In Malaysia, a familiar bowl of bubur cha cha, a peach, and three cups of kopi-O have taken on a new meaning.

At the Tzu Chi Environmental Education Station in Ayer Keroh, Melaka, volunteers turned these everyday items into an English mnemonic: BoBoCaCa PEaCH 3CO. Each syllable stands for a category of recyclables—bottles, cans, paper, electrical appliances, clothing, hardware, communication devices, and others. Paired with “ten fingers,” it became a simple way to teach visitors that every pair of hands can protect the planet.

For Dr. Hayati Saleh, known affectionately as Teacher Hayati, this playful approach to environmental education was exactly what she had been searching for.

On 16 October 2025, Hayati led a 12‑member delegation from Akademi Hayati Alam in Tangkak, Johor, to visit the Malacca Environmental Education Station. The group included representatives from various local agencies, a Malay village head, and members of the Orang Asli (indigenous) community. All of them came with the same question: How can a community move closer to zero waste in real life, not just on paper?

From policy to practice in Johor

Founded in 2024, Akademi Hayati Alam focuses on three areas—economy, environment, and culture. With support from government departments and partner institutions, the academy promotes environmental protection, sustainable education, and a green economy, with the long‑term goal of zero waste.

First, we are promoting food waste composting in Malay communities. We want people to understand that caring for the Earth starts with sorting household waste, so we don’t add to the planet’s burden.
—Dr. Hayati Saleh ​

But as the team soon discovered, promoting new habits is hard work. To set up their own recycling point, they needed practical models to learn from. One day, while driving through the Ayer Keroh industrial area, Hayati noticed a sign for the Tzu Chi Recycling Education Centre. Curious, she stopped to look.

Inside, she found not only stacks of sorted materials, but also stories, teaching tools, and systems built over decades. A month later, she returned with her team, hoping to learn in depth how a recycling station can serve both the environment and the community.

Exploring the hidden life of waste

Understanding their needs, volunteer Mervyn Yong (楊明富) guided the group through different functional zones: resource sorting, recycling processes, a second‑hand assistive device corner, used books, and an electrical repair area. They then entered the education section to learn about the origins of Tzu Chi’s environmental work and its educational mission.

At a glass display case showing a model landfill, the visitors peered closely. Someone asked if the buried trash would eventually decompose. A volunteer replied that even if some materials break down, it takes a very long time—plastic bags, for example, might still emerge intact after decades.

From landfills straining under heavy loads to images of ocean plastic, melting ice, and global warming, the displays painted a sobering picture. Yet, when the group reached the Da.Ai Technology exhibit—showing how plastic bottles can be transformed into soft blankets for people in need—their faces lit up. The idea that recycling could both protect the environment and support charitable work was a new and meaningful discovery.

Noor Aini Kamin, a lecturer from the Johor Matriculation College (Kolej Matrikulasi Johor), was especially struck.

“I didn’t realize environmental work could also support charity,” she shared. “The second‑hand assistive devices moved me the most. In the past, when we needed equipment, we just bought it. I never imagined there could be a place where used devices are repaired and loaned out for free.”

For Noor Aini, seeing plastic bottles turned into textile fibers for clothing and blankets was also eye‑opening. She teaches students who are involved in international green technology projects and felt she had gained useful knowledge to bring back.

My students are also interested in community service. In the future, we hope to contact the Melaka team so they can come here and volunteer.
—Noor Aini

Learning the language of 5R—through the body

The visit was designed as a two‑way exchange, not a lecture. Volunteers simplified environmental concepts and turned them into games and movements so they would be easy to remember and pass on.

Government campaigns in Malaysia often promote the 3Rs—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The Johor academy has extended this to 4Rs, adding React to emphasize taking action. At the station, the visitors were introduced to the 5Rs—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse, Repair—plus Upcycling.

To make the 5R concept come alive, Ming-Fu used body movements:

• Crossing both arms in front of the chest for Refuse
• Rotating both hands in circles for Reuse

Laughter filled the room as the group followed along. Before long, they could recite and act out all five Rs without looking at notes.

The volunteers then shared Tzu Chi’s “ten fingers” sorting chant—a simple way in Chinese to remember key recyclable categories. Knowing that many in the group did not speak Chinese, the volunteers adapted it into English.

So “bottle, bottle, can, can, paper, appliances, clothing, hardware, 3C (communications), others” became the catchy BoBoCaCa PEaCH 3CO. To make it even more local, one volunteer added:

Imagine a bowl of bubur cha cha meeting a peach, with three cups of kopi-O. That’s your ten‑finger sorting formula!

In a few minutes, an abstract classification system had turned into an image everyone in the room could smile at and remember.

From kitchen scraps to enzymes, and bottles to toothbrush holders

Volunteers from the Green Wisdom Education Farm in Melaka also joined the session, sharing how they grow pesticide‑free plants and make compost. Members of the enzyme-making group demonstrated how to turn kitchen waste and dried leaves into multipurpose enzymes for cleaning and household use.

For the visitors, the most surprising displays came from the Upcycling corner, presented by volunteer Siew Lian Low and her team. Tiny plastic containers were drilled with simple holes to become toothbrush stands. Baby clothes were repurposed as protective sleeves for arm work—ideas that cost little but save resources and reduce waste.

Hayati immediately saw potential for these in her own work. She told her assistants they could teach these crafts to preschool children in their programs, making environmental education hands‑on from an early age.

Assistant Siti Masnira Ibrahim left with a bottle of enzyme solution in hand and many ideas in mind.

This visit was really interesting. I didn’t expect you could create such beautiful items without spending money. And the exhibition area using discarded green water bottles as the main design element was very special and attractive. If we establish our own recycling point one day, we can refer to this kind of design. —Siti Masnira Ibrahim

Siti also appreciated that, under Hayati’s guidance, the team had already begun learning to make enzymes from dried leaves and kitchen scraps. She planned to use the enzyme at home for washing fruits and dishes, grateful that it is natural and free from chemical side effects.

Seeing beyond money in recycling

For Salleh Adam, a village head from a Malay kampung in Tangkak, this visit changed how he looked at recycling.

Most people think of money when they think of recycling. They want to earn a little extra for the household. But here, it’s different. The volunteers work so hard, yet they’re not doing it for profit. After listening to the explanations, I realized the main goal is to keep the Earth clean for the next generation. —Salleh Adam

What impressed him most was the assistive device service: hospital beds and other medical equipment, repaired and loaned out free of charge to those in need.

He had never seen resources shared in this way. Learning that the volunteers were all unpaid made an even deeper impression.

He left convinced that he needed to educate his villagers so they would be more aware of environmental protection and understand that caring for the land today is about ensuring that their children and grandchildren can live on a safe, beautiful Earth.

“Two hands” as teaching material

At the end of the visit, Hayati presented handmade keepsakes to the Malacca team. She summed up what she had gained with a simple phrase: “Two hands can do so much.”

For her, hands had always been tools for eating and working—ordinary, everyday. Now she had seen them turned into teaching material: ten fingers representing categories of recyclables; hands crossing, turning, and pointing to embed environmental concepts; hands sewing baby clothes into sleeves and drilling holes in bottles for toothbrush holders.

She realized that the most powerful tools for environmental education might already be in people’s homes and bodies, not in items that need to be purchased.

“Malacca has thirty years of experience in environmental work,” she reflected. “We are just starting. But this is a good beginning. I hope we can continue to learn from each other.”

Back in Johor, she plans to integrate what she learned—practical sorting systems, creative teaching methods, composting know‑how, enzyme making, and upcycling—into programs at Akademi Hayati Alam. Her aim is to let green practices sprout and grow in Malay and Orang Asli communities, rooted in their own culture and daily life.

A shared journey for people and planet

This cross‑state exchange in Malaysia was more than a study tour. As the visitors bent down to pick up bottles, sorted recyclables, tried on upcycled sleeves, and stirred enzyme mixtures, a deeper relationship formed—between people and the Earth, and between communities learning from each other.

In the quiet work of sorting and reusing, and in the playful codes of bubur cha cha and peaches, the visitors discovered that environmental protection is not an abstract agenda. It is a daily conversation carried out with our hands, our habits, and our willingness to learn from others.

For Hayati, Salleh, Siti, and their colleagues, this conversation has just begun.

Written by Siew Lian Low (羅秀蓮)