“If you think of yourself, you will play the casino with the resources that others entrust to you to get a better bonus, and cause misery to yourself and others.” – Dr Matthieu Ricard, Dalai Lama’s French interpreter and a top Tibetan Monk

“There is a joke, Singapore is two weathers: It’s winter in the building, and summer outside.” – Dr Yang En-Hua

“The flooding and road cave-ins may well be Mother Nature’s warnings to our challenges of those limits.” – Tan Wee Cheng

“Singaporeans take for granted public goods such as water, electricity and transportation, and over-consume them. This is where policymakers can study behaviour and try to get the society to consume less.” – Prof Agarwal of NUS Business School

photo credit: The Straits Times 27 Apr 2012

Only 13 per cent of the 796,000 tonnes of food waste generated were recycled in 2013

A report in 2010 reported that if people in other parts of the world were to live the way the Singaporeans do, we need six planets for sustainability. The average Singaporean throws out 860g as of 2011 of waste a day (zerowastesg.com puts it at 1330kg/person/year!) a third more than places like Taiwan and Germany) according to Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim.

Not surprising, as a result of rapid urbanisation waste in Singapore can be witnessed everywhere and everyday:

• Cars are only allowed to be used every 10 years. Even if the conditions is very good, you have to “scrap” it. Because of the tax structure, there were times where a 2-3 years old cars was scrapped as people took advantage of the tax advantages.
• Buildings are torn down frequently. As a result of cheap labour and escalating property prices, cost of tearing down a building is often cheaper than go find an empty plots to develop it, never mind if the building is still very good conditions. En-bloc sales are common for private properties and in the case of public houses (aka HDBs), it is common for a building to be torn down after 20-30 years to make way for higher and newer buildings. E.g. the Atria At Meyer completed in 1996 (15 years old) are in discussions to sell en Bloc.
• Notice a lot of lightings in residential and commercial areas? Every floors and walkways in the residential buildings are litted well into the night to provide the sense of security.
• People change their mobile phones, TVs and computer every two-three years, creating lots of electronic wastes, a by-product of affluence.
• Almost every household hired a maid since it is cheap to hire one (even a humble clark or driver will have hired one), so what do maids do, they clean the houses, windows, floors, cars almost everyday. And since they are measured by cleanliness and works they do, wasting of water or electricity are very common. I notice my utility bills drop by more than half each time my maid goes back for home leave.
• Ever wonder why all buildings in Singapore look so new. Thanks to cheap labours, Town council regularly refresh the paint of the HDBs exterior and tearing down old facilities to build new one. Where does the money comes from? Every households in Singapore contributes average $50 per month to a pool which will be used for “maintenance” including wastage as such. According to Todayonline: Singaporeans’ penchant for upgrading and pride in their homes have propelled them to the top ranks of paint consumers in the world. The republic uses an average of 47kg of paint per capita – among the highest in the world, according to research firm IRL’s profile of the Asia-Pacific paint industry published last June. It is expected to use 307,200 tonnes of paint by 2014, up 40 per cent from 2009.
• As a result of more than 95% of the population stay in flats, the traditional ways of “recycling” such as collecting rain water, sharing the leftover food with pigs,dogs and cats, reusing used containers for other uses, burning of papers or dried branches for cooking are not possible in flats. Resulting in even more wastage.
• Singaporeans are pampered with airconditioning. From almost non-existence just 30 years ago, now almost all car, buses, trains, houses, shopping malls, offices, hospital and even Schools and Army facilities are fitted with airconditioning, a device that require high electricity consumption. Not only does modern buildings do not bother to design using natural air for cooling and vegetation for shade, the temperature in many buildings are so cold that people are wearing sweaters to stay warm. How wasteful is that?
• You see escalators everywhere in Singapore. Every MRT and shopping mall come with lots of escalators. Even some small elevated platforms with less than 1m height comes with escalators both ways. You can see one from at the Promenade MRT nearer to the main entrance at Suntec. I do not see such luxuries in the Subways/Metros of many European cities, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing, KL, Bangkok etc. You just need to try to climb the stair, it is good for your body and it saves a lot of electricity.
• Lastly my biggest bugbear, the indiscriminate use of plastic bags. As a result of inaction by the Government to levy taxes on the plastics bags, you often seen people asking for more plastic bags rather than fewer since it is “free”. People do not bother to carry recycling bags and refuse to reduce the usage of plastic bags. The standard practice of all stall holders is to put purchased item in a plastic bags unlike in China or developed nations, this is one area that Singapore still has a long way to catch up with their newly acquired affluence but irresponsible attitude.

The government has to do more to introduce various taxes to discourage the use of plastic bags and other wastage. More importantly, Singapore should look into having a comprehensive plan to recycle as much as possible. A report recently has quoted that the recycling rate in Singapore is a pitiful 20-30% way below many developed nations. For example, NEA had quoted in 2009 that the recycling rate for food was 13% and plastic bags was 9% in 2009. The overall recycling rate in 2009 was 54%, if industrial recyclables from construction waste were excluded, the household recycling rate would sink to such a low rate it would “stick out like a sore thumb.”. One area that NEA has done well to control wastage and pollution is the legislation which makes it illegal to leave vehicle engine running while stationary which is a common sight in singapore. To report violation, just call 1800 CALL NEA (1800-2255-632).

“Singapore “has First World technology but Third World attitudes” with regard to recycling: plenty of green technology being developed comparable to that in the West, but poor adoption or underutilization of such technologies or facilities, comparable to that of many developing nations.” – The Straits Times, 2010

Plenty we can do to cut food wastage

source: Straits Times, 26 Mar 2014

Many players in the food industry prefer dumping food to donating it due to concerns over liability and branding, says Madam Nichol Ng. — ST FILE PHOTO

Related links:

• Ugly Singaporeans – Indiscriminate use of plastic bags
• Singapore Waste Statistics 2011
• Plastic bag production ‘an environmental worry’ -3 billion bags used here last year, needing 37m kg of crude oil to make
• Lamenting the loss of another piece of history (Bukit Brown) – by Dr Gan Su-lin (Source: todayonline 15 Nov 2011)
• Why are few S’poreans going green’
• Should recycling be compulsory?
• Etiquette ‘not on pace with progress’
• Trash and burn: Singapore’s waste problem
• Do road cave-ins suggest we are testing nature’s limits through over-construction?
• 1 in 4 buys more food than needed: Survey
• Singaporeans go green in small, practical ways
• Aiming for a zero-waste Singapore
• Sorting out the recycling blues of Singapore (2 Jul 16)
• Big push needed to make recycling a norm (2 Jul 16) – At the root of our dismal household recycling rate is the apathy and indifference of Singaporeans, and the lack of a good push from the Government.
• Eco-conscious Singaporeans’ zero waste way of life – kudos to these green warriors! They take their own cutlery, containers and water tumblers when they go out. They avoid straws, plastic bags and food packaging. Some have a compost bin at home where they dump their kitchen scraps and use the compost to fertilise plants…. These are just some measures adopted by members of the Facebook group, Journey to Zero Waste Life in Singapore, which seeks to reduce waste in daily lives.
  

Why are few Singaporeans going green?

Ministry hiring experts to find out what it takes to change behaviour
Extracted from The Straits Times 7 Apr 12

SINGAPORE families are dismal when it comes to recycling and using energy efficiently, so much so that the Environment and Water Resources Ministry is seeking the help of experts to change their habits.

Consultants are being asked to carry out two studies to find out why people do not do what they should and set out an effective communication strategy to coax them to change their ways. One is on recycling, and the other, energy efficiency.

Tender documents obtained by The Straits Times stipulate that both studies have to carry out a face-to-face survey of a representative sample of 2,500 people from the five community development councils.

The surveys will help pinpoint the specific behaviour to adopt, identify the best group of residents to target for change, as well as set outand monitor a communication strategy to encourage them to pursue the desired behaviour more often.

Each study also has to probe beyond the commonplace explanations of why people do not do the right thing, ‘by looking beyond notions of laziness and inconvenience’, said the tender.

The recycling study has to focus on the recycling of glass, plastic and paper in households, it added.

These items account for 53 per cent of domestic waste each year, falling far short of their potential to be recycled.

For instance, up to 90 per cent of paper tossed out by households could have been recycled, but only 52 per cent is. Such recycling is crucial as Singapore has limited space for landfills. For instance, the landfill island of Semakau, which takes in ash from waste incineration, is expected to meet the country’s needs only till 2045.

Also, the recycling rate for all waste has some way to go to meet the target set in the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint. The goal is for a rate of 65 per cent by 2020 and 70 per cent by 2030.

But last year, it was 59 per cent. Worse, in categories like plastics, it was a mere 11 per cent, and for glass, 29 per cent.

As for energy efficiency, the study is targeting the use of air-conditioning at home as it accounts for 30 per cent of a household’s energy use.

What a waste