On the 4th of May 2007, eight participants comprising offices and residences took part in the Green Day project. They were:
A booth was set up in Sheares Hall by our volunteers displaying posters, samples and a video on how and why recycling was carried out in campus and in Singapore. To illustrate further, different boxes for different materials were provided for paper, newspapers, cans, plastic bottles, etc.
A total of 930kg of paper excluding other materials were collected at the Green Day. This effort saved 18.6 trees based on the calculation that by recycling every 50 kg of paper, a 20 year old tree would be saved. A total of 28 volunteers comprising mostly staff and students from NUS and Tzu Chi Foundation/SAVE were present. The volunteers sorted out the materials, which were later sold to recycling companies at different prices. Paper was sorted into different groups for e.g. white paper, coloured paper, magazines, newspapers and cardboards, before sending them to the recycling plants. Four 660 litre bins courtesy of SembEnviro were placed in both Sheares Hall and PGPR to allow students and staff to deposit the recyclables over the week till 11th May. Transport from Tzu Chi Foundation was arranged to collect these recyclables thrice over the week, with approximately 300 kg of paper for the first time, and another 300kg on the second. The second collection also included cardboard not collected on 4th May in OED. The recyclables collected on the third occasion were slightly lesser and were not separately accounted for as they were mixed with other recyclables from Tzu Chi when they were moved from the collection centre. Further sorting out of the recyclables were done by volunteers throughout the week.
As most of the residents have already moved out of Sheares Hall on the Green Day, the participation rate was lower than expected. Thus, the project team planned to hold the event earlier for the next semester to attract a higher participation rate. The team also observed that a lot of lecture notes were printed on one side instead of both sides of the paper, and planned to work out a programme to educate and reach out to students/staff to encourage double-sided printing.
On the other hand, response from the offices was good and the project team proposed to continue this Green Day event on a regular basis with more departments and offices, by charting out dates for regular collection of recyclables. The team’s emphasis of the Green Day project is not only about the quantity of recyclables collected but also on improving the awareness of recycling in the campus.
The project team is looking forward to more offices, departments, staff and students to join them in their recycling efforts by implementing Green Day in their respective operating environment. Currently, the team is still working on a more effective plan to synchronize the time and effort put in by volunteers and trying to include a recycling bin for paper in offices and setting a fixed collection day for every month. The project team will be participating in the Green Carnival organized by SAVE and CSC from 22 to 24 October 2007. To ensure sustainability of this project and to keep our Earth green, we look forward to your ideas and participation. If you are interested to join us in this Green Day project, do drop me and email at
neverdiephoenix@gmail.com
On behalf of the project team, we would like to acknowledge and thank all who have helped us to get this Green Day project started, in particular, Ms Lily Wong from OSHE, Ms Jyoti from Sheares Hall, Mr Supari from OED as well as Tzu Chi members who have made great sacrifices to make this event a success. Thank you!
