Over 40 school teachers and island community members in Semporna participated in the Jejak Siggit Waste Audit Training Workshop in December 2025. Jejak Siggit, which translates to “tracing the trash” in Bahasa Melayu, aims to equip Semporna islands’ community leaders with practical skills in waste audit methods, data collection, and understanding the importance of gathering evidence-based insights to improve waste management systems.
Hosted by WWF-Malaysia and in-part conducted by the Malaysia Recycling Alliance (MAREA), the training also highlighted the close connection between land-based waste leakage and marine pollution, which threatens coral reefs, fisheries, and ultimately the very health and livelihoods of the coastal communities and businesses on the islands.
As a key step towards building on the Island-based Waste Management Plan for Mabul Island, the workshop emphasised that accurate waste data is essential for informed decision-making, smarter infrastructure planning, and longer-term solutions that safeguard both island communities and the marine ecosystems they depend on.
[Read more about how PSC’s work in Semporna is empowering island communities, with Community-led Waste Management Plans in action]
In earlier consultations, community leaders shared that they thought the only type of plastic waste of value that could be sold to recyclers are PET bottles. This led to a simple separation of plastic waste – PET bottles versus all other forms of plastic, the latter assumed to bring no return value. In this training, participants learned about the different categories of recyclable plastic waste, and learned to further refine their separation.
The training also gave way to discussions on how the communities could connect with local recyclers and off-takers who would be willing to take other types of plastic waste, besides PET bottles. In parallel, WWF-Malaysia convened a Project Socialisation Meeting in Semporna to strengthen community-led waste management systems across Omadal, Larapan, and Mabul Islands. This project promotes Public–Private Partnerships (PPP) to reduce plastic leakage at its source, by improving waste collection and segregation, rolling out Jejak Siggit waste audits, and connecting communities collecting recyclables with local aggregators and offtakers, these practical solutions can help prevent waste from entering the marine environment.
[Read about how Semporna’s island collection and recycling centres help increase plastic circularity.]
