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NAVENE ELANGOVAN Today Online 7 Sep 19; SINGAPORE � In a country where most people do not think twice about buying new clothes, Mr Leow Yee Shiang has not bought a single piece of clothing in the past two years. The 31-year-old civil servant practises what he calls a �minimalist lifestyle�. He rarely shops, and has only bought four items for himself this year � a water bottle, socks, lenses for his sunglasses and a motorcycle plate number. What sparked the decision? Mr Leow said it happened early last year when he was packing his belongings for his return to Singapore from Australia, where he had been living with his wife for two years because of work. �I got a bit fed-up as I was packing� There were many boxes. I got so angry at myself that I just started throwing away things,� he recalled. Among some of the items which he threw out included his wedding photo and its frame, as well as the love letters he got from his wife when they were dating. It means that he can now �focus on che...

Let�s consider a set of new 3Rs for environmental sustainability � namely, reinvention, recalibration and reward, says Nominated Member of Parliament Professor Lim Sun Sun. Lim Sun Sun Channel NewsAsia 7 Sep 19; SINGAPORE: One of my favourite Instagram accounts is that of Tabao Girl�s. This environmentally minded young woman meticulously photographs the efforts she makes daily to reduce her use of disposables. On most days, she succeeds remarkably with her inspiring arsenal of reusable cups, containers, and cutlery, and enjoys her take-away food like the rest of us. But one day in July this year, she recounted in a post her distressing experience at a bakery, while waiting behind another customer: ��when he was done paying, I was almost going to cry. First the 13 buns, each in 1 plastic bag of its own. Then he wanted 6 buns in 1 bag, and 7 buns in another � and he wanted them double-bagged. Then he asked the cashier to give him 1 large bag to put everything into. In 1 bakery trip for ...

Ang Hwee Min Channel NewsAsia 9 Sep 19; SINGAPORE: You might think that switching from single use plastics to biodegradable plastic alternatives is good for the environment but in Singapore, there are �no effective differences�, experts said. They often end up in the same place - the incinerator, said Associate Professor Tong Yen Wah from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Biodegradable plastic wastes make a difference to the environment only when they are buried in landfills, he added. �In these situations, these plastic bags can degrade faster as compared to a regular polyethylene plastic bag and will not affect the environment as much. Overall for Singapore, it might even be more expensive to incinerate biodegradable plastics," said Assoc Prof Tong.He explained that this is because some biodegradable options take more resources to produce, which make them more expensive. The opinion squares with what Dr Amy Kh...

Clement Yong and Melissa Heng Straits Times 5 Sep 19; SINGAPORE - Supermarket giant NTUC FairPrice and fast-food chain McDonald�s have jumped on the eco-friendly bandwagon. Both companies announced on Wednesday (Sept 4) that they will be trialling initiatives to cut down on plastic bags and plastic packaging. NTUC FairPrice will start charging 10 cents and 20 cents for plastic bags at seven outlets in a month-long trial, starting from Sept 16. The "No Plastic Bag" trial will encourage shoppers to use their own bags, FairPrice said in a statement on Wednesday. The seven stores are FairPrice Xtra at Hougang One mall, FairPrice Finest at Zhongshan Park mall, FairPrice at 18 Tai Seng mall, FairPrice Xpress in Lorong Chuan and Cheers outlets at Sengkang Community Hospital and in Create Way and Aljunied Road. Shoppers who want plastic bags will have to pay 20 cents per transaction at FairPrice, FairPrice Finest and FairPrice Xtra stores, and 10 cents per transaction at Cheers and...

Ang Hwee Min and Aqil Haziq Mahmud Channel NewsAsia 4 Sep 19; SINGAPORE: The issue of single-use plastics was discussed in Parliament on Wednesday (Sep 4), with some Members of Parliament (MP) reiterating a call for plastic bag charges. This came as MPs debated the Resource Sustainability Bill, which was passed on Wednesday. The Bill introduces regulations to reduce food, packaging and electronic waste, as Singapore�s only landfill at Pulau Semakau is expected to run out of space by 2035. It will be mandatory for large food waste generators to segregate and treat their food waste by 2021. Producers of regulated electrical and electronic products will be responsible for collecting and recycling e-waste like mobile phones, computers and large appliances through an extended "producer responsibility" framework that will be launched by 2021. A similar framework for packaging waste will also be introduced. Companies that use packaging, like importers and supermarkets, will be requ...

CYNTHIA CHOO Today Online 4 Sep 19; With Singapore having declared 2019 as the Year Towards Zero Waste, TODAY�s new four-part Trash Talk series examines the issue of waste management and how Singaporeans can do our part to reduce waste. In the third instalment, we look at the often underestimated problem of electronic waste, and how consumerist lifestyles are adding to the toxic pile. Click to read the first and second instalment of the series. SINGAPORE � The next time you are about to throw out your handphone to get a new model, perhaps ask yourself first: How many gorillas died for this? What is the link, you might ask? Well, the critically endangered Grauer�s gorilla has lost 77 per cent of its population in the last 20 years, partly due to the mining of minerals used in mobile phones. The main mineral mined is coltan, a type of ore used in mobile phones and other electronic devices such as laptops, digital cameras and tablets. And despite the hard labour (often in slave-like cond...

TESSA OH Today Online 30 Aug 19; SINGAPORE � Environment experts believe that the 2030 target to reduce the amount of waste sent daily to the Semakau Landfill by 30 per cent is within reach, but how the plans are executed will determine whether the goals are ultimately achieved. The waste reduction target was announced by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) on Friday (Aug 30) as part of its larger Zero Waste Masterplan, which aims to extend the landfill�s lifespan beyond 2035. Ms Renee Mison, spokesperson for Eco-Wiz, said that she has already seen some of the initiatives recommended for tackling food waste in practice. The company, which specialises in food waste and general waste management technology, has worked with several restaurants, hotels and malls to adopt food waste segregation measures. Ms Mison has also observed that, increasingly, more companies are introducing food waste segregation measures into their waste management practices. As such, she beli...