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We are a B2B Platform and focus on companies, yet while working on the waste management solutions, we ended up asking a lot of questions to our experts on our waste as individuals. The average recycling rate for individuals in Singapore was only 17% in 2019 and therefore, we, as individuals, can make a difference.
if we want to adress a problem, we need to understand it.
Here are some insightful videos & articles to read :
Articles:
Videos:
The main message?
Reducing our waste is even more important than just properly recycling it. Recycling should always come last after we have Refused, Reduced and Reused.
Some other take-aways:
Common household items that can be recycled easily:
Plastic: PET bottles, HDPE bottles, hard plastic, empty detergent, soap, condiment bottles, cosmetic bottles and containers, egg trays
Paper and cardboard: including TetraPak, Flyers, letters, envelopes, beverage cartons, milk and juice cartons, Toilet and kitchen roll tubes
Metal and aluminium: including can, canned drinks and canned food
Glass: containers, bottles
Must be dry, not contaminated with food and liquid.
Items that can be recycled but shouldn’t be placed in the blue recycling bins:
There are some things that seem to fall under the branch of recyclable materials, yet they CANNOT be recycled.
Some examples are:
Make sure to rinse all containers previously filled with any sort of content
For example, items such as shampoo/detergent bottles, canned/bottled drinks, cosmetic jars, jam jars need to be clean before they can be recycled. This is to prevent they contaminate other recyclables, especially paper. Soiled paper cannot be recycled, and all recyclables that have been contaminated will be dumped and incinerated with general waste. So give your containers a simple rinse before you put them into the blue bin.
Make sure your paper & cardboards items are not contaminated with food or liquids. Remove the contaminated part where relevant.
If paper or cardboards are wet, greasy or contain food, they are not recyclable and can also contaminate the rest of the items in the recycling bin.
Food Waste constitutes about 20% of waste disposed of in Singapore. It has strictly no value for a waste-to-energy strategy as food waste is mainly composed of water and therefore requires a lot of energy to burn. The good news is Food Waste has value!
Food Waste includes:
First, by making sure we order or cook what we need, we could significantly decrease our waste.
Second, by composting this waste (at least the veggie part of it), we can decrease the food waste sent to incineration.
Easier said than done? Here are links to help you start your composting journey.
Repair should be the first option considered before throwing away an item.
For electrical repair, fabric repair or mechanical repair, get in touch with repair kopitiam.
Too busy or too overwhelmed to sort your recyclables? Fear of contamination for your recyclables? There are some convenient recyclables dropping points or collections services in Singapore:
For e-waste, find all dropping points on the NEA website where to recycle e-waste
Antibiotics and anti-cancer medicines cannot be disposed of at home but other standard medicines can be.
Here are few tips:
The « sustainability journey » may feel overwhelming sometimes, but you are not alone.
Our Buddies have tried, succeeded, failed to implement change in their companies. They share their experience so you can learn, take shortcuts, get inspired and ask questions.
Everybody can become a Buddy and give back to the community; if you are keen, get in touch with us.
Alya is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, Positive Mentor, and engaging Public Speaker driven by her mission to empower change-makers to take action with a 'Positive Push.'
As the founder of Green Push, she works with companies to engage employees in sustainability through customised programmes that inspire positive change. At her core, Alya is a natural people connector and community builder, dedicated to creating spaces where individuals can collaborate and amplify their collective impact.
Through her mentoring, Alya offers actionable insights and encouragement to aspiring changemakers, guiding them to turn their ideas into real-world impact. As a public speaker, her keynotes can explore topics like Climate Action, Impact Entrepreneurship, and Climate Optimism, inspiring others to make a difference.
Alya is also an Earth shot Prize Official Nominator for 2025 - if you have an inspiring, inclusive, and impactful solution, feel free to get in touch!
I am the founder of Upcircle, a startup that makes it easy for the community to participate in the circular economy. Upcircle also works with property management companies and grassroots leaders to divert valuable resources from households away from waste streams. As a champion of resource circularity, I leveraged my experience working in tech companies like Apple and Siemens, to launch an app that enables peer-to-peer crowdsourcing of materials. The app successfully grew to 1,200 registered users with more than 100 listed projects within 3 months of launch, enabling more than 1,000 units of items transacted.
With 17 years of experience in IT across different sectors and industries, Benoit managed a team focusing on project management and IT application support in Singapore. In 2017, he was one of the founders, and later on leader of Credit Agricole CIB's first green team in Singapore. Since 2022, he has started in France a new adventure within Credit Agricole Assurances (CAA) and managed up to 24 people, in software integration team.
Recently, in September 2023, he was promoted to ECODESIGN Coach within CAA. He is creating and deploying a new framework for all projects to add a sustainability dimension to help CAA reduce its environmental impact.
Before joining Chanel, I was General Manager of BSI Singapore for 2.5 years. Prior to joining BSI, I held different job assignments for the international retailer Carrefour. For them, I oversaw Quality, Food Safety and Sustainability in China and then at the Group level.
I spent most of my career working in Asia: in Shanghai, Hong Kong and I have been happily settled in Singapore for 8 years now.
I have a real passion for sustainability and nature conservation and I love to share the knowledge and experience I gained in this field. I am also a volunteer for the Singaporean NGO called Climate Conversation which aims to raise awareness on climate change.
Package Pals is a circular packaging initiative that seeks to extend the life cycle of packaging. We collect used e-commerce packaging from members of the public, distributing it back to businesses seeking eco-friendly, second hand packaging options. There are 7 categories of packaging we collect: poly mailers (<A4),paper envelopes (<A4), plastic wrappers (<A4), bubble wrap, padded envelopes.
Package Pals has worked with multiple large and small businesses, schools, NGOs and governmental organisations since it was started in May 2020. Other than carrying out collection and distribution, we also focus on education and outreach, seeking to educate our 4k-strong audience on packaging waste and other environmental issues, through social media, webinars and other events.
Carolin is a passionate and driven entrepreneur and sustainability advocate. She is involved in many projects and initiatives that contribute to reducing our environmental impact.
In 2020, Carolin founded the social enterprise susGain.
susGain is a rewards-based engagement app that focuses on driving behavioural change within communities (corporates, schools, NGOs etc.) whilst measuring ESG reportable data on the impact created. By better connecting the environmentally and socially conscious stakeholders, susGain hopes to accelerate the change towards more sustainable communities.
Prior to susGain, Carolin worked as Account & Project Manager in an HR consulting and change management firm, where she was responsible for business development and end-to-end project management of training and consulting projects across APAC.
In July 2021, Carolin won the Finder's Expatpreneur Sustainability Award. susGain has also been recognized by Global Initiatives at the Sustainable Business Awards Singapore 2020/21.
I run a business called Bright Green where I work with corporates to engage employees in impact projects in the areas of environmental and social impact. I also facilitate sustainability learning programs to educate employees on developing an eco-friendly mindset and high impact actions they can take in their homes and daily lives.
Before founding Bright Green in 2020, I have been working in Project Management, Change Management and Continuous Improvement roles within Human Resources and Recruitment. I love that I get to work with organisations that are making commitments to net-zero and inspire employees to make an impact!
