Hello everyone, Welcome back to my blog for my final blog post (for ENV1101 at least). It really has been an enjoyable experience learning more about something that I hold so dearly to myself and I hope that for those who have been able to follow along, you have too. To me, the most interesting […]
Adventures of a Beach Cleaner
The PPE Plague
In the past year or so, our lives have been drastically affected by Covid-19. However, humans are not the only ones that have been affected, in many news sites you may have seen reports of how ‘nature is healing‘, trying to find a silver lining amidst this crisis, but is this really the case? It […]
Shifting Sentiments about Our Shores
If you are reading this, you hopefully are at least interested in environmental issues and have wanted to make a difference. So, how many of you have actually participated in a beach cleanup yourself? Well, according to a survey I conducted of 68 people, it showed that majority had already participated in a beach cleanup […]
Waving Our Worries Away
What does the beach mean to you? To me, the beach is somewhere I go to relax and recharge. I still remember some of my fondest memories at the beach came after finishing my A level examinations, sitting on the breakwaters with my friends for hours in the evening looking up at the stars. I […]
Butting Out Cigarette Litter
In a previous blog post, we have discussed the world’s most prevalent form of beach litter – plastic. But can you guess what specific type of plastic is found most on the beach? Well, it might surprise you to find that it is actually cigarette butts. Yes, cigarette butts are in fact made of plastic […]
The Power of Publicity
If you have been keeping in the loop about beach clean-ups in Singapore, you probably would have heard of the East Coast Beach Plan. If you somehow have not, well the East Coast Beach Plan is a community-led initiative led by Samantha Thian and her company, Seastainable.co, that in the past few months has grown […]
Sinister Styrofoam
Styrofoam is usually made from a material known as polystyrene and is also a type of plastic that is commonly used as a packaging material due to its soft, almost “foam” like nature as suggested by its name. Being cheap and lightweight it is commonly used to make disposable items and is a large part […]
Toxic Effects of Marine Dumping
Did you know that 1000 ships can be found in Singaporean waters at any given time? Marine dumping is defined as the “deliberate disposal at sea of wastes or other matter from vessels, aircraft, platforms or other man-made structures, as well as the deliberate disposal of these vessels or platforms themselves“, and is a concern […]
Ghost Fishing – A Frightening Reality
Have you ever heard of the term ‘Ghost Fishing’? Despite its name, there is nothing supernatural about ghost fishing, however, you should be just as worried. According to the National Ocean Service, ghost fishing is a term used to describe abandoned fishing equipment that is left in the sea and ‘continues to fish’. Equipment like […]
The Pains of Plastic
If I were to ask you what the most common type of litter washed up on the beach is, what comes to mind? If you thought of plastic, then you are right! According to the Ocean Conservancy’s 2018 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) report, the total amount of plastic far exceeded any other type of waste […]