A Positive Change for the Environment

Vanessa attends an environmental workshop and finds out more about how youths in Singapore are contributing to the local environmental scene.

A plastic bottle found on the ground near a shelter.

Pollution is a problem worldwide, spreading to unhabituated places such as Antarctica. Singapore Youth Climate Action hosted an event to raise awareness about it on December 6th.

Plastic pollution is a perennial issue in Singapore. In 2018, only four percent of the 949,300 tonnes of plastic waste was recycled. According to the Singapore Environment Council, 467 million PET bottles are used every year and that is equivalent to the volume of 94 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Plastics are also endangering wildlife and affecting us through the food we consume. Thousands of marine animals are killed each year because they consume or get stuck in plastic. Additionally, a case study done by students from the Montana State University shared that some plastics release toxic carcinogens which can lead to health problems like cancer and birth defects in humans.

In collaboration with SG Cares Giving Week, the Singapore Youth Climate Action (SYCA) group hosted the Inspiring Climate Action interactive event on Zoom. SYCA aims to empower youths to discover their voice and take climate action. They want to offer volunteering opportunities focusing on climate change for youths. For this event, they delved deeper into the environmental scene in Singapore and exchanged ideas on how youths can play a role in improving their carbon footprint.

Illisha Singh, 17, the event IC of the event, said this event “was targeted at the youths who didn’t know anything about climate action,” and focused on “how an individual can take effective action and care for our community.” It provides a “starting place” for everyone, regardless of whether they have thought about climate change or not.

Illisha is actively advocating for the cause in school on her own. She believes there is a lot one can do to play a more active role in tackling environmental issues. A couple of examples would be to simply bring metal water bottles to school instead of plastic ones or bringing your own cutleries out.

Ms. Kate Yeo, a 19-year-old student and founder of Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) was a speaker for the event and talked about her journey as an environmental activist and what we can do to start our own journey in making a difference for the environment.

This year, Yeo reached out for volunteers to do an outreach program targeted at drink stall owners in hawker centers to encourage their customers to bring their own bottles. There were struggles along the way such as getting turned down by stall owners, but their efforts did not go to waste as over 220 stalls are now onboard.

Yeo would like to “encourage people to take action for causes that mean the most to them which may not necessarily be about sustainability,” and summarised that her experience was “a really fulfilling journey of unlearning and relearning.”

The participants ranged from ages 12 to 35, with a majority being secondary school students. One of the participants, Mina Tan, a 15-year-old student, was “aware of the environmental issues but did not know where to start.” She shared that after the event, she “learned a lot more about local problems like plastic pollution” and would like to encourage youths to “do research about sustainability and take action now.”