Endorser: ISWA (International Solid Waste Association); Econet China

Date: 21-22, July, 2011

Location: Shanghai Pudong Ramada Plaza, China

Website: www.mswforum.com.cn

Background

China’ first quarter 2011 achieved 11.9% year on year GDP growth rate, which is the highest growth rate of any major economy. While experiencing rapid economic growth, China faces mounting trash crisis. The country’s total waste output has reached 180 million tons last year, expanding as fast as its economy, at about 8 to 10 percent a year. According to China Association of Environmental Protection Industry，the municipal solid waste (MSW) output in China will reach 179 million tons and 210 million tons in 2015 and 2020 respectively.

The large amount of the municipal solid waste has caused serious environmental pollution and disaster. The Chinese government is gearing up funding for environmental protection. It is expected that government funding for environmental protection will reach 3.1 trillion yuan during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), for solid waste disposal industry will reach 800 billion yuan, base on the statistics of the National Development and Reform Commission. Domestic solid waste management sector is likely to see a business boom fueled by more government funding and favorable policies and its rapid growth is expected to continue over 10 years.

At present due to inadequate waste management, financial constrains, absence of appropriate technology, lack of people’s awareness, motivation and participation, ineffective legislation and law enforcement, China municipal solid waste (MSW) remains unmanageable and becomes one of striking environmental and social issues.

To solve this striking issue B-IN Consulting organized the China Municipal Solid Waste Summit 2011 with the theme of Safe and Sustainable Management. The summit will gather 150+ China top governmental officials, professionals and senior executive officers from world’s leading organizations and companies together to share innovative industry know-how and discuss the management of solid waste disposal for China. China Municipal Solid Waste Summit 2011 will provide you a distinct platform to network with global waste management fraternities and cash in China billion dollar solid waste market.

Top Reasons To Attend

• Listening 30+ Industry Eminent Speakers
• Networking with 150+ Global Industry Fraternities and Top Networking with 150+ Global
• Industry Fraternities and Top
• Taking Away Comprehensive and Cuttingedge technology and Management Knowledge
• Tapping into China Solid Waste Market
• Meeting with the Owners of China Local Solid Waste Disposal Projects
• Participating the Sole Summit Focusing on China Municipal Solid Waste Disposal Industry
• Benefiting from the Extended Networking Time Through Networking Drinks Party

Who Should Attend

• Top government officials
• Waste Plant Owners, Operators and Engineers
• Waste Disposal Service Providers, Waste Collection, Service and Recycling Companies
• Waste Collection and Transportation Vehicle Manufacturers
• Environmental Protection Companies, Technology and System Providers
• Equipment Manufacturers and Suppliers
• Venture Capitalists and Investors
• Consulting and Services Companies
• Transportation, Storage and Handling Experts
• Research and Development Organizations
• Sustainability Professionals
• Lawyer
• Others

Major Topics Of The Forum

• China municipal solid waste industry policies and marketing prospect
• China MSW management patterns and operational mechanisms
• Innovative technologies and equipments in MSW collection and transportation
• New developed MSW disposal technologies
• China MSW recycling strategies
• How to achieve energy recovery efficiency
• How to achieve energy recovery efficiency treatment pollutions

Conference Website: www.mswforum.com.cn

For more details, please contact: FOX
Tel: +86 21 5180 7937
Email: fox@being-consulting.com

The fourth episode in Portugal features:

• Bike paths around the Tejo River in Lisbon displaying the poetry of Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa
• Designer Pedro Campos Costa and his glue-free cardboard creation, which acts as a seating unit, a shelving unit and is a remarkable work of art
• Stone House in Portugal, which is wedged between four large boulders in the mountains of Fafe, Portugal

Click here to view the embedded video.

The third episode in Spain features:

• The Beach Garbage Hotel in Madrid’s city center, made entirely of waste
• The Forum’s photovoltaic pergola, one of the most popular symbols of Barcelona’s new urban architecture and an emblem of the city’s commitment to renewable energies and sustainability
• Eco-Architect Enric Ruiz Geli and how he incorporates green engineering into his modern buildings such as the Media-TIC building
• The Robotic Fish

Click here to view the embedded video.

Let’s take a look at the 7 common types of recycling in HDB estates:

1) National Recycling Programme (NRP)

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has implemented the National Recycling Programme (NRP) since 2001, where recycling bags or bins are given to residents living in HDB housing estates and landed properties. These recycling bags and bins are provided by the licensed recycling contractors and the recyclables are collected once every two weeks at the doorstep.

2) Centralised Recycling Depositories (CRDs)

To complement the NRP, NEA has requested the recycling contractors to place centralised recycling depositories (CRDs) at all HDB estates, since August 2007. There will be a CRD for every 5 blocks of flats and the locations of the CRDs can be found at OneMap under the Environment – Recycling Bins theme.

3) Recycling Exchange

The recycling contractors usually organise a recycling exchange once a month by working with the Residents’ Committee (RC) to set up recycling stations for residents to exchange their recyclables for cash or food items. For example, Colex has the Cash for Trash Programme in the Jurong sector, and Veolia has the Recycling Exchange Initiative (REIT) in the Pasir Ris-Tampines, Bedok, and Tanglin-Bukit Merah sectors.

4) Tzu Chi Recycling Day

During the Tzu Chi Recycling Day, which falls on every second Sunday of the month from 8.30am to 11.30am, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation volunteers will set up recycling points at housing estates in 14 locations across the island. The volunteers encourage residents to bring their recyclable items from their houses and to help in the sorting of the items.

5) School Recycling Collection

There are frequent school recycling collection initiated by students to collect newspapers and old clothing for fundraising or for charity. The students doing the recycling collection for an area usually have to work with the licensed recycling contractor who are in-charge of the NRP for that area, and sell the recyclables to them.

6) Karang Guni Recycling Collection

The traditional unlicensed karang guni man or rag-and-bone man goes from door-to-door to collect items from residents, such as newspapers, televisions, radios, and computers. The karang guni man usually pays residents for the items. The items are sold to a waste recycling company or to a secondhand dealer.

7) Informal Recycling Collection

The informal recycling collection is usually done by the unlicensed poor elderly, who go through the rubbish bins in the neighbourhood and pick up recyclables such as newspapers, carton boxes and drink cans, from the bins. They usually sell the recyclables to a waste recycling company or to a secondhand dealer.

Waste generation in Asia has been increasing rapidly due to urbanisation and industrialisation, and poor waste management in several countries has caused negative impacts on the environment and the health of the people. According to The Global Development Research Center, the waste in Asia is disposed of by 51% open dumping, 31% landfilling, 9% recycling, 5% incineration and 2% open burning. It is clear that more work has to be done to reduce, reuse and recycle waste in Asia.

We believe that waste is not waste, but a potential resource for someone to use again. To tackle the waste problem, we wish to contribute by focusing on ending industrial and commercial waste from businesses and organisations in Asia, starting from Singapore and Malaysia.

There is much scope for businesses and organisations in Asia to reduce and recycle their waste. Waste is usually the last thing on their mind and is something to be thrown away without much thought. With increasing awareness on environmental issues, businesses and organisations are facing pressure from their customers and along the supply chain. They are starting to look at the waste they generate and trying to recycle as much as possible.

By reducing their waste, businesses and organisations also hope to cut costs and be more efficient. However there are some barriers such as lack of time and information to find out the types of waste that can be recycled, and to search for suitable collectors and recycling companies.

Our new initiative, Waste is not Waste, hopes to remove the barriers by providing an online waste exchange that is easy and convenient for businesses and organisations to use, and which helps them reduce, reuse and recycle waste. We connect businesses and organisations that generate waste materials with those who want the materials, thus helping both parties save time and money while helping the environment.

Visit our new beta version of Waste is not Waste to learn more about us, the benefits and how it works. Remember that waste is not waste, but potential resources to be used again.

The Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation has been promoting recycling in Singapore since 2006. During the Tzu Chi Recycling Day, which falls on every second Sunday of the month, Tzu Chi volunteers will set up recycling points at 14 locations across the island. The volunteers encourage residents to bring their recyclable items from their houses and to help in the sorting of the items. They also spread environmental awareness among the public.

To understand more about the recycling activities by the Tzu Chi volunteers, we visited one of the recycling points located at the void deck of Blk 71 Bedok South Road last month. Mr Chong, the volunteer in-charge of the recycling point, shared with us about the recycling point.

To set up a recycling point, Tzu Chi usually get approval from and work with the Residents’ Committee (RC) in the area. They will distribute leaflets to the residents to invite them to join the Recycling Day organised on every second Sunday of the month from 8.30am to 11.30am, and to bring down their recyclable items. In the past, the volunteers went house to house to collect the recyclables but changed to a centralised collection point due to shortage of manpower.

When the residents bring their recyclables to the recycling point, they are encouraged to sort the items into different categories such as clothing; newspapers; carton boxes/colour paper; black and white paper; electrical appliances; plastics; metal, and glass. By sorting the items themselves, the residents will appreciate more about the need to recycle and also to keep their recyclables clean.

Sorting Area

Sorting of Plastics

Beverage Bottles

Detergent and Chemical Bottles

PET Bottles

Disposable Containers

Oil Containers

Plastic Bags

Plastic Trays

Paper Sorting

Carton Boxes and Coloured Paper

Newspapers

Clothing

Aluminium

Steel

Glass Bottles

The volunteers there also help to sort the recyclables, and they sometimes bring along their family members and their children to help out too. The sorted recyclables are sold to the public waste collectors serving the area or brought back to Tzu Chi’s recycling station at their headquarters. The money collected goes to their “Seeds of Hope Bursary” programme , which helps needy students pay for their meals and transportation fees.

Seeds of Hope Bursary

At the recycling point, banners are placed to educate residents about how recycling can help to conserve resources and reduce pollution.

Metal Can Recycling

Paper Recycling

PET Bottles Recycling

Tzu Chi’s 5 Environmental Protection Concepts

There are also display of recycled products such as shirts made from plastic bottles in Taiwan (12 plastic PET bottles can be used to make 1 shirt).

Recycled PET Shirts

In 2009 through their recycling efforts, Tzu Chi collected a total of: 452,890 kg of paper; 73,568 kg of clothes; 30,195 kg of plastics; 7,367 kg of aluminium; 26,242 kg of metal; and other items, which amounts to about $140,000 going to the bursary programme.

We asked Mr Chong why he volunteered at the recycling point and he replied that it gives him joy and satisfaction when giving back and being able to help. And when more people help others, it creates a chain of cycle of love.

On what can be done to improve recycling, Mr Chong shared that we need more education and awareness on recycling – to understand why we need recycling, how to sort and recycle, and the end products of recycling. It requires the efforts of everybody and we should start from young.

We are impressed by Tzu Chi’s efforts in recycling, especially on being able to put a human face to recycling and getting residents to participate actively. Through the current National Recycling Programme, we usually place our recyclables in the recycling bag or bin, never get to meet the recycling collectors, and do not know what happens after we recycle. On the other hand, through the Tzu Chi recycling point, we can speak to volunteers on how to recycle and what to recycle, sort the recyclables ourselves, see recycled products, and understand that we are contributing to resource conservation and the money collected from the sale of the recyclables go to the needy students. This is really closing the recycling loop.

The next Tzu Chi Recycling Day is on 12 Dec, and the locations of the 14 recycling points can be found here. Visit your nearest recycling point and find out for yourselves the recycling efforts of the Tzu Chi volunteers.

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 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.

mywaterbottle Activities

mywaterbottle conducts the following activities:

1. Organise The Tap Water Challenge

mywaterbottle organises The Tap Water Challenge, which takes the form of a blind taste test for the public. The aim is to show that tap water is safe to drink and tastes just as good as bottled water.

The public is asked to taste two types of water – one is from a brand of bottled water and the other is tap water. They will select which one they prefer or feel that there is no difference between the two. The result is revealed after the taste test.

During The Tap Water Challenge, mywaterbottle also:

• Educate the public on the environmental impacts of single-use bottled water
• Encourage them to use refillable water bottles instead of buying or taking bottled water
• Ask them to show their support by signing the mywaterbottle pledge.

2. Sell Refillable Water Bottles

mywaterbottle provides an easy platform for Singaporeans to choose and buy refillable water bottles that are durable, affordable and BPA-free. 100% of the profits will go to fund water projects in developing countries that provide clean and safe drinking water.

3. Identify mywaterbottle Refillers

mywaterbottle identifies water coolers and invites cafes, restaurants, and food and beverage outlets to join as mywaterbottle refillers and provide free water to anyone with a refillable water bottle. The locations are published on a map of mywaterbottle refillers in Singapore.

4. Showcase Events that Support Refillable Water Bottles

mywaterbottle showcases events that encourage participants to bring their own refillable water bottles, and reduce the use of bottled water.

Images

mywaterbottle logo:

Contact

Eugene Tay, Founder of mywaterbottle

Email: hello@mywaterbottle.org

Website: http://www.mywaterbottle.org

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mywaterbottle

Twitter: http://twitter.com/mywaterbottle

About Green Future Solutions

Green Future Solutions is a Singapore-based business that promotes environmental awareness and action for a green future, through its network of green websites, events, presentations, publications and consultancy. For more information, visit http://www.greenfuture.sg.

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.

• 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:

At Copenhagen, Singapore supported the Accord, and has since written to the UNFCCC Secretariat to associate ourselves formally with the Accord as a good basis for advancing negotiations towards reaching a legally binding global agreement on climate change. Though the Accord as it stands does not create legal obligations, it contains important elements that can facilitate the on-going negotiations. To date, about 100 out of the 194 Parties to the UNFCCC have associated themselves with the Accord. About 30 non-Annex I countries, including Singapore, have also tabled their emission reduction targets.

To play our part in international efforts to mitigate climate change, Singapore has pledged to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 16% from the 2020 business-as-usual scenario. This target is contingent on a legally binding global agreement in which all countries implement their commitments in good faith. Our target is credible and rigorous given our past efforts to reduce emissions and the constraints we face as a city-state, including our limited potential to adopt renewable energy.It is a substantial commitment by Singapore. Achieving it will involve considerable costs, and changes in lifestyle and business practices.

BCA will increase the mandatory minimum energy efficiency standards for Green Mark certified new buildings by 10% from today’s standards by the end of this year, and will also mandate the submission of building energy usage data from 2011.

Our consultations with large energy users indicate that a wide range of energy management practices exists today. We therefore see the need for minimum standards to ensure greater management attention is paid to energy. While this will ultimately benefit companies in terms of cost-savings, we also recognise the need to give companies sufficient lead-time to prepare.

By 2013, we will require companies in the industry sector consuming more than the equivalent of 15 GWh of energy each year to appoint an energy manager, monitor and report energy use to NEA, and develop and submit energy efficiency improvement plans. NEA will be consulting the companies involved on the detailed requirements.

To ensure a smooth transition, NEA will introduce the Energy Efficiency National Partnership, or EENP, in April to help companies build up the necessary capabilities before the mandatory energy management practices come into effect. We will also be reviewing our incentive schemes and exploring long-term energy efficiency financing options to cater to the needs of companies.

These energy management requirements for industry and energy efficiency-related legislation in other sectors will be consolidated in an Energy Conservation Act that will come into force in 2013. The Act allows for a co-ordinated approach to standards-setting for energy efficiency across all sectors, and will represent a major milestone in the government’s efforts to develop energy efficiency as a competitive advantage for Singapore.

As I announced last year, minimum energy performance standards or MEPS will be implemented for household air-conditioners and refrigerators in 2011.MEPS will remove the most energy inefficient air-conditioners and refrigerators from the market. Depending on the appliance category, all 0-tick models and some 1- and 2-tick models will be removed, representing about 20% of current sales volumes. A sufficient range of brands and models will remain available for consumer choice.

MEPS will help consumers save on electricity bills and is not expected to significantly increase the upfront cost of air-conditioners and refrigerators. A more efficient fridge that costs the same as one phased out by MEPS can save a household about $130 a year. When all the existing air-conditioners and refrigerators in Singapore comply with the MEPS standards, consumers will enjoy a total energy savings of about $20milannually.

We will tighten the MEPS standards over time. We will also consider extending MEPS to more appliances, such as lighting and televisions.

The public sector will continue to take the lead on environmental sustainability measures. From FY11, all Ministries will set energy savings targets. We will continue to study new measures that can be implemented.

In 2007, NEA commissioned a study involving local and foreign experts to understand our vulnerabilities to climate change.

The first phase of the study covering the physical impacts of climate change has concluded. The results have been peer reviewed by international experts who noted that the study adopted well-established methodologies and that the findings are plausible.

The study projects that the average daily temperature in Singapore could increase by between 2.7 to 4.2°C from the current average of 26.8°C by 2100 and the mean sea level around Singapore could rise by 24 to 65 cm by 2100. These findings are within the range of our expectations and consistent with global projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

By 2011, Singapore’s water catchment area will increase to two thirds of our land area with the completion of the Punggol and Serangoon reservoirs.

In addition, when Changi NEWater Factory is fully completed in 2010, NEWater will be able to meet 30% of our current water needs. As a source which is independent of rainfall, NEWater enhances the resilience of our water supply by supplementing local water stocks in the event of extended dry spells, like what we are experiencing today.

Singapore’s overall recycling rate increased from 40% in 2000 to 57% in 2009 and we are on track to meet the target of 60% by 2012. We are studying how we can enhance the effectiveness of existing recycling efforts. For instance, there is scope to reduce the amount of domestic waste disposed and we are working with the public waste collectors to review the National Recycling Programme. This includes studying the provision of more recycling bins in HDB estates and the collection and recycling of other waste streams such as garden waste from landed homes and food waste from markets.

To reduce waste at source, NEA has collaborated with the food and beverage industry on the voluntary Singapore Packaging Agreement since July 2007. The Agreement demonstrates that environmentally friendly practices make sound business sense – the participating companies saved $4.4mil from a reduction of 2,500 tons of packaging waste over the last two years. … Following the extension of the Agreement to cover all types of product packaging since October 2009, we can expect to see avoided waste and reduced packaging in other sectors as well.

Source: MEWR