JOHOR BARU (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The kitchen is about to get hotter - with aprons recycled from colourful loan shark banners and advertisements taken down from around the city.

Instead of burning them, Mayor Datuk Abdul Rahman Mohamed Dewam said the council would stitch the apron after its enforcement unit took down about 1,500kg of canvas materials - in the first 10 months of this year alone.

"Previously, we used to burn or destroy the banners, but this time, the number we seized is quite huge," he said during the full council meeting here on Monday.

"So, we felt that it would be better to reuse the materials."

The aprons, said Abdul Rahman, were sewn together by inmates from the Simpang Renggam prison.

The design won the council's first place in a competition organised by the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation in conjunction with World Environment Day in April.

Yesterday, the first batch of 35 aprons - dubbed "Apron Magis Alam" (Environmentally Magic Apron) - was presented to the Johor Chinese Mobile Traders Association secretary Lee Chaw Kim to be sold to the public for RM4 ($1.56) each.

"We plan to make more and extend the collaboration if the aprons are well received," said Abdul Rahman, adding that the aprons could also be sold to wet market traders.

"The profits collected will be given to the prison inmates," he added.