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Saturday, September 6, 2008

A Green City?

Over the years Singapore has had many campaigns to raise recycling awareness in its citizens. From the 1980s “Clean and Green Week” to the recent “Carry your own bag” initiatives, much effort has been put into inspiring Singaporeans to do their part in saving the environment. However, if one were to carefully observe the streets at the end of the day, one will not fail to find the streets littered with tissue papers and plastic bags. In addition, newspapers articles have also reported that recycling bins are often abused – instead of throwing the refuse into the appropriate trash bins, litters of all kinds can be found in the recycling bins. Recycling companies have also expressed their unwillingness to carry on their business, stating that not only is the profit margin low, the time and effort taken to separate the rubbish is astronomically high.

The main purpose of the report is to highlight that most Singaporeans have taken our title as “Garden City” for granted. People have been depending heavily on the government to maintain not only the cleanliness of the country but also to take care of the environment. Take for instance the recent “Carry your own bag” campaign that the government has initiated. Although the people have been strongly encouraged to bring their own bag while doing their grocery shopping, few have adhered to it. Most can still be seen carrying numerous plastic bags after having done their shopping.

Personally, despite the negativity displayed by many people, I do take pride in the achievement of the younger generation. Every year, several schools – primary, secondary and junior colleges have participated actively in recycling projects. Students have accumulated a huge amount of old newspapers and aluminum cans in the bid to do their part for the environment.

I do believe that while our education system has done well in highlighting the benefits of recycling to the youngsters, much can still be done to educate the general public. Though campaigns can indeed raise awareness, I think that it would be more effective if we were able to cultivate recycling into an everyday habit. The difficulty lies in how to go about achieving it.

My research question will be: To what extent will the public be willing to integrate recycling as part of their daily lives? In this case, an attitudinal survey is essential to collect feedbacks from the public on how they feel about recycling and to examine the extent of willingness in adopting recycling as part of their daily lives. We may be able to find out the reasons on the lack of enthusiasm in putting recycling into practice.

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