Explore Simple and Cost-Effective Ways to Maximise the Use of Our Existing Recycling Infrastructure

Grace Chua from the Straits Times wrote an article yesterday on Recycling: Time to get our act together. She suggested some laws and improvements to increase the recycling efforts of households and businesses.

Before considering her suggestions for households, I would suggest that the National Environment Agency (NEA) explore simple and cost-effective ways to maximise the use of our existing recycling infrastructure, which often is underutilised or misused.

The National Recycling Programme (NRP) has been implemented at HDB estates and landed properties since 2001, where residents are given either recycling bags or bins for recyclables, which are collected once every 2 weeks from their doorsteps. With the NRP, households can recycle conveniently and do not even have to walk downstairs to the nearest recycling bin or walk out of their house to the chutes to recycle. Households can also make use of the recycling bins near their flats since there are one set of recycling bins for every five blocks of flats.

For households in condominiums and private apartments, they can recycle through the recycling programme at their residence as it is mandatory from 2008 for all condominiums and private apartments to put in place recycling programmes.

With the existing recycling infrastructure, the NEA should aim to maximise its usage and tweak it to increase recycling, before deciding to implement new laws, place more bins or add more separate chutes system, which is likely to increase business costs and be passed on to the residents.

To make full use of the existing recycling infrastructure, the NEA could study simple and cost-effective ways to “nudge” households and increase recycling participation. In the book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, the authors pointed out two common misconceptions on change, which we can adapt to help increase recycling.

One, “what looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity”. We need to provide crystal-clear direction to the households on the recycling programme. Some questions to ask: Are the households aware or clear about the NRP in terms of why there is a need to have the programme; how the programme works; what items can be recycled; how the collection is done; how frequent is the collection, and where the recyclables end up? Can we appoint volunteer recycling ambassadors or guides to help the residents? Can we use more mass media and social media to explain the recycling programme and spread the message?

Two, “what looks like a people problem is often a situation problem”. We need to make it easier for the households to recycle by tweaking the existing recycling infrastructure. Some questions to ask: How to make it easier for households to remember the recycling dates; identify what items can be recycled; and find the nearest recycling bin? Can we place a reminder on each rubbish bin and chute to remind residents to recycle? Can we provide data for comparing recycling performance for each estate or block? Can we use social media and smartphone apps to remind residents on their recycling collection dates? Can we place better images of recyclables on the recycling bags or bins to show clearly what items are recyclable?

The NEA should study simple and cost-effective ways before implementing new laws, bins or systems whose increased costs could be borne by the residents.

Besides recycling, it is also important to focus more on reduce and reuse. There is a sequence to the widely known 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. “Reduce” should always be practised first to minimise or prevent the waste from being generated in the beginning. Next, “Reuse” the generated waste over again for the same or different purpose. Lastly, “Recycle” the waste so that it can be processed and used as a new material. Recycling still involves energy and resources to process the used material, and should be done last.

An edited version was published at ST Forum Online.

Green Future Solutions Starts mywaterbottle Campaign to Encourage the Use of Refillable Water Bottles and Reduce Single-Use Bottled Water

Green Future Solutions started its first green campaign called mywaterbottle on 22 April 2010, Earth Day. mywaterbottle is a non-profit campaign to encourage more Singaporeans to use their own refillable water bottles, instead of buying or taking single-use bottled water.

mywaterbottle Goals

mywaterbottle aims to achieve the following goals:

1. Create awareness on the environmental impacts of single-use bottled water and encourage people to use refillable water bottles.

2. Show that tap water is safe to drink and tastes just as good as bottled water.

3. Make it easy to choose and buy affordable refillable water bottles that are safe for both environment and health.

4. Build a map of mywaterbottle refillers (water coolers, cafes, restaurants, food and beverage outlets, etc) for easy and free refilling of water bottles.

5. Showcase events that encourage participants to bring their own refillable water bottles. Read more

Singaporeans May Be Suffering From Tech Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (TOCD)

The IT Show in Singapore which ended yesterday broke records yet again with sales over S$65 million and over 800,000 visitors. Record sales and visitors have been achieved every year and this is the same for the other tech shows – The PC Show (June), COMEX (September), and SITEX (November). The four tech shows are also know as Singapore’s four seasons as they happen every three months.

Singaporeans just can’t get enough of tech gadgets and products. We lap up every new phone, camera, computer, netbook, printer, portable hard disk, and music player that is available. We keep buying and changing more electrical and electronic products unnecessarily. It’s like we are suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and can’t stop.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety disorder in which you have unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to engage in repetitive behaviors (compulsions). With obsessive-compulsive disorder, you may realize that your obsessions aren’t reasonable, and you may try to ignore them or stop them. But that only increases your distress and anxiety. Ultimately, you feel driven to perform compulsive acts in an effort to ease your distress. – MayoClinic.com

Perhaps Singaporeans may be suffering from tech obsessive-compulsive disorder (TOCD), which we define as a type of anxiety disorder in which a person feels empty and unsatisfied with existing tech products (which are working perfectly fine), and engages in repetitive behaviour to buy new tech products in an effort to ease that urge. But after buying the new tech products, the person feels empty again and has the urge to buy newer tech products, and the cycle continues again (every 3 months).

Are you suffering from TOCD? TOCD not only causes distress and anxiety to the sufferers but also impacts the environment. Resources are used to manufacture and ship electrical and electronic products all over the world and it’s a waste of resources if the lifespan of the products get shorter as consumers keep changing them.

Most importantly, as more such products are being discarded, it becomes a global e-waste problem. The export of e-waste from developed countries to developing countries on the pretext of recycling poses environmental and health problems as the e-waste contains toxic chemicals that will pollute the environment if they are not “recycled” properly in the developing countries.

We usually prescribe a simple treatment for TOCD by training thoughts on:

Use it as long as it works.

Buy only what you need.

Go to tech shows occasionally.

Committee of Supply Debate 2010: Environmental Policies under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, and Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, gave their speeches during the Committee of Supply Debate under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) yesterday. The speeches address various environmental policies, including:

• Sustainable Development – Overall Approach to Resource Efficiency and Mitigating Climate Change
• Improving Energy Efficiency
• Singapore’s Vulnerability to Climate Change
• Managing Our Water Resources
• Recycling and Waste Minimisation
• Building Up R&D and Manpower Capabilities in Clean Environment and Water Sectors
• Dengue
• Sustaining Public Cleanliness
• Licensing Elderly Tissue Paper Peddlers
• Noise
• Enhancements to Food Hygiene Regime
• ABC Waters Programme

Here are some key points that they raised: Read more

Clean Coal and Biomass Cogeneration Plant by Tuas Power: A Chronology

This is a chronology of the news and responses on Tuas Power’s clean coal and biomass cogeneration plant.

14 Mar 08 – Tuas Power sold to China Huaneng Group (Temasek successfully completes divestment of Tuas Power by Temasek Holdings)

27 Mar 08 – Tuas Power announced that it is looking at building a $2 billion coal-fired plant (Tuas Power may build $2b coal-fired plant by Business Times)

2 Apr 08 – We think it is highly possible that Tuas Power would take the coal route and expressed our concerns (Red dot goes black? by AsiaIsGreen)

26 Sep 08 – Tuas Power announced plans to build a $2 billion steam and electricity production plant to run on clean coal and biomass on Jurong Island (Tuas Power to build $2b ‘clean’ plant by Straits Times) Read more

Hey Earth, Merry Christmas!

This post is contributed by Trina Tan.

Christmas sure gets insane with all the gift shopping and parties to plan and attend. As Christmas is one of the most celebrated holiday in Singapore, it inevitably is also most “consuming”. Parties leave behind excess food, which goes to the trash. Thousands of Christmas cards get sent out and massive amount of wrapping paper gets ripped and thrown away.

I don’t want to sound like Scrooge here so I would still say, go out and have fun! Christmas only comes once a year and it could be the very holiday that you spend the most time showing affection to your family and friends.

To help you make this holiday go on in a very sustainable and green way, here are 7 simple tips that you could follow to plan and celebrate your very own eco-friendly Christmas:

Tip 1: Christmas cards

Sending Christmas cards used to be more popular till the uprising of the internet and cell phone short messaging services (SMS) or multimedia services (MMS). Instead of sending out Christmas cards, you could send out a shout out on Twitter, Facebook, emails, e-cards, SMS or MMS to friends and families that you know are tech savvy enough to receive it and understand your sincerity still.

For the older relatives or people you are trying to make an impression with, you could still send out Christmas cards that use recycled materials. Or buy Christmas cards that have been made by charitable organizations so that you know your cash will be used for a good cause. It is also possible to send a few cards together in the same envelope if you are mailing to the same address. Better still, if you could just use one organic card for a whole family to share, you could do your part in saving the environment. It would mean less postage, less fuel and less trees being used in the process.

Another way of saying season’s greetings is by a phone call! This way it is more personal and it is very effective in bridging the relationship. Definitely a pleasant surprise for the receiver on the other end and puts both you and the person in a cheerful mood! Read more

World Toilet Summit and Expo 2009

World experts to deliberate on issues of sanitation and toilets

World Toilet Summit returns to Singapore since inauguration in 2001

World experts on sanitation and toilets will converge in Singapore in December to deliberate on almost every aspect of this once-taboo subject.

High on their agenda will be the urgent issue of bringing sanitation to 2.5 billion people who live without having toilets, a market worth an estimated US$1 trillion.

The occasion will be the three-day World Toilet Summit and Expo 2009 (WTSE 2009) to be held from December 2-4 at Suntec Singapore. It will be opened by Mr Lim Swee Say, Minister (Prime Minister’s Office).

The ninth in the series, the event is organised by the locally-based World Toilet Organization (WTO) founded by Singaporean Jack Sim in 2001, and MP Asia, in partnership with Asian Development Bank (ADB). It has the strong local support of the Economic Development Board (EDB), PUB – The National Water Agency, the Restroom Association (Singapore), Singapore Institute of Architects, Singapore Institute of Planners and Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau. Read more

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