I refer to The Star report, ' Recycling target may not be met ', in which Ong Ka Ting said that Malaysia may not achieve its target of recycling 22 percent of its total waste by 2020.

Should we be surprised? He sounds surprised and I have to wonder why.

Every time the government launches a recycling campaign, there is no follow-up. They spend millions on banners, posters, balloons and buntings but there is no serious will or commitment to encourage recycling.

In many countries, recycling is made compulsory. People have to sort out their own waste at home or else they will be fined. Their rubbish may not be collected either if they fail to do so. In some countries too, factories and companies that practise recycling (especially in plastics industry) are given tax breaks.

In Malaysia, recycling bins are not easily accessible. They're often abused and people throw everything except recyclable items in there. In many areas, the stuff collected in these bins are often not collected, and the people don't know who to contact to complain about this sort of thing.

If the government has to force the people to recycle, then so be it! Obviously, education doesn't work as Malaysians are too ignorant and will continue to throw all sorts of rubbish into bins meant for recycling. The only way is to punish them for not recycling.

Alam Flora introduced a website , which has very limited information, is out-of-date and the forum which is supposed to encourage discussion and information-sharing amongst recyclers is useless, as they often don't post one's messages until four months later. And if they don't like your messages, I believe they don't put it up at all! They also don't answer the questions posed by keen recyclers.

Let me offer some suggestions:

Put bins in all shopping centres but place them in an area where we don't have to pay money to go into the carpark just to dump our recyclable items. Make sure no one is allowed to park in front of these bins, so that we can unload easily. Place bins in bigger petrol stations which are convenient areas for people to unload their stuff, and outside school grounds - not within because many schools lock their gates after school hours and on weekends. Introduce recycling bins in all condo/apartment properties because they have a common area for rubbish collection.

Issue coloured plastic bags to households to sort out their own waste so that when it is collected, these coloured bags can go straight to the right place instead of the dumpsite.

Give us clear guidelines on what can be recycled and what can't.

Make all mobile phone manufacturers responsible for taking back old handphones as well as batteries for proper disposal, and educate the public on the issue.

Impose fines and harsher penalties on companies that do not recycle.

These are just some suggestions. Maybe someone from the relevant ministry or local authority will read this or maybe not, but could someone could forward it to the right place?