Teachers, Students, Partners, Good Afternoon. It Is My Pleasure to Join
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Teachers, Students, Partners, Good afternoon. It is my pleasure to join you again for Youth for the Environment Day, or YED. Sustaining the Climate Action Momentum 2 At YED 2018, which took place in our Year of Climate Action, I called on schools and students to reduce our carbon footprint by consuming less and recycling more. The responses have been encouraging. Schools have organised more than 60 climate action-related projects tapping on the National Environment Agency’s Environment Fund for Schools. One example is Broadrick Secondary School, which organised school-wide activities to collect used paper and e-waste for recycling. We can reuse the materials from the e-waste collected. 3 With the collective efforts of all Singaporeans, we collected more than 340,000 climate action pledges. In fact, we are the first in the world to declare a Year of Climate Action. We reported this at the United Nations last year, and several countries have told me that they are thinking of embarking on similar efforts to mobilize their populations to fight climate change. But our climate action efforts must not stop here. We cannot have a campaign for a year and lose the momentum after. An area where we can do more, is waste management. Becoming a Zero Waste Nation 4 We are facing a growing waste problem. Our population is growing and our economy is doing better. As a result, we are consuming and throwing more. In 2018, we generated 7.7 million tonnes of waste. This is equivalent to the weight of close to 530,000 double-decker buses. At the current rate of waste generation, our only landfill, Semakau Landfill, will run out of space by 2035. This is not a long time from now. We have to make Semakau Landfill last as long as possible by being responsible consumers and disposing of our waste properly. 5 This is why we designated 2019 as our Year Towards Zero Waste. We need to work together as a country to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Right, and adopt a zero waste mindset. We have to re-think how we produce and move away from a linear economy, where we take from nature, make something of it, use it, and throw it after. In a circular economy, we manage our resources, reusing them again and again, for as long as possible. After we open a can of food for a meal, we should rinse the can and bring it to the blue recycling bin so that it can be processed for reuse. If we do not finish our food, we can collect the leftovers and turn them into compost for the community garden. This is what we mean by the circular economy approach, where we actively reuse and recycle materials. If we do that, our trash will turn into treasure. We can derive a lot of reusable minerals or materials from waste, instead of throwing them. We can turn Singapore into an urban mine. This will bring us towards sustainable production and consumption. 6 Moving towards a circular economy will mean more opportunities for our enterprises. It also means new jobs for you by the time you finish school. We need designers to design products that minimise environmental impact while maximising product life cycle and recyclability. We need engineers to develop standards for waste management and recycling operations. We need scientists to study microorganisms for efficient food waste processing. Instead of having to bring your food waste into schools and shopping malls, we can have such processing done at home, so that the compost can be used to grow food right within your home. We also need analysts to study the data collected and strategists to think about how we can scale it up. Upcycling our materials will also involve engineering, chemistry, design and a whole set of other skills and expertise. We can have a whole new economy for the environment. We have done this for water, where we have closed the loop, producing 14,000 jobs and generating an annual value-add of 2.5 billion dollars for our economy. Efforts in Moving Towards Zero Waste 7 Circular economy efforts are not entirely new in Singapore. Since 2017, 10 schools have been participating in Love Your Food @ Schools, an NEA project that help students to understand why they need to segregate their leftover food. ITE College Central, our venue host and co-organiser of YED event, has also been a strong advocate in promoting a Zero Waste culture. Last month, ITE College staff initiated a “One Less Straw” Campaign on campus to reduce the use of disposables. Other programmes include a joint e-waste recycling drive with Hewlett Packard, and a collaboration with The Food Bank Singapore to reduce food waste. 8 Another advocate of environmental sustainability is Ms Amanda Chow from Temasek Secondary School. Amanda and her juniors demonstrated that environmental engagement must go beyond campuses. They taught senior citizens and preschoolers how to make handicraft from recycled materials, and encouraged them to reduce their use of plastics. She is here with us today. Let us give Amanda, ITE College staff and all our environmental champions a round of applause. A Zero Waste Nation begins with you 9 To convince others to change, all of us must walk the talk. We must show our friends and families what it means to become responsible consumers, and tell producers to become responsible producers. There are many ways that you can help reduce our waste — order only the amount of food you can finish, and bring a reusable bottle and bag with you. Our water is amongst the cleanest in the world. It is ready to drink straight from the tap. Bring your own bottles, put the water into your bottle, and bring it everywhere for you to drink. Stop buying PET bottles so that we do not have to dispose of them. Make sure your items are suitable for the blue recycling bin by checking the label on it. Not everything should be thrown in the recycling bin. Recycle right by not contaminating recyclables with food and liquid. 10 Earlier this month, NEA launched the “Towards Zero Waste Challenge”. It calls on schools and students to adopt environmentally-friendly practices to reduce wastage. Let us do our part. Eliminate single-use plastic bottles and disposable cutlery at your events. Conclusion 11 You are the youths of today and leaders of tomorrow. You have a very important role to play. We need you to rally the community to care for our environment. Let us lead by example with our positive actions. Together, we can bring Singapore closer to a Zero Waste Nation. Thank you..