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

Two Plastic Bags and a Fishball Stick

This article is contributed by Trina Tan.

Ever had the experience of buying a piece of bread or bun from a small bakery store and had to throw away the plastic bag immediately after eating it? In Singapore, buying and eating takeaway snack food is very popular. Over the past few years, we have observed the boom of small stalls that populate the basement level of each shopping mall. Examples of these food and their stalls would include bread from Breadtalk, a stick of fishball or curry puff from Old Chang Kee, bubble tea from Sweet talk, doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts, etc.

Often, these great tasting food items are already wrapped with a piece of plastic sheet over it, but usually cashiers would still place these into a second plastic bag. Hearing this, you would think – is it necessary to have everything wrapped in plastic? Surely there are some food types that can be placed into paper bags? Three fishballs on a stick is not worth that many plastic bags. Read more

Possible Environmental Crises Facing Singapore and Appropriate Responses: The Case of the Poh Ern Shih Buddhist Temple

September 8, 2009
10:00 am	to	11:30 am

Venue: ISEAS Seminar Room II

Speaker: Mr Lee Boon Siong, Honorary President and Director, Poh Ern Shih Temple

The Poh Ern Shih Temple (Temple of Thanksgiving), built in 1954, is an ecologically friendly Buddhist temple located at Chwee Chian Hill, off Pasir Panjang Road, Singapore. In 2000, the Directors decided that the temple had to be redesigned to deal with the rising costs of water, electricity and an over-dependence on fossil fuel. It was noted that environmental degradation had been increasing over the decades and that adopting ecologically friendly technologies was the way to go in the age of rising global temperatures and climate change.

This seminar will focus on Poh Ern Shih Temple’s efforts to protect the environment. The temple takes advantage of Singapore’s abundant sunlight to produce: (i) Electricity by employing three different kinds of solar energy cells – Polycrystalline, Monocrystalline and Amorphous Cells (ii) Hotwater from Solar Heat Collector Cells in Solar Panels, and (iii) Night Lighting of its landscaping and common corridors with batteries charged by electricity collected from hybrid sets of wind/solar energy units.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s abundant rainfall has made it possible to (i) Irrigate the temple grounds (ii) Generate electricity via the deployment of Micro Hydrogenerators for charging the batteries of in-house motorized wheelchairs and lighting for its landscaping and common corridors as well as (iii) Conserve, collect and convert the rainwater to drinkable water by deploying Reverse Osmosis Techonology in Portable Filtration/UV Units available overseas in the event of natural disasters.

Finally, the temple is able to leverage on the abundance of a renewable resource, bamboo, (i) to reduce the culling of our valuable forests by deploying bamboo for all the temple’s new furniture wherever possible since it is readily available from neighbouring states and is a 5-year renewable resource as compared to a 100 year old or 300 year old oak or teak tree and (ii) to reduce the pollution from the steel industries, by making all its in-house new wheelchairs from bamboo.

For details and registration, visit the ISEAS website.

Source: ISEAS

Eco-Friendly Wet Cleaning by Green N Clean Laundry

Green N Clean Laundry is the first laundry business in Singapore that uses wet cleaning to replace dry cleaning for washing delicate garments.

Wet cleaning is a solvent-free method to clean garments and uses specialised machines to safely clean garments in water, instead of using solvents as in the dry cleaning method. Wet cleaning is better for the environment and safer for operators and consumers.

Here’s a short news coverage on Green N Clean Laundry:

Wet cleaning uses water and non-toxic soaps, and can safely clean virtually any garments, from silk dresses to wool suits. It is more eco-friendly and safer since the water and biodegradable soaps can be discharged into the sewers after washing.

On the other hand, dry cleaning uses a petroleum-based solvent called perchorethylene (PERC). PERC vapors can cause irritation of the eyes, nose, throat or skin, and long-term exposure causes cancer in laboratory animals and is considered a possible human carcinogen by the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency.

In Singapore, spent PERC cannot be discharged into the sewers and is controlled as toxic waste. It is also mandatory for dry cleaner operators to undergo health checks once every six months.

In addition, dry cleaning also uses more energy as in a dry cleaning machine, the solvent is recycled after cleaning the garment and used for the next load of garments. The recycling process is done by frequent distillation of the soiled solvent and energy is needed to boil and evaporate the solvent and to condense the gaseous solvent back to clean liquid solvent.

We support the efforts of businesses that are willing to change their mindsets and use more environmentally friendly processes, and we encourage the switch to wet cleaning for health and environmental benefits.

For more info on the wet cleaning method, prices and locations, visit the Green N Clean Laundry website at http://www.gnclaundry.com/index.php.

Source and image credit: Green N Clean Laundry

How to Green the Clothes Hanger with bloomerHang

bloomerang Pte Ltd is a young start-up in Singapore, founded by Directors Thian Zhiwen and Wong Joon Ian. The company is driven by the belief that business can address social and environmental challenges through sustainable and innovative practices. To put their belief into practice, they created the bloomerHang, a clothes hanger that is made locally from recycled corrugated cardboard and printed with eco-friendly soy inks.

Dry-cleaners, laundromats and other businesses give out hundreds of thousands of wire and plastic hangers every year. Imagine the resources saved if these hangers were replaced with the bloomerHang, which is 100% recyclable and is collected after use for recycling. The bloomerHang also acts as a new environmental advertising platform, which provides environmental messages or targeted marketing opportunities for businesses, and helps to keep the price of bloomerHang competitive so that they are attractive to laundromats, drycleaners and other distributors.

This young company demonstrates that it is possible to green a normal insignificant product, through eco-conscious design and greening the production process, and most importantly, adding functional and aesthetic value beyond its current purpose. The new bloomerHang hanger is not only made from sustainable material and processes but also provides a valuable platform for environmental messages and advertising from eco-conscious businesses. And best of all, it still hangs.

Find out more about bloomerHang at www.bloomerang.com.sg.

Source and image credit: bloomerang Pte Ltd

China Solid Waste Management Summit 2009

September 24, 2009

to

September 25, 2009

This event newsletter is from the organizer of China Solid Waste Management Summit 2009.

China Solid Waste Management Summit 2009 – China’s BIGGEST solid waste management summit inspiring you with unique business know-how and intelligence will be hold on September 24th -25th in Shanghai, China. The high-profile event will consist of 200+ top professionals from global solid waste fraternity including environment & solid waste authorities, solid waste operators, solid waste treatment plants, engineering consulting companies, technical solution suppliers, equipment & software providers, CDM project developers, investors and accounting & legal firms, etc. Read more

Sustainable Materials: Plastics Made From Corn and Biomass

March 13, 2009
10:00 am	to	11:30 am

Venue: Lecture Theatre 5, National University of Singapore, Engineering
Drive 2, Engineering Faculty

Look around us and the merits and problems of petroleum plastics are abundant. Issues range from the extraction process from crude oil, the additives and stabilizers that are toxic, the incineration of plastics which releases more green house gases, the non-biodegradability and harm to wildlife and pollution.

But today, there exist technologies where plastics can be made from sustainable raw materials such as corn, sugarcane and biomass. They have the added advantage of being naturally biodegradable and recyclable. Singapore has its own start ups (Olive Green, Grenidea) investing in these materials. Products currently include food packaging, utensils, credit cards, crockery and clothing.

We can abolish plastic pollution and also move away from oil. Discuss about these issues at this seminar with Olive Green founder Aloysius Cheong and polymer expert and deputy director of A*STAR, Professor PK Wong.

For details and registration, visit http://energycarta-seminars.wikispaces.com/.

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