We’ve covered fast fashion and food wastage as forms of pollution resulting from excessive consumerism. Let’s move on to something Singaporeans are extremely guilty of as well: disposables. We’re 100% sure you know what we’re talking about so this needs no explanation at all, but here’s a definition of it anyway. Disposables refer to items that are made for single-use only and are thrown away afterwards. Some disposables are more harmful than others. We have biodegradable, degradable and non-degradable ones.
Why are we talking about it now
It’s always been known that the excessive usage of disposables is commonplace in Singapore, but now is a great time to talk about all this. Why? Well, as we exited our circuit breaker period (or lock-down) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, turns out we produced a lot more rubbish than usual. All this isn’t a surprise though, with the spike in demand for food delivery services and all.
Implications
We all know that we’ve been using a lot of disposables during our 2-month lock-down, but just how much was it? Here are some numbers to quantify this. According to a group of alumni from NUS, Singaporeans generated an additional 1.33 million kilograms of plastic waste. That’s the combined weight of 92 double-decker buses (shown above)! If 1 plastic container barely weighs a thing, can you imagine how many you’ll need to accumulate that to the weight of 92 buses!
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Singapore incinerates most of its rubbish. So those plumes of smoke you see from the western part of Singapore are what used to be your rubbish and plastics and whatnot. So on top of burning our usual amount of waste, we’re going to be burning an additional 92 life-sized plastic double-decker buses!
References
Mothership.sg. 2020. People In S’pore Generated 1.33 Million Kg Extra Plastic Waste During Circuit Breaker, Survey Estimates. [online] Available at: <https://mothership.sg/2020/06/plastic-waste-circuit-breaker/> [Accessed 15 July 2020].
TODAYonline. 2020. Singapore Households Generated Additional 1,334 Tonnes Of Plastic Waste During Circuit Breaker: Study. [online] Available at: <https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/singapore-households-generated-additional-1334-tonnes-plastic-waste-during-circuit-breaker> [Accessed 15 July 2020].
