Recycling with the green bank

Recycling with green bank

SINGAPORE – The Green Bank took students from Institute of Technical Education (ITE) approximately 3 years to develop, led by lecturer Liew Jia Shing and costs about $20,000 each to be produced. It was launched in Changkat Primary School yesterday, to encourage primary school children to recycle drink containers made from plastic and metal.

Over the next 3 months, another 11 schools in the South East District will also get The Green Bank machine, for their pupils to contribute their part to recycling.

According to the Straits Times, “Recycling Helps @ South East 2011” is a new initiative by the South East Community Development Council (CDC) that was launched yesterday by District mayor Mohamad Maliki Osman as the guest of honor. He said that it is important for children to inculcate the habit of recycling from an early age.

“At that age they are like a sponge that will be able to absorb all the right values,” he said. “We need to teach them that this is their future that they are safeguarding.”

The Green Bank works by taking in used drink containers, which the students feed into and displaying the total amount collected on the screen. Sheng Siong supermarket will donate a food hamper for every kilograms of recycled drink containers collected. South East CDC aims to collect 800 kg and hopes to receive hampers for about 500 needy families.

According to an infographic designed by zerowaste.sg, 6.5 million tonnes of waste was generated, with 58% of it being recycled. It has since increased18% since year 2000, and the rate is increasing steadily. However, the recycling rate for plastics is still low – only 11% of it is recycled, as compared to the recycling of food (16%) and paper waste (53%).

Apart from recycling waste, it can also reused and be made into bags, wallets, lamp shades, accessories etc as illustrated by local designer Didier Ng. Materials that she used includes plastic bottles, rubber tyres, used banners and rice bags. Thus, these materials get a new lease of life instead of being incinerated as ash, or buried at landfills.

One could even make use of unwanted newspaper and magazines to beads and thread them into necklaces. The steps are illustrated in the Youtube video.

Ultimately, it is everyone’s responsibility to practice the 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, so as to help make Earth a pleasant place to live in for the present and future generation. One can learn more about the 3Rs through an online interactive game for primary and secondary school pupils via NEA’s website.

How do you encourage your child to practice the 3Rs at home?