Minutes of Meetings (18/2/13)

What did we discuss?
- Evaluate the survey results
- Discuss on how can we have more people doing the survey
- Prepare for the sharing of our findings & progress so far

Minutes of Meeting (4/2/13)

What did we discuss?

- Draft ideas for our interviews/questionnaires

- The days and the dates that we want to conduct the surveys and interviews 

Combined Literature Review

Group Name: Deuterium                                                   Class: S2-03

Members: Shaquille, Wun Juan, Ibrahim

Each year, tons of waste are generated by us, the human race. In Singapore, the waste mostly end up in landfills, such as the Semakau Landfill, buried in the ground or in incinerators where the waste will be burned. Although part of the waste is recycled, prevention is always better than the cure. So with that said, we aim to urge Singaporeans to reduce their waste usage, and make the world a better place.

But first, we should start right in our daily lives. Whether in the office, at school or even at home. “In Singapore, paper is the most common type of waste and about 1.26 million tonnes of paper waste was generated in 2008.”(Eugene Tay, 2008). Just with that piece of information, we know that there is already a excessive use of paper here in Singapore. So, we have gathered information on how to reduce the usage of paper. 

1. Avoid printing emails and web pages

2. Print or photocopy of both sides of paper

3. Avoid printing ATM receipts

4. Use cloth instead of paper towels

5. Read the news online

These ways of reducing waste are possible, and are also what we do in our daily lives. So, as long as we implement the steps and ways, we should be able to reduce the usage of paper in Singapore. 

Not only paper, but daily rubbish that we blindly throw away should be reduced. By not creating rubbish, there will be no need to dispose the rubbish. Below are the different ways to avoid creating rubbish. 

1. When shopping, avoid using plastic/paper bags given. Instead, bring your own reusable bags. 

2. Avoid buying bottled water from drink stalls, vending machines etc. Instead, bring your own reusable water bottle from home. 

3. Avoid using disposable items. When going on a picnic or replacing batteries, bring normal cutlery and rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones.

Organisations such as Zerowastesg and the National Environment Agency (NEA), have encouraged Singaporeans to reduce waste since 2008. Now that it is 2013, we have seen significant improvement since then. According to our research, from 2008 to 2011, only 2% of total waste increased but the waste recycled increased by a staggering 117%. (NEA, 2011). This shows that the efforts by the citizens of Singapore has paid off, and now we want to further carry on the great success. This also shows that the few methods are effective even if you are just a student. 

In conclusion, if we really take the effort to practice the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) and care enough for the environment, we can make a difference even if that difference is significant, or just a small improvement. A few simple steps can be huge for the environment, so might as well do it for Mother Earth. 

References:

Eugene Tay (December 8, 2008) Eliminate The Excessive Use Of Paper. Retrieved from:

http://www.zerowastesg.com/2008/12/08/eliminate-the-excessive-use-of-paper/

National Environment Agency (2011) Waste Statistics and Overall Recycling. Retrieved from:

http://app2.nea.gov.sg/topics_wastestats.aspx

Combine Literature Review Draft

Minutes of Meeting (29/1/13)

What did we discuss?
-How to combine our literature reviews together
-Introduction, methods, conclusion and results of our combined literature reviews

How did the rest collect data?

Data Collection : For all of the literature reviews done by us, the data are collected from quantitative data collection. They used surveys and questionnaires to find out the values and plot graphs to find trends.

Shaquille and Ibrahim's Literature Review: The people who contributed to the questions and information are mostly organisations like zerowastesg and the National Environmental Agency (NEA).

Wun Juan's Literature Review: The people who contributed to the information are mostly volunteers who are willing to voice out their opinions and ideas on how to reduce waste to save the environment on online articles.

Example of graph collected:

Source : NEA Website

Literature Review (Ibrahim)

Name: Muhammad Ibrahim Bin Azmansah         Class: S2-03 

Literature Review of Reducing Waste

Every year, tons of waste are generated by us. In Singapore, the waste mostly end up in landfills, such as the Semakau Landfill, or end up in the incineration plant to be burn for energy. Most people do not realise that the waste causes affect the environment. Although part of the waste is recycled, prevention is always better than the cure. So with that said, we aim to urge Singaporeans to reduce their waste usage, and make the world a better place.

Even though plastic is the least common type of waste generated in Singapore, it does not mean that we should ignore the excessive use of plastic. About 684,400 tons of plastic waste was generated in 2008. The elimination of the excessive use of plastic and reducing of plastic used should comply. 

It takes about 331 million barrels of oil to make plastic products. Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours. Hence reducing the use of plastic would lead to a smaller environmental impact as less oil will be used and more energy can be saved, thus there will be less pollution and less destruction to the forests and can save endangered animals. 

Ways to reduce the use of plastics are:

1. Recycle plastic waste into decoration, art or musical instruments.
2. Eat ice cream using a cone.
3. Bring along environmental friendly bag when going shopping.
4. Reuse plastic bags that is collected.

Recycle plastic waste into decoration, art or musical instruments for your home, school or work. For example, you don’t have to waste money or plastic just to have a lava lamp, you can use the bottles as a maracas and you can make plastic bottles as a beautiful piece of artwork which you can be proud to show off to everyone who come to your house.

Think before you act, eating ice cream using a cone, wafer or bread is a much better way as you can eat the cone, wafer or bread together with the ice cream. If you eat ice cream with a plastic cup, you would be throwing the plastic cup away after you eat the ice cream. That would increase the amount of plastic used.

Bring along environmental friendly bag when going shopping so as to reduce the amount of plastic wasted every time you buy things. So to encourage people to bring their bags, IKEA charges $0.20 per every plastic and NTUC charges $0.10 per every plastic. The environmental friendly bag can also be reuse every time you go shopping.

If you have been asking for plastic every time you shop, reuse plastic bags that is collected to line the bin. Bread bags make excellent freezer bags. Plastic bags can also be reuse for packing your bag on a holiday if you’r afraid that your clothes might get dirty in the bag.

Source: zerowaste.sg
               National Environmental Agency (NEA)