Environmental Agency National Environmental Agency World Health Organization (WHO) United Nations Env Programme Friends of the Env Waste Watch (UK) Australian Gov Environment Department of Env, Malaysia Clean Air World Env Body of Singapore ___________________ Magazines The Env Magazines WasteRecyclingChannel WildSingapore Wildlife Conservation Living on Earth GreenPeace Adubon Magazine Journal of Natural Environments Read Environment eMagazines ___________________ Possible Campus Activities NEA Possible Campus Activities Nature Parks Events for CGW Nov04 South West CDC ___________________ Individuals Webby Frodo's Recycle Raffles Girls Green Site ___________________ Other Websites List of Environment sites in SP Environmental Defense NEA Green Links RecycleZone: WasteWeb How Stuff Works: Hybrid Cars ___________________ |
| Environment Websites Singapore Env Council | Eco-Office | Ministry Env | Singapore Green Plan | Nature Society | Green Corps | Nature Photosociety | GreenPeace | ______________________ |
| Recycling Sites US Env Protection Agency: Recycling | EnviroLinks*** | UK Teacher Recycling Zone | GreenChoices | GreenNature | ___________________ |
| Recycling http://www.greenchoices.org/recycling.html Its Easy Being Green Learning for a Better World The Home, School, and Neighborhood as Mini-Environments Each household produces about 1 tonne of rubbish annually, amounting to about 27 million tonnes for the UK each year. The amount is increasing, because increasing affluence leads to more being consumed and lifestyles are changing, so more fast and convenience food is eaten. Also new packaging materials and technology are being developed. About a quarter of the waste in the average household bin is packaging waste. Contents Background Waste reduction Why recycle? What can be recycled? A product-by-product guide to recycling More information --------------------------------- Background Disposing of waste has huge environmental impacts and can cause serious problems. In the U.K. much is buried in landfill sites - holes in the ground, sometimes old quarries, sometimes specially dug. Some waste will eventually rot, but not all, and in the process it may smell or generate methane gas, which is explosive and contributes to the greenhouse effect. Leachate produced as waste decomposes may cause pollution. Badly-managed landfill sites may attract vermin or cause litter. Incinerating waste also causes problems, because plastics tend to produce toxic substances, such as dioxins, when they are burnt. Gases from incineration may cause air pollution and contribute to acid rain, while the ash from incinerators may contain heavy metals and other toxins. Because of these problems there are active campaigns against waste incineration. For more information on the problems of waste incineration see the Greenpeace Anti-incineration Homepage. However, burning waste can generate energy and there are operational schemes. The Energy for Waste Association gives more information. Throwing away things wastes resources. It wastes the raw materials and energy used in making the items and it wastes money. Reducing waste means less environmental impact, less resources and energy used and saves money. ------------------------------------- Waste reduction The government is committed to reducing the amount of waste and has set targets for waste. "Waste Strategy 2000", which outlines proposals for the future of waste management in England and Wales has been produced by the Department of Environment Transport and Regions. SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) have released a strategy for Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Environment and Heritage Service have released a strategy, a summary of which is available on the EHSNI website. Local authorities are responsible for waste disposal and the government has introduced legislative targets for local authorities. The aim is for all local authorities to recycle at least 10% by 2003. Those which currently recycle 5 - 15% must double their rate by 2003, and those already recycling more than 15% must recycle or compost at least one third of their household waste. A pdf file rating councils' recycling records can be found on the How green is your council? website. Wastewatch estimate that at least half of the contents of our dustbins could potentially be recycled. In addition, we could compost the 20% of vegetable peelings and other organic waste that we throw away. Despite this potential to recycle or compost around 60% - 70% of our waste, we are only recycling or composting 12%. A total of 80% of municipal waste is landfilled and 8% is incinerated to produce energy. The Women's Environment Network waste prevention campaign focuses on preventing waste at source, rather than recycling. They have developed and promote a wide range of waste-avoiding goods and services such as composting, refills, repair shops, reduced packaging and leasing schemes. Recycling is only one aspect of waste reduction. There are other steps which can be taken. Only recycle things if you are sure they cannot be repaired or reused. Refuse: Don't buy things you don't need. Avoid disposable products, designed to be thrown away. Don't buy overpackaged goods. Reduce: Buy things that are well made and will last. Buy things in returnable containers - and return the containers once empty. Concentrated products give you more active ingredient but make sure you do not use too much - follow the instructions. Buying in bulk, if you have the money and storage space and need the goods, reduces the amount of packaging. Try to avoid buying overpackaged goods. Some packaging is useful, protecting the contents, providing somewhere to print information about the product and making it easier for shopkeepers to handle. Taking your own shopping bag means you don't need to use plastic carrier bags. Disposable nappies are bulky and difficult to dispose of. Try using reusable washable nappies instead. See the GreenChoices baby section. Using rechargeable batteries and recharging electrical appliances will save on batteries. The Mailing Preference Service reduces the amount of junk mail you will receive. Refill: For some products refill packs can be bought, which use less packaging. Reuse: Lots of things can be reused. If you can't reuse them yourself try to find someone else who can. Jam-jars and bottles: if you don't make jam/marmalade/preserves/wine find someone who does. They can also be used for storing all manner of things - but make sure they are properly labelled. Plastic carrier bags can be reused several times as shopping bags, can be used to take items to be reused/recycled, and can be used as bin liners. Old clothes, books, toys, unwanted gifts and household goods are easy to reuse: give them to a jumble sale or a charity shop. Envelopes can be reused with a reuse label (plain or printed) or can be used as scrap paper. Repair: Any items, especially electrical items, can be repaired. There are still specialist repair shops though these may not be easy to find. In some places special schemes have been set up which create work for people by collecting and refurbishing second-hand electrical equipment and furniture. If you have things which cannot be reused, repaired or recycled please dispose of them carefully. Do not throw garden and household chemicals, or paint, or engine oil, down the drain. Don't use the toilet to dispose of waste. If in doubt about how to dispose safely of something, contact your local authority waste disposal department. ---------------------------------------- Why recycle? Recycling reduces the demand for raw materials. This means less needs mining, quarrying or logging. Many parts of the world have been blighted by mining and quarrying, which destroy the natural environment and wildlife habitats and may cause environmental and health problems for local people. Also transporting raw materials around the world uses fossil fuels and has an environmental impact. Although some materials for recycling need to be transported around the UK, the impact of this is significantly less than that of transporting raw materials from often remote locations in other parts of the world. In many cases recycling uses less energy than producing goods from virgin material, and also results in fewer emissions. The manufacture of bags made from recycled rather than virgin polythene reduces energy consumption by two-thirds, produces only a third of the sulphur dioxide and half of the nitrous oxide, uses only one-eighth of the water, and reduces carbon dioxide generation. --------------------------------------- What can be recycled? A great many materials could be recycled but what can be recycled in practice is dependent on economics. Aluminium is worth recycling because it can easily be turned into new aluminium products, and because aluminium is quite expensive. Steel is much cheaper to produce so there is less incentive to recycle it, although it can easily be recycled. This is why there are schemes which give cash for aluminium cans but not for steel ones. The economics of recycling improves if there is a market for goods made with recycled raw materials. So buying recycled promotes recycling. See Buy Recycled for the National Recycling Forum's directory of products containing recycled materials. Other materials are much harder to recycle because the products containing them contain a mixture of materials. A computer may contain several sorts of plastic, various metals, including some which may be toxic such as cadmium, glass and ceramics. Even a soft drinks bottle may contain several sorts of plastic, while a milk carton cannot be recycled as paper because it is lined with plastic or foil. More and more goods are being marked with symbols which help with recycling by indicating what they are made of and whether they can be recycled. Explanations of these can be found on the Recycle More website. Local authorities are responsible for waste disposal so always contact your local council first to find out what recycling facilities they offer. Some may make special one-off collections. To find out what your local authority will recycle contact the Recycling Officer - details should be listed in the telephone directory or contact the Wastewatch Wasteline. Some local authorities run kerbside recycling services, serving 43% of British households, while others use bring-banks, large skips to which people take recyclable rubbish, and some extract recyclable materials from mixed waste. Steel, for example, can easily be recycled from mixed rubbish because it is magnetic. A pdf file rating councils' recycling records can be found on the How green is your council? website. Websites run by Recycle More and Wasteconnect enable you to locate your local recycling points. You enter your town or postcode and the sort of waste you want to recycle and they provide brief details of appropriate recycling points. Recycle More provides detailed maps, while Wasteconnect's Wastepoint gives more options for specifying your waste. -------------------------------------- A product-by-product guide to recycling Much of this information came from the Wastewatch site, where many more details can be found. Aerosols: these can be recycled in some can banks (check the front of the bank for details); do not crush the aerosol can, and make sure it's empty. Aluminium foil: Details of local foil banks and of organisations and charities which collect and recycle foil can be found through Alufoil, part of the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) with lots of information on aluminium and its recycling. Don't put foil in can banks because aluminium cans and foil have a different composition. Batteries: Rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries are toxic waste and must be sent back to the manufacturer (many have freepost addresses for this). Ordinary household batteries and the new rechargeables contain no toxic chemicals. Silver oxide button cells (as found in cameras) can be given to jewellers, who recover the silver from them. Car batteries should be given back to the supplier for recycling. Bicycles: Re-cycle sends old bikes for rehabilitation and use in the developing world. Books: Greenmetropolis.com is a new internet bookstore, designed specifically to promote recycling of paperbacks. The site encourages people to buy second hand books instead of new, and then once they've read them, to sell them back so that someone else may read them. Alternatively, take old and unwanted books to the nearest charity shop. Cans: Visit Recycle More or Wasteconnect for details of your nearest can bank. Alcan's Cash for Cans scheme enables good causes to earn money from recycling aluminium cans. General information on recycling can be obtained from Alucan (aluminium cans) or SCRIB (steel). CDs: many imaginative uses have been suggested for unwanted promotional CDs, whether as mobiles for children with learning difficulties, coasters for your cups or just suspended over the vegetable plot as bird scarers; all ideas welcome! Christmas trees: five million are bought in Britain each year - if you buy one, make sure its recycled afterwards (many become mulch for park flower beds); contact your local council. Like other garden waste Christmas trees can be composted - see the GreenChoices gardening page for more information and contacts about composting. Computers: there are increasing numbers of companies which collect and refurbish computer equipment. Some have minimum quantities which they will collect and they may not collect very old equipment. Some also sell refurbished computers cheaply to schools and good causes. Computers for Charity collects old computers free of charge and revamps them for reuse by schools, charities and voluntary groups. Recycle IT collects computer hardware, printers, monitors, cable, CDs and cartridges. Usable items are redistributed to schools and non-profit community Projects. Recycle IT Ltd refurbishes surplus commercial computers and passes them on to charities, voluntary groups and educational organisations. The Second Byte Project accepts whole or part computer systems and peripherals, and also software and manuals. The website has notice boards for donors and recipients of equipment. Tools for Schools refurbishes surplus commercial computers and gives them a new lease of life in schools. Free Computers for Education is a charity, associated with Rotary Clubs, which refurbishes surplus computers and gives them a new lease of life in schools. Working equipment only. Free collection throughout the UK. MIREC offers the full range of services for the recovery, reuse, refurbishment, re-marketing and recycling of excess and obsolete IT and telecoms equipment on a pan-European basis. Techwaste recycle technology equipment including mainframes, printers, PCs and fax machines. Redundant Technology Initiative is an innovative UK arts group that uses junked computers for art and website training. Furniture: the Furniture Recycling Network is the national umbrella body for local furniture recycling schemes. Some charities and some charity shops take furniture if it is in good condition. So do local auction houses. Glass: as well as kerbside collections in some areas, there are over 20,000 bottle banks in Britain; blue glass should be recycled together with green. Recycling Glass is an educational website aimed at schoolchildren. Green stuff: kitchen and garden waste makes up a third of all household waste; start your own compost heap today (see GreenChoices gardening section for details). In some areas local authorities or community schemes may collect compostable material. If you want to set up a community composting scheme contact the Community Composting Network. Junk mail: many councils now accept envelopes with plastic windows in normal paper recycling facilities; to have your name removed from junk mailing lists, register free with the Mailing Preference Service. Mobile phones: several schemes exist which collect and refurbish or recycle mobile phones, and some charity shops may collect mobile phones. Fonebak, collecting used mobiles for refurbishment, reuse and recycling. Oxfam run the "bRing bRing" scheme which can turn unwanted mobile phones and their accessories into money to support work with people all over the world. On average, each donated handset is worth �5 to Oxfam. Cellular Reclamation Ltd can provide collecting boxes for charities, community groups etc. Once you have 10 or more phones they will collect for free and pay for the phones, depending on condition and model. CRUMP (Campaign To Recycle Unwanted Mobile Phones) from Child Advocacy International. Donated phones and computer inkjets are sold on to be recycled or reconditioned with the money supporting healthcare for children affected by poverty, war and violence. Environmental Mobile Control specialise in providing simple buy back and recycling solutions for surplus mobile phones. Mobile phones4charity is a mobile phone reuse/recycling group which raises funds for selected charities of choice. Provides freepost addresses for smaller quantities and will collect larger quantities (over 50). Eurosource recycle unwanted mobile phones and printer cartridges for charitable cause. Vodafone operates a mobile phone recycling scheme. Anyone can take their old phone to any of the 340 stores nationwide. All accessories, chargers, adaptors and even manuals are accepted. Phones are refurbished, recycled or dismantled by Shields Environmental. A donation is made by Vodafone for each phone processed to Fauna and Flora International. cartridges4charity.co.uk recycle mobiles as well as printer cartridges. Oils: Old engine oil can prove both messy and hazardous if not disposed of properly. Oil poured down the drain or sink is a major cause of water pollution. However used engine oil can be recycled. Solve these problems and save resources at the same time. There are more than 1,500 oil recycling banks throughout the UK and Northern Ireland. To find your nearest visit Oilbankline. Paint and chemicals: Donate half empty tins of paint to an exchange scheme. Community Re>Paint is a network of paint reuse schemes across the UK. These collect leftover reusable paint from householders, and redistribute it to those who need paint but cannot afford it. Unwanted household or garden chemicals can sometimes be recycled - see the 'virtual house' on the National Hazardous Household Waste Forum site. The NHHWF also gives guidance on how non-recyclable hazardous waste can safely be disposed of. Paper: if your council has no facilities for recycling paper, it should; alternatively, the British Recovered Paper Association has an interactive map of waste paper merchants in Britain. Phone books, yellow pages: some councils collect telephone directories only, while others take both; most paper banks take neither. For details of how to recycle either, contact Directory Recycling tel: 0800 671444. Plastic: there are now 210 plastic recycling schemes with 4,115 plastic bottle collection banks and 125 kerbside schemes but not all authorities recycle plastic so you may need to badger your local authority. RECOUP has more information and statistics on recycling plastic bottles and other containers. Printer and toner cartridges: many groups now provide a recycling service for individuals as well as businesses, with all proceeds going to charity - see Wastewatch's searchable list for details. Some of the companies listed above under computers and under mobile phones also recycle printer and toner cartridges. For information and advice on reconditioned and recycled cartridges contact the UK Cartridge Recyclers Association (UKCRA) which sets the standards for the industry. Shoes: as well as the normal charity outlets, the European Recycling Company (0500 827198) runs a national network of collecting points for second-hand shoes which are sent out to developing countries for reuse. Tools: carpentry, building and blacksmith tools are always required for reuse in the developing world by Tools for Self Reliance who repair and refurbish them. They work with local organisations in Africa, providing tools and training to help artisans and craftworkers. Videotapes: if they're still in good order, take them to charity shops; when broken they have to be thrown away (recycling services will only accept videos in bulk from businesses). Water: grey water (water which has been used once in washing etc) can be used again. CAT sell 'Growing Year Round' grey water tipsheet for 50p from their publications catalogue giving details of things you can do; remember, a shower uses only half the water needed for a bath. Top of page __________________________________________________ |
| Singapore households not recycling enough of their rubbish By Bridgette See, Channel NewsAsia Posted: 30 October 2003 2348 hrs Households in Singapore are not recycling enough of their rubbish - so waste management companies say it is too costly to go about collecting junk. The programme to collect household junk was launched two years ago. One in two and half households are now recycling - compared to one in three when the programme was launched. Since then, from 700 tonnes or one swimming pool worth of recyclable waste collected each month, it has gone up to about two swimming pools each month. But Environment Minister Lim Swee Say, at the launch of a waste management exhibition on Thursday, said that door to door collection is not the long term solution to cutting waste in Singapore. Lim Swee Say, Environment Minister, said: "That has worked very well, but yet at the same time, the industry is suggesting to us, that maybe on certain footpath within a certain estate where there's high human traffic, they be allowed to place recycling bins. For example when our residents, when they go to work in the morning, they can bring out their recycling bags to deposit." The idea is that residents must take responsibility - after all there are now 4,000 recycling bins islandwide. When the recycling bins were put in public places two years ago, more than half of what was thrown in was rubbish but not anymore. In fact, the amount of recyclables collected each month has increased 10 times, from 50 tonnes a month to 500 tonnes a month this year. Encouraged by this success, new ideas are being tried out. Such as a bin with advertising potential - on trial at 12 schools. At the exhibition, a waste collection machine was launched. The EnviroEz - which works like a huge vacuum cleaner - reduces the need for a worker to have physical contact with rubbish. ______________________________ |
Tips on protecting the environment http://www.greenpeace.ca/e/ resource/green/school.php (See extracts below) After School... Everyone must play a part in protecting the environment. There are many suggestions on this site you can do, just ask an adult for help. There are also many things you can do on your own every day to help save the planet. Here are a few suggestions: Save water � Don�t leave taps running while you�re not using them. � Take a short shower instead of a bath. � Only run the dishwasher and washing machine when they are fully loaded. Save energy � Turn lights on only when needed and turn them off when you�re done to save energy. � Avoid using cars. Walk, cycle or use public transit whenever possible. � Organize a walking school bus. Plan a route that allows you to pick up people as you walk to school. � Keep the outside doors and windows closed during the winter � turn down the heat if you�re too warm. � Leave your curtains open during the day to let the sun heat your house and close them in the evening to prevent heat from escaping. � Put on a sweater instead of turning up the thermostat. Avoid waste and toxics � Think of ways to reuse things before you throw them out, like jars for food and scraps of paper for notes. � Use recycled paper instead of plastic products. � Save leftover food instead of throwing it away. � Buy products that use the least packaging. � Give away clothing when you�re done with it instead of throwing it away. � Use the public library for books and magazines or give them away when you�re finished with them. � Take a backpack with you when you go shopping to avoid plastic bags. Give the Earth a hand � Plant a tree. Trees can absorb and store huge amounts of carbon dioxide and generate oxygen while purifying the air we breathe. Start the seedling in a pot indoors and plant it outside in spring. Seedlings need a lot of care the first two years, including water, vertical support and mulch, so you will be able to see the tree grow and take its place in the cycle of nature as you care for it. � Use an old milk carton to make a bird feeder. You can watch the birds that come to feed. Remember to keep the feeder stocked; once the birds know they can eat at your house they�ll keep coming back. At school... Protecting the planet can also be part of your daily life at school. Here are a few ideas for getting your friends and teachers involved in the fight to save the planet: � Pack a garbageless lunch, take a reusable container instead. � Before buying school supplies in September, take a look at what you have left over from June. � Start an anti-litter campaign at your school. � Join the environmental club if there is one or start your own. � Make environmental studies part of every subject taught in your school. � Brainstorm environmental projects with other students and teachers. You could clean up the environment from the school yard to the river and beyond. � Request a non-toxic environment in your school. Examine your school�s cleaning supplies, lawn care, supplies and paint. Ask your environmental group to come up with a list of environmental guidelines for the school. _____________________________ |
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