It’s all hands on deck when it comes to tackling climate change. In Singapore, the SG Green Plan 2030 is a national movement aimed at getting everyone involved towards building a sustainable future. With clear and achievable targets outlined in the Green Plan, every Singapore resident is encouraged to practise Green Citizenry by adopting climate-friendly and sustainable habits in our everyday lives, as we work towards building a city of green possibilities for future generations together.
Here are some ways you can do your part:
1) Recycle right: Check, Clean, Recycle.
If you recycle regularly, good for you! Make sure you’re doing it right, though. Based on a survey conducted by the National Environment Agency (NEA) in 2021, 3 in 5 households in Singapore recycled regularly, but many were not sure of what cannot be placed into the blue recycling bins.
For example, about half of those surveyed thought that soft toys and Styrofoam items could be placed into the bins for recycling. However, this is incorrect, and instead causes bin contamination and reduces recycling rate. With Semakau Landfill projected to run out of space by 2035, we need to recycle more and recycle right.
Here’s a simple 3-step process to recycle right:
Step 1: CHECK your items before appropriately disposing them. Not sure what’s recyclable and what’s not? Find out here or download a handy list
Step 2: CLEAN recyclable food and drink containers and bottles by emptying and rinsing them before disposal.
Step 3: RECYCLE more by placing them in the blue recycling bins. Remember to dispose of e-waste at the right places.
2) Adopt Good W-A-T-E-R Saving Habits
In Singapore, clean drinking water is readily available with just a turn of the tap. But did you know that each drop of water requires energy and much effort to be treated and produced before it reaches our homes?
With Singapore’s water demand expected to almost double by 2060, the amount of energy required to treat and produce water is likely to quadruple if we continue business as usual, which would greatly increase our carbon footprint. But if we all do our part to use water responsibly in our daily lives, we can help ensure a sustainable water supply for future generations.
Make every drop count with the good W-A-T-E-R saving habits below!
3) Choose Local Produce to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
What you eat matters, to both you and Mother Earth.
With Singapore currently importing 90% of our food, most of the food we eat here has travelled long distances and incurred significant carbon footprint. By switching to local sources, your food travels a far shorter distance to get to you, resulting in a much smaller carbon footprint.
This also means food grown and harvested locally are fresher, more nutritious, and enjoy a longer shelf life simply because less time is wasted to freight.
Some of our local farms have even gone the extra mile to get their farm operations certified with the Singapore Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) and Clean and Green (C&G) certification schemes.
To help consumers better identify local produce and differentiate produce from farms with quality assurance or sustainable schemes, look out for this new series of badges which feature Singapore Fresh Produce (SGFP), GAP Certification, and C&G Certification.
A star-studded integrated local produce branding to help consumers easily identify our local produce.
The three badges are distinguished by the number of stars and adopt a step-up approach signifying the incremental positive attributes of the local produce that carries the badge. At the entry one-star level, the SGFP badge is used to identify locally grown produce by any SFA-licensed farm to showcase the trusted ‘made-in-Singapore’ brand of fresh produce.
The next level is the two-star GAP Certification badge, which seeks to provide consumers with added quality assurance. Only local farms with practices that adhere to international best practices and have met the necessary quality requirements will be certified and allowed to use this badge.
For consumers who value produce that are farmed sustainably, they can go for those that carry the highest three-star certification. The C&G certification badge indicates that the produce is grown in a farm that has been certified to adopt both quality assurance and sustainable practices. Not only are such produce free from synthetic pesticides, they are also grown with minimal compromise to the environment, where farms adopt practices that ensure efficient use of resources and generate minimal amounts of waste.
With the launch of these new badges, consumers can now be more informed and make a more deliberate purchase to support local. It will take some time for farmers to apply for and complete GAP & C&G certification processes but gradually, as more farmers come on board, consumers will progressively see more of these badges appearing on supermarket shelves!
For more information on these local produce certification schemes, visit FromSGtoSG.
Living Sustainably Benefits Everyone
Sustainable living does not require superhuman efforts or major lifestyle changes. Everyone can play their part in saving our planet by adopting environmentally-conscious habits in our daily lives. So, what are you waiting for? Start your journey by following these three practical ways for sustainable living!