SG Recycle – All you need to know about recycling in Singapore
March 24, 2008 by Eugene
Filed under Education and Environmentalism, Singapore
SG Recycle is a new blog that we set up and it is all about recycling in Singapore. It goes live today and the first post is What is Recycling?. A sneak preview:
Recycling refers to the processing of used and waste materials into new materials and products…. Recycling is one of the 3 ‘R’s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (in order of sequence) in waste management…. Recycling is not THE solution to our overconsumption and waste problem. Recycling is only ONE of the waste management solutions to reduce the disposal of waste to our incineration plants and landfill, and encourage the reuse of used and waste materials…. Recycling is here to stay. Either you choose to criticise it and don’t practise recycling. Or you can make it work and encourage others to recycle.
Our future articles will allow you to learn about the different types of waste materials that are recycled, how to recycle them, the different recycling programmes, the locations of recycling bins, the various recycling companies, and examples of recycling in other countries.
We decided to have a blog dedicated to recycling because we feel that there are still many people who lack knowledge on recycling in Singapore and some who have misconceptions and criticisms about recycling. Some critics of recycling that we met include:
- Top ex-government official in the environment agency
- Head of a local environmental group
- Karang guni man (rag and bone man) who always complain when he sees our recycling bag and says that it’s a waste of time
Sure, recycling has its flaws and it’s not the best solution for managing our waste. But we think recycling deserves some merit for diverting our waste away from the incineration plants and landfill. There is still much improvement in our recycling habits but it will improve with more education and practise. So SG Recycle is one resource to help you on your recycling journey.
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Beer is good for plants. How about collecting left over beer for nursery or orchard? Or at least educate the shop owner rather than pouring it away.
Have no idea that beer is good for plants
How is beer good for plants? Could you elaborate? Many thanks.
I feel that participating in the National Recycling Programme only makes the participant more conscious about the type of materials one throws away through segregation such as paper, plastics, metal, and etc, but it doesn’t help any reduction in waste disposal.
So, in this respect, how has recycling made us more environmentally friendly and caring?
Perhaps, it is time that educating the general public, in particular, those who live in HDB apartments, who encounter challenges with space. For example, if 1 household will to put the stems and roots of vegetables into plastic containers and let them decompose to become organic fertilisers, could you imagine how much waste is being actually reduced and a new & natural product is borne? However, how could home owners manage constrains in space in their homes and, not to mention the odour from the process of decomposition? Even when the common corridor is made use of, how could the foul smell be handled and managed?
Another example would be the discards from fruits, has any one heard about “Garbage Enzyme” and started to make it? I talked about it with a friend recently, and her response was, she hasn’t the time and space to bother collecting/segregating the discards of fruits from other food matter. This is the typical response of most Singaporeans. How could such mindsets be converted?
As for me, I am still trying to allocate space in the kitchen for my garbage enzyme, and collect enough big plastic containers to hold the fruit discards before trying it out. Would share more of the results when the enzymes are supposedly to turn into eco-friendly cleaning agents.