Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and go green

• Posted on 30 November 2020
• By Nanda
• Posted in 4R, Environmental care, Go Green movement, Recycle
• 0

As part of the Outdoor Life Go Green movement, we stopped the use of plastic bags in November 2019. When we open our new and biggest store at Funan Mall unit no. 02-20, we didn't carry our old bad practice of issuing plastic bags to the customers. We have reusable unrefined cotton drawstring bags for 2$ to purchase at the cashier or we will simply wrap with the brown paper and tie with the guni string, like in the old days with the old way.

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Go green

Do you know how much plastic waste we produce despite being the 2nd smallest Asian country and 44th in the world?

The study in 2018 stated that we use Holy 830 million tons of plastic bags from shopping and the major contributor of the plastic bags are the supermarkets. 473 million of Polypropylene PP plastic from all sort of food packaging and 467 million PET bottles majorly from water or all type of drinks inclusive of bubble tea. Woah! That's the holy crap amount of plastic waste we produce for 725.7 km² of land size and 5.6 million population. The worst thing is that we only recycle 4% of them.

Where do all these things go?

They go into our sea as you can see there is a lot of rubbish in our seawater. It goes into our national parks which you will see plastic rubbish every here and there. Mainly, they go to our Semakau Landfill on Semakau Island. The analysts are saying that Semakau island will be filled up to full with our plastic waste by 2030 or earlier with the rate of waste that we are producing. Before the waste ends up at the Semakau Landfill, we burn our waste, and ashes are transported to the Semakau landfill. Incineration produces energy but the downside of it is it create dioxins which is is known to increase rates of cancer growth, of course, pollute the air and it also needs the energy to burn.

OUR DUTY

As fellow residents and visitors of Singapore, regardless of you are a citizen or PR or pass holders or tourists. It is our duty to reduce plastic waste. We are already ending 2020 and 2030 is just another 10 year time. If we don't reduce plastic waste, we will end up nowhere to put the waste. Building a new landfill plant will cost a lot of money and destroying the environment and its ecosystem. It is a shame for us that a small city-state country producing that much of the plastic waste.

I would say " SHAME ON YOU " to
-whoever gives an angry look at the cashier who said that they are not issuing any plastic bag
-whoever bagging the items with a plastic bag at the grocery store or wet market
-whoever pack your food and drinks with disposable containers
-whoever use the disposable utensils

Do not assume it is the duty of the shops to provide the shoppers with the bag for the things that they are selling. It is also your duty to bring the bag as a shopper, to put the things that the shopper wants to purchase because It is our, all of our duty to refuse, reduce, reuse and go Green. The plastic waste is falling over all of us. Not just to the sellers but also to the shoppers as well.

Outdoor Life GO GREEN

Photo.01. Our Packing Station

As part of the Outdoor Life Go Green movement, we stopped the use of plastic bags in November 2019. When we open our new and biggest store at Funan Mall unit no. 02-20, we didn't carry our old bad practice of issuing plastic bags to the customers. We have reusable unrefined cotton drawstring bags for 2$ to purchase at the cashier or we will simply wrap with the brown paper and tie with the guni string, like in the old days with the old way. You might want to ask why don't you just use a paper bag. Paper bags were made with machines and the machine need the energy to run. On top of that, the bags need glue to glue which is chemicals. Therefore, we go the simplest way. It also gives a little personal touch to each individual staff who packs the items for the customer.

SINGAPORE NEED YOUR HELP

As Fellow residents who reside in Singapore, regardless of citizen or PR or pass holder or even visitor, it is our duty to take care of the land that we live. Please refuse when someone gives you disposable plastic items. If you don't want to use the utensils in public places, please bring along your own utensils. Please bring along your reusable shopping bags if you intend to buy something. Tell the person who issues the plastic bags, not to issue the plastic bag to save our country for our kids. Teach our kids not to use disposable plastic. Agencies were about to implement the regulation to reduce disposable plastic wrapping and bags in 2018 but it did not implement for some reasons including the reason that they are used for hygiene purposes. Since there is no regulation implemented, it is our, as residents, as consumers' duty to show that we do not want to pollute our air, we do not want to burn more plastic waste that creates dioxins, we do not want another landfill plant. Whatever you did in the past, it doesn't really matter. Start now, start today by saying " No" to disposable plastic. Spread this message across your network.

Singapore, The World and We need you.