When I previously worked in the Central Business District, I noticed how office workers often displayed poor waste disposal habits from a personal lifestyle perspective.

Rubbish bins in office pantries were often overflowing and cleaners had to clear the trash bins more than once a day. What was also striking was the large amount of food wastage at eateries during mealtimes. This left a deep impression on me as despite being considered highly educated, many of the office workers appeared to have little awareness of the downstream effects when things go to waste.  

These effects may not always be something that we can visibly see in urban cities like Singapore and thus may not affect us, but they are happening around the world. These observations thus motivated me to tackle these negative traits by shaping new and positive behaviour.

I started Green Nudge in 2018 initially as an initiative by tapping on a grant to ensure that events were held in a sustainable manner. In order to attract volunteers to help out at events to encourage proper waste disposal habits, I subsequently carried out coastal cleanups to illustrate the impact of waste to the physical environment. As the traction grew, we expanded our offerings to offer workshops, learning trails as well as talks and sharing.

I realised very early that Green Nudge cannot rely on donations to operate. If it did, most of my time would be spent canvassing for donations and this would shift my focus away from what I had originally set out to do. Instead, by turning this into a for-profit and for-impact entity through a social enterprise model by providing events and services for a fee, this helps to ensure that we will be here for the long-term.

This does mean that it takes some time to persuade and convince potential clients about the value that we bring to their work. Given that many people would see activities like cleanups to be volunteer driven, it was difficult to explain that working to facilitate an educational cleanup, including provision of relevant reusable cleanup equipment (to reduce disposable waste) is something to pay for. However, we slowly gained support when clients could see the value in working with someone who could not just reduce the administrative hassle in selecting a site and place for large groups of participants, but also provide an added value of educational sharing and discussion.

Another challenge was trying to convince event organisers that the lack of proper waste management at events could affect their branding in the long run. In ensuring waste and litter are properly managed, this minimises potential backlash from participants and consumers who are becoming more environmentally conscious. We were heartened to note that our efforts benefited one event organiser. Instead of receiving complaints, which was a frequent occurrence in past events, they received compliments for how the event had improved.

Among the slew of activities, I do consider cleanups to be really important one and an opportunity for us to share more.

With Singapore being surrounded by water, marine debris does affect us as a country a lot more than we think. Just a mere count on coastal debris picked up over 2 months each year by informal groups result in nearly 15,000 kg of trash being collected. This excludes the amount of trash picked up other formal cleaning services. With the use of single use disposables being relatively common around the region, the marine debris is an illustration of how trash from one area could inevitably end up affecting another area.

Given this forms the first impression for many, including individuals for whom it is often a first-time engagement with the environment, it is important for us to ensure that participants leave with not just a good feeling of picking up trash. In fact, beyond the act of cleaning up the shore, it is more important for us to drive home the message that sustainability efforts can start from our own homes, lives or offices.

By sharing more about the historical and cultural values of the sites that we clean, as well as invite participants to observe the surrounding features of the areas, we help to weave in the relationship between our actions and their impact to the environment.

We may not be able to prevent the marine debris in the ocean to be cleaned up overnight, but we certainly can help to share ways and encourage participants to be part of the solution in reducing marine debris litter and responsible use of disposables.