pic 2)took recycling to whole new level by constructing a house made of more than 5,000 discarded P.E.T bottles.
It took three months for the staffs of Glamping Walai Penyu Libaran to build and it cost around MYR30,000. Most of it spent on labor charge, purchasing and transporting corrugated zinc, hardwood frames etc from the municipality of Sandakan ( 2 hours speedboat away) to Libaran island( pic 3- the glamping in Libaran taken by Jensen the most famous photographer in Singapore, JB and probably Batam).
The P.E.T (plastic =polyethylene terephthalate) bottles used to build it was collected (accumulated) during many beach cleaning activities.
Sometimes in 2012, Mr Roland - official from Sabah Wildlife Department, asked if Alex Yee can help to conserve sea turtles in Libaran. When he was camping first time there, the long stretch of white sandy beach was covered with household garbage, logs and drifted woods etc. Cleaning the beach from rubbish and debris is only one way to invite back the sea turtles to nest and lay eggs, so he thought. Back then, the villagers told him , turtles nesting was very few.
So far, the cleaning activities ( done by gotong royong with villagers and by cleaners all from the village) and of course, the patroling of 1/4 of beach have paid off. In March 2018, 30,000 hatchlings ( pic-4, taken by Jensen Chua) was born at the hatchery located next to the bottles house. Since January 2013, green and hawsbill turtle finally was able to return to nest and lay eggs at their birth place.
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Ever since it was completed April 2017, the house had been used as educational centre for sea turtle conservation.
pic 5- guests of the bottles house, undergrad of tourism program university malaysia sabah
pic 6, resident guest of B house , students of primary school of libaran island.
The B house is dedicated to the islanders of Libaran, Alex Yee said that...
“the B house was built not as a monument for grandstanding. But for sharing with the islanders the importance of recycling. And that burning plastic bottles is hazardous to health. Most important is to remind the islanders of libaran particularly younger generation, the survival of the sea turtles is on their hands. first they have to continue to support ( voluntary) the cleaning activities, only then sea turtle will be able to come back”.
This is brilliant!! The school education is not enough to get the idea deep into people sometimes. It is good to be seen the actual house.