I was inspired by my friend (the one who constantly remind me to shut down my machines after office hours) to do my part for the environment, and start recycling. She told me that on NEA website there is a Recycle Map which lists out the recycle bins such as this (picture from NEA website) around the island.
So all I have to do was to find out which is nearest to my house, start dividing my waste into paper, drink cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles, then dispose them accordingly. Although it is an extra step, I think it should be worthwhile.
A quick run through the list, I realised there is only one recycle bin in the whole of my neighbourhood! Other neighbourhoods have plenty. Perhaps this may be a reason which deters people from recycling. Tho' they are making some effort to encourage people to recycle, they ain't facilitating it all the way. This inconvenience is actually deterring people from bring their waste to recycle.
While I was in Goteborg recently, not only that recycle bins can be found conveniently in the streets, in some apartments, they bring the bins to you! In fact, it is the same chute which you will normally throw your rubbish. There is a common chute such as this outside my girlfriend's apartment.
However, before you dump your rubbish into the chute, you are require to select if the rubbish is "Waste", "Compost", or "Newspapers".
After that, you can just open the cover and dump your rubbish in.
If you have not realised, with the simple act of selection, you can actually choose to recycle the rubbish. There is no hassle of bring sorted rubbish to recycle bins which may be far away from your home.
My feel is, if we are serious about caring for the environment, and recycling, the authorities will need to do more than just providing a few bins and getting some contractors to clear the recycle waste. They may want to consider having chutes like this to bring recycling to the residents. Taking rubbish to the chute is an act which residents will definitely do, by providing such a facility, they can continue to do what they do naturally and recycle at the same time.
Forget those excuses about the cost of building such chutes, the cost of getting people to further sort, the cost of recycling, the possibilities that people may select the wrong option. Think about the cost of our environment.
I remember in an episode of BBC's Planet Earth, where they described the difficulties in getting the locals to stop acts of poaching. One of the conservationist said, "It is so difficult to persuade people who are having problem finding their next meals to stop poaching and save their environment." What we are dealing here, isn't a problem as big. Most Singapore residents are not struggling to find their next meals. Yet, along that line of argument, we should not let some economic considerations, prevent us from furthering our cause of saving the Earth to every resident.
A quick run through the list, I realised there is only one recycle bin in the whole of my neighbourhood! Other neighbourhoods have plenty. Perhaps this may be a reason which deters people from recycling. Tho' they are making some effort to encourage people to recycle, they ain't facilitating it all the way. This inconvenience is actually deterring people from bring their waste to recycle.
While I was in Goteborg recently, not only that recycle bins can be found conveniently in the streets, in some apartments, they bring the bins to you! In fact, it is the same chute which you will normally throw your rubbish. There is a common chute such as this outside my girlfriend's apartment.
My feel is, if we are serious about caring for the environment, and recycling, the authorities will need to do more than just providing a few bins and getting some contractors to clear the recycle waste. They may want to consider having chutes like this to bring recycling to the residents. Taking rubbish to the chute is an act which residents will definitely do, by providing such a facility, they can continue to do what they do naturally and recycle at the same time.
Forget those excuses about the cost of building such chutes, the cost of getting people to further sort, the cost of recycling, the possibilities that people may select the wrong option. Think about the cost of our environment.
I remember in an episode of BBC's Planet Earth, where they described the difficulties in getting the locals to stop acts of poaching. One of the conservationist said, "It is so difficult to persuade people who are having problem finding their next meals to stop poaching and save their environment." What we are dealing here, isn't a problem as big. Most Singapore residents are not struggling to find their next meals. Yet, along that line of argument, we should not let some economic considerations, prevent us from furthering our cause of saving the Earth to every resident.
Comments