During the summer I wanted to learn more about plastic, so I decided to try volunteering for the first time. It is at the place called Ground-up Initiative (GUI), the plastic project. The GUI plastic project collects plastic from beach cleanups and from neighbors and transforms it into something useful.
(I also wanted to join the beach cleanups, but at the moment due to COVID restrictions in Singapore, it is prohibited for people to gather in large groups, so when the restrictions are lifted, I would like to join the beach cleanups.)
At the plastic project, they collect different types of plastic and try to make a product out of the waste. First, they sort the plastic depending on the type of plastic, because each type of plastic’s melting point is different. The types we sorted it into are recycled numbers 2, 4, and 5 only. Then they clean the plastic and separate them into different colors. After that, they cut the plastic into smaller pieces, then shred it. The last step is melting the plastic and molding it into different shapes to make the product.
When we went to the plastic project, we sorted the plastic, cleaned the plastic, and helped with shredding them. There were so many different steps to do to make a small item. What really surprised me was that everything there was homemade, the container-house and the machines (the machine was made by volunteers). I am really happy that I got to go because I had a chance to learn more about what can be done with plastic. I plan to continue volunteering here.
As climate change is becoming our real issue globally, I started wondering how Singapore has been addressing this issue as a country. I heard that there is a gallery called “Sustainable Singapore Gallery” near the Marina area, so I visited there to learn more about sustainable actions in Singapore. As Singapore is a small country surrounded by the ocean, stabilizing its environmental sustainability has always been important to Singapore’s development.
In the past decade, Singapore noticed some severe changes in the climate, for example, the annual mean temperature increasing, or that sea levels are rising at the rate of 1.2-1.7mm per year. Singapore also experienced extreme conditions in recent years like heavy rainfall or the hottest year on record in Singapore. So Singapore committed to addressing climate change very seriously and pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 36% from the 2005 levels, by the year 2030. They are committed to achieving that goal for the benefit of future generations and their vision of a sustainable Singapore.
One example of reaching the goal is to promote Solar Energy. It is summer all year long in Singapore, so Solar Energy adoption is growing rapidly. They are adding more Solar Energy in housing estates, Industries, and even at our Reservoirs. My current school plans to install 3,000 solar panels to decrease the school’s environmental footprint and to teach students about renewable sources of energy.
Another key area is water. A safe and stable water supply has always been one of the top priorities for Singapore. When Singapore became independent from Malaysia, there was an agreement between both countries that Singapore can use the water from a river in Malaysia, but Singapore needs to provide a percentage of treated water in return. Singapore is recognized as a model city for managing the water and technology to recycle and supply clean water. The Singapore government tries to achieve three points; collect every drop of water, reuse water endlessly, and desalinate seawater.
One of the projects they made for water recycling is a Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS). DTSS uses deep tunnel sewers to transfer used water by gravity to water reclamation plants located at the coastal areas. Before they built DTSS they used a night soil bucket. The night soil bucket system served Singapore for over a century from the 1880s as the main method of human waste collection. Today, 100% of Singapore is served by modern sanitation.
I also saw the huge Marina Barrage facility there. This whole infrastructure is built to desalinate seawater, but it also works as a flood control. During low tide and heavy storms, the gates will release excess stormwater into the ocean. During high tide, the gates can not be opened so they use the 7 giant pump drains to get the excess stormwater into the sea. Each of the pumps is capable of emptying an Olympic size swimming pool of water in one minute. To me, the idea is fascinating and really shows how hard Singapore is working for its sustainable water management.
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Singapore is working hard to achieve its goal. Singapore is determined and I always admire Singapore as they always keep their word and follow what they are committed to. I would also like to do what I can do for its sustainable environment as one of the community members.
I wrote an essay about the documentary and what I learned from it.
First, I am going to talk about what is already happening to the world from climate change. The world already has a lot of problems and it’s getting even more severe in recent years. For example, Greenland. Greenland is a large island and the ice there has been melting. Greenland has lost 532 billion tons of ice, and the water that melts from Greenland all goes to the ocean and affects the people living in Greenland and also goes to other countries like for example Miami, Florida USA. Miami, Florida is flooding because of the glaciers melting in Greenland. So it connects from one problem in climate change to another problem. We can also see in a disease expansion for another example. Zika and malaria are diseases near the equator, but now it’s coming up to the north including countries like Japan. Natural disasters are also becoming more powerful and frequent. In 2013 in Tacloban city in the Philippines, there was a very strong typhoon that made 4.41 million climate refugees, and thousands of people died. Because of the water vapor coming up into the air from the soil, when there are storms, it just causes rain bombs and water comes flushing down from the sky, just like what happened in the movie ‘Weathering with you’.
The second point I would like to talk about is global collaboration. Because this isn’t an issue about one country but it is all connected so all of the countries have to collaborate. We started to see good hope in collaboration such as the Paris agreement. The Paris agreement is an agreement that avoids dangerous climate change by limiting the number of fossil fuels that the world uses. All of the countries met up in Paris to talk about climate change. Thankfully, the US is also back again to this agreement after President Biden’s administration and I truly hope this will play as a good international platform to bring this collaboration forward.
The last point that I want to mention is there are also hopeful movements to solve climate change in technology, business sectors. It is becoming very clear that carbon dioxide emission is one of the major reasons for the climate crisis. Burning fuel and fossil fuels for energy produces a lot of carbon dioxide and the carbon dioxide that we are emitting right now will stay on earth for 10000 years. There are many companies and countries that are installing renewable energy production such as solar energy, hydro energy, and wind energy.
Not only the country like US or EU, but the second-largest country, China also made their decision for more usage of renewable energy that brings Beijing’s air pollution more moderate.
As a responsible individual, I would like to study more about climate change since it is impacting the world greatly. I would also like to spread awareness and take action.
