Muhammad Nazreen Bin Mohd Noor (SDE), Priscilla Leo Zhen Ning (FASS), Raebekah Soh Rui Min (FASS), Shai-Ann Koh Seow Yen (FASS), Soham Sheel Saini (FoE)
Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin
Recycling of plastic bags is largely inefficient and tedious, as both the production and recycling processes consume energy. Moreover, in Singapore, only 7% of plastic bags are actually recycled due to the poor recycling culture. A more direct intervention is to stem the use of plastic bags. To promote less plastic bags usage among students, our group proposes “No Plastic Bag, OK?”, a project in collaboration with the Subway branch at Yusof Ishak House (YIH). Food outlets at YIH are just a short walk away from Ridge View Residential College (RVRC) and are frequently patronised by RVRC residents. Yet, we have observed frequent usage of plastic bags by residents whenever they take away their meals, which is a wasteful practice, especially for such short trips. This unnecessary consumption of plastic bags results in high levels of plastic waste. Our group will primarily use pre- and post-implementation surveys to gauge the receptiveness of our project. We will also use collect data during implementation to determine the success of our project. In summary, we aim to decrease the plastic bag usage of patrons at Subway and to encourage the conscious choice of declining plastic bags.
Keywords: Culture and Lifestyle Trends, Responsible Consumption, subway sandwich, takeaway plastic bag, packaging