We haven’t really improved our recycling habits
The Semakau Landfill — Singapore’s ‘clean’ dumping site — first started operations in 1999. It was meant to slow down the rate of wastage that the country is generating. This was coupled with many initiatives rolled out over the years in Singapore to improve citizens’ consumption and recycling habits from a more bottom-up approach.
A source provided by data.gov.sg shows the raw amount (in million tons) that Singapore has generated waste and recycled.
But here’s the interesting insight I found: when I calculated the Waste-to-Recycling ratio in each year, we noticed a general, increasing trend that might give the illusion of a relatively steady improvement (sans 2014 when the ratio dipped).
However, when I plotted the Improvement rates (the ratio difference between every two consecutive years) we see an erratic fluctuation. Check it out below:
Join the discussion here!
Without any further math wizarding, we can already glean how removed our efforts to recycle (or perhaps: be conscientious in our consumption) are in contrast to our consumerist habits.
Back to the Semakau Landfill, if we are not going to improve our recycling habits by the time that project has been completed, where else are we going to dump our wastes at?
That aside, I’ve included some quick pro-tips at improving our recycling habits:
1. Start small: refuse single-use plastics
You don’t have to buy yourself a metal straw that you can’t commit to if you can just summon the willpower to refuse a straw at Starbucks, McDonald’s, and even free-flow drinks bars. (Recently, I dined out with my friends at Saizeriya and made the mistake of taking a straw when there was no need to.)
On the note of metal straws — if you’re someone who tend to lose it repetitively, for the love of this Earth, please don’t get yourself another. We don’t want to waste good material for naught. Additionally, we have to make sure that the metal straws we buy aren’t counterfeits as these sources create more waste!
2. Do NOT throw dirty food containers into recycling bins
The plastic Tupperware you want to throw for the good of the Earth might just backlash: Every recycling bin that gets contaminated is not recycled at the end of the day.
3. Use used printing paper
For students, use scratch paper to do your calculations and scribbling on! For every paper that is wrongly printed on, we can make a new notebook to fill its pages with!
And of course, we should share what we know with everyone else to ensure the awareness and better account for each other’s activities. Teamwork gets the dream work!
Here’s a follow-up article on how I did up my graph as a first time Python coder (lmaoz).
