Even Stars Bleed

Environmental issue: Promising start to first bring Your Own Bag Day

Article: http://www.straitstimes.com/

Reflections: I read with great interest the articles on bring your own bag day campaign. I am sure that the relevant government agencies and participating stores have good intentions but I have my doubts that it will progress beyond being another lip-service campaign. Wasn’t there another campaign by the largest supermarket chain in Singapore to educate the public to use fewer plastic bags? That campaign came and went without much fanfare.
The problem lies as much with the business as it does with the customers. When I go to junction 8’s NTUC to grab a cold drink, I have cashiers giving me a plastic bad even after I say I do not need one. And is there a need to bag my newspaper separately when there is space in the other bags provided?
Big malls spend thousands of dollars to install water saving devices- such as automated flushing systems and motion-sensitive taps- in their toilets. But where is the recycling bin when you need it most, at the food court or wherever small food kiosks are located? It almost seems to me now that this “environmentally friendly” equipments are installed just to help save on their water and electricity bills with no thought whatsoever for saving other aspects of the environment.

This is especially so after using one of the automated toilet cubicles, I press the manual flush and seconds later the automated flush goes off again. How can this then be saving water?
I feel that the immediate solution lies in a fundamental change to our lifestyle of convenience. It is the root cause of our problem because the production of good adversely affects our climate. So is the subsequent incineration of used and unwanted items. Recycling has become synonymous with our contribution to global warming. But we seem to ignore the fact that recycling also requires energy and, again causes pollution.
Governments’ symbiotic relationship with businesses makes it impossible to tackle the problem from the demand aspect as is required. For establishments that are guaranteed large amounts of trash daily, there does not seem to be effort to recycle. When I was eating at lau pa sat last week, I see cleaners collecting the metal cans but not the plastic cups that came with the drink.
Even a well-educated society like Singapore still does not understand the perils of our inaction. Ask any Singaporean, and the probably answers to the climate change would be “don’t know”, “cant be bothered” or “recycling”.

For recycling efforts to work effectively, there will be costs, which will have to be borne by consumers, retailers and the government. Consumers should pay refundable deposits for bottles and canned drinks. When it comes from our own pockets, we may start appreciating the problem better and start to do more for our planet.
We are a world-class country with a world-class government. Let’s work together to make our environment world-class, too. We can be envied for our Newater – so why stop at just recycling water?