In doing my part to get the proposed mega-incinerator project in Broga shelved, I recently decided to be more environmentally friendly by reducing waste. I live in the Klang Valley and my drinking water is from the water catchment area that will be hosting the world largest rubbish incinerator which will also produce poisonous fumes and super concentrated toxic solid waste.

My first step is to refuse plastic bags whenever possible in shops and supermarkets. And this is my recent shopping experiences in two of the major super (or call it hyper if you have not been to Walmart) markets in town:

1) Giant: When I told the cashier to put the goods in my shopping bag, she kind of complained that I gave her extra work because this time she had to put a Giant sticker on each product I purchased. No sticker needed if I put my purchases in their own Giant plastic bags.

2) Carrefour: When I passed the shopping bag to the cashier, the cashier looked at it and told me 'No price tag for this item'. Err ... I told him that it was my shopping bag. He then said: 'Oh!' and threw the bag into a Carrefour plastic bag.

I insisted that I do not want the plastic bag and put everything into my shopping bag. Then he told me that he would not be responsible when I am accused of stealing by their security guards as I walked out.

I am yet to try Tesco, Jusco, Cold Storage and the other big players. But I don't have such problems when I go to neighbourhood shops. I hope that the people who are keen to live a environmentally-friendly life - but are often put off by stupid experiences such as the above - could write to this forum.

Anyone has any story to tell on recycling? The recyclable items collection place in my neighbourhood, run by a local organisation, just stopped operating. I heard that they facing funding problems.

If this is true, the government should support local recycling centres instead of spending huge amounts of money making lots of billboards that say 'Support recycling'.