A lot of carrots but where are the sticks?
Letter from Lucia Maes, Today Online 29 Apr 09;
I REFER to “$8m recycling fund” (April 23), and wonder how sustainable is it?
It is one thing to provide start-up capital to new projects and another to ensure that these are self-sufficient. Although much of the latter is dependent on the company’s business model, a lot has to do with equally strong Government intervention in the form of legislation that will subsequently impart public support to them.
During my one-years stay in Singapore, I was confused about the Government’s initiatives and the reality on the ground when it came to recycling practices. There are recycling trucks making collections, but communities are not provided incentives nor forced by law to recycle their waste.
There is no critical mass to support the recycling companies’ operations due to the lack of holistic Government schemes to ensure that everyone recycles their product waste.
Singapore is fortunate to enjoy strong political will in the programmes it rolls out, but communities do not have the desire to better the environment. The only way to do this is to use a combination of sticks and carrots. The carrots have been generously offered to the industry, but the sticks are lacking. The grant sounds just like any other handouts which will send companies into a sprint, only to end up breathless.
New ways to recycle the karung guni spirit
Straits Times 29 Apr 09;
IN LAUNCHING an $8 million 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) Fund, the National Environment Agency (NEA) is aptly reworking something old into something new as well as useful and sustainable. The karung guni habit is diminishing among holdouts of the older generation, to whom hard times had taught thrifty ways. Younger Singaporeans need to cut out waste by reducing consumption, reusing what is still usable, and recycling much of the rest. They face a more complex challenge in environmental conservation than the economic necessity that drove their parents and grandparents to making the most of available castaways.
The rag-and-bone trade has survived and, indeed, rallied briefly a year ago when high raw commodity prices made it worthwhile to recycle rather than discard old newspapers, clothing and such. The present economic downturn will likely help discourage waste. Household appliances will get used longer. More people might salvage and sell disposable items to the karung guni man even if prices have dropped. The 3R system, however, must go beyond purely economic motivation and rely more enduringly on awareness of environmental protection.
The NEA deployed 1,600 sets of recycling bins in Housing Board estates in recent years, each no farther than 150m from any flat. Yet, how well have residents responded? How many take the trouble to sort out household waste and take it to the bins, instead of dumping it all down the chute? The campaign to persuade shoppers to take along their own bags on certain days of the week also shows little sign of developing into a habit.
Going beyond HDB estates, the new NEA fund will substantially offset the cost of waste-sorting projects among landed households as well as food and beverage outlets and students. Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim offered two principles that also made the national water recycling project a success: Rely on technology; and view waste as a useful resource, not as a problem. Public support, nevertheless, will be more critical than in the water initiative. Participants literally need to get down and dirty, unless technological ingenuity spares them the chore.
It is still a matter of cultivating a habit that must be sound and also sufficiently strong to survive any loss or absence of financial incentive. With the new fund, the NEA continues to focus on public awareness and education to promote an environmentally friendly lifestyle. Making recycling mandatory with warnings and fines can wait. It might not even be necessary, if 3R converts recapture the old karung guni spirit out of environmental concern as well as economic necessity.
