Recycling and Lateral Thinking - Why Not Redevelop Landed Property First?

I almost choked on my morning mug of tea, to read this:

ST Forum

Nov 27, 2010

60% of Singaporeans recycle now

WE THANK Mr Allan Harkness ('Going green in the heartland: Still stuck with an 'F'') and Mr Lim Beo Loon ('Other problems are cost...') for their letters on Nov 19.

Based on feedback from public waste collectors, the average household participation rate in our national recycling programme has increased from 14 per cent in 2001 to 63 per cent last year. Our surveys also indicate that more than 60 per cent of Singaporeans recycle now.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) organises community events, such as Recycling Week, Clean & Green Singapore, and NEA Community Day, to educate the public on waste minimisation and recycling.

The public can help by segregating waste into recyclable and non-recyclable, using reusable shopping bags and rechargeable batteries, while industries should work towards using less packaging materials.

As the value of recyclables depends on the market, all forms of recycling entails a cost that must be borne by the Government, consumer or waste collector.

NEA will consider requiring public waste collectors to provide more recycling bins and look into the frequency of collection when their contracts are up for renewal, if the benefits outweigh the costs.

Ong Seng Eng
Director
Resource Conservation Department
National Environment Agency

I instantly thought about Mark Twain and the saying he often used:

Mark Twain, the 100th anniversary of whose death was in April this year, was never known to be soft-spoken about his opinions. He popularized the phrase, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics,” caustically opining the view that numbers can be used to dissemble truth.

Not for a moment am I calling the NEA a bunch of liars, but I do question the sources and methodology used for the collection of the statistics fed to them. (LATER: see note below)

From what I have seen during these six months that I have been here, I wonder how the waste collection companies know how many households recycle their waste? 

Each household is given a number of plastic recycling bags - I live in an apartment block and they are placed in our mailbox. If I need more, I ask the management for more.

I don't know how many bags are delivered to homes on landed property, be it a terrace house, semi-detached or single family home.

Twice a month, on Tuesdays, we put out our recycling bag(s) and they are taken downstairs to await collection. On such a basis, how would anyone know how many units in this development (and others like it) recycle?

It would be nice to think that 60% of Singapore households recycle; and I would hope that more than 60% of individual citizens recycle.

The SCMP ran this cartoon which I think apt for the claimed 'green' credentials in Hong Kong and I daresay, Singapore too:

It has been our wont to spend part of each year in Hong Kong and north Florida and the impression I have formed from using my own eyes is that the people in both those places recycle far more than people in Singapore.

Hong Kongers, despite letters to the SCMP and cartoons like this, are far more environmentally conscious and their green groups much more active.

In northeast Florida, I find that some communities are more active than others; they put out their bright blue recycling bins on recycling day. 

In our community of some 500+ homes we have to take our recycling to a recycling corner where there are receptacles for bottles, plastics, plastic bags and paper. I could not tell you how many homes actually drive their recycleables to the recycling corner but the bins do fill up regularly.

Singapore is a different experience. Some years ago the management of our condominium estate installed recycling bins in the basement; it was not a success because household waste (think pampers for example) was thrown willy-nilly into the recycling bins. They were soon removed.

More recently we were issued the recycling bags provided by the public waste collection companies. I have no idea if and how they are being used by the householders.

But of I had not taught our helper (who arrived from the Philippines in June) what recycling means and showed her what to put in the bags, she would have either not used them or put all manner of things in them.

I had her put all the items she though might be recyclable into a spare bin and before recycling day we would go through the bin to sort out what to dispose down our chute (neatly bundled and secured) and what to place in the bags for recycling morning.

At that time I scoured the NEA's website for pamphlets to illustrate how to separate the different items but every poster I found did not play well with my A4 size printer format. I wrote in to NEA - on Oct 26th.

This morning (Nov 29th), I went back to their website and see little improvement. Visit these pages (which take some looking for): http://app2.nea.gov.sg/data/cmsresource/20100120281853527479.pdf

http://app2.nea.gov.sg/data/cmsresource/20090511531613540247.pdf

Print them out and decide how useful they are if you had a domestic helper who reads a smidgin of English. I would say that larger, more graphic illustrations that can be reproduced on a home printer are needed.

For another, the number of people living in Singapore has mushroomed in recent years. Many of our new residents and new workers come from countries where recycling takes a different form or is not a regular practice.

Now they are here, they all should get to know about recycling.

We all like to feel good or to feel we are doing some good; so why not divert some of the vast amount we spend on lighting up Singapore on a well conceived and well executed campaign to educate all and sundry about recycling and really provide the means for all to recycle?

I was at our country club the other day and while the intention is good, the execution is poor - we have rather ugly recycling bins prominently displayed at the main entrances to the swimming clubhouse. There must be some way to make them more part of the scenery.

As far as I can recall we don't have recycling bins in many other other locations, and certainly not tasteful looking ones (as befitting a grand clubhouse). I have not been into the kitchens and pantry areas and wonder if they recycle as that is where most of the waste would be handled.

Opportunities for Mr and Ms Public to recycle are not many. The bins along Orchard Road are often full, so perhaps more recycling bins could be deployed, especially close to fast food outlets.

The emptying of trash and recycling bins throughout Singapore, even at the brand new Khoo Teck Puat Hospital which I visited today, needs to happen with greater frequency. Certainly when these bins are along high traffic routes or outside food or convenience outlets.

But being ecologically responsible means more than sorting and recycling our trash; it's also using and re-using bags for groceries and shopping. 

I went to a fair over the weekend and every stall-holder offered me a plastic bag with my purchase.

At the wet market and even in supermarkets my purchases are bundled into plastic bags, which the hypocrite that I am, I accept. I then try to assuage my conscience by using them to contain our household rubbish prior to putting the rubbish down the chute.

In Hong Kong I am charged each time I need a plastic bag at the neighbourhood supermarket. In Florida I am offered a choice of paper or plastic.

NOTE: in rummaging through the NEA website today I came upon some tables and lists, none of them particularly helpful in arriving at precisely how much of our domestic waste is being recycled.

I am not of a scientific or mathematical bent so excuse me if I misunderstand things. Looking at total waste generated and total waste recycled (57%) it is easy to see that almost 60% of the population with access to waste collection services have their waste recycled.

Surely 

if ALL HDB estates have recycling programmes AND if 80-90 percent of people live in HDB estates why do only 60% of the population recycle?

Mind you, 

NEA has a 

List of Condominiums/Private Apartments with Recycling Programme (Updated as of Dec 07) 

which contains ONLY 353 names. 

So maybe the non-greenies are in private housing? But that doesn't sound right either.

As for what is recycled it is disappointing that glass (eminently recycleable) has a recycling rate of only 21%. Only 48% of cardboard/paper is recycled, 38% of horticultural waste (all that mulch and compost gone to waste?), a paltry 12% of textiles/leather is recycled and 9% of plastics.

But what do I know of the technicalities of recycling? Zip, zero I admit.

One would have to be blind not to notice that we light up Orchard Road like a Christmas tree, Marina Bay for tourists to admire our spectacular skyline at night, and the Formula 1 GP circuit for Bernie's tv coverage for the world. 


None of these are particularly eco-friendly.


Neither is enabling greedy developers to evict us from homes that are a mere ten or twenty years old in order to to demolish and build new buildings. Ten or twenty years is not old for buildings - or for people. So why the need to tear down and build when we should be minding our carbon footprint?


Considering that this demolish and build activity mainly affects non-landed property (low-,  medium- or high-rise) this displaces more happy families at any one go than tearing down a large bungalow (one family) to replace it with a 28-storey block of flats.


Hmmm, from a humanitarian point of view, it makes me wonder why we didn't start this redevelopment of Singapore with landed property?

The HSBC saga continues and a cat finds its tongue

The HSBC saga continues.


The credit card processing department in the person of one Sangeeta called to ask if I am employed. Then she announced that I had not included the latest Income Tax return - as you can imagine I was not best pleased as I had handed over my NRIC (Singapore identity card) and 2009 and 2010 tax returns to young Jonathan at the Claymore branch last Friday, November 19th and he had made the copies, not I.


She then pronounced the copy to be 'unclear' without going into ay details as to why it was not clear to her.


I suggested she take it up with Jonathan, to which she intimated that she could not get in touch with him. I read it as she was not allowed to in case they were colluding to defraud the bank (compliance, I suppose).


The best she could offer (it was pouring cats and dogs that afternoon) was to mail me a Business Reply Envelope into which I could submit a copy of the tax return. I railed about the delay as that would increase the processing time  (normally two weeks) but it cut no ice.


I also told her how much trouble I had trying to get Jonathan on the phone on Saturday and what I thought of a bank that would not give out branch telephone numbers to anyone.


It didn't help that I could imagine the Cheshire Cat grin on her face as she delivered the bad news and refused to help in any way!


I was in a thoroughly bad mood, so when someone else from the bank called a little later and announced she is with the bank's quality service something or other, I gave her short shrift and said, "ha, that's funny. What service?"


Anyway Rose persevered and even left me with her phone number. I hope she will not be reprimanded for divulging that secret information!


So we talked about the situation and she asked if I was stopping my application as I had mentioned it in my letter to their GM. I said I'd check but I didn't think I mentioned such a thing and was only just wrangling with Sangeeta about the paperwork.


She said she'd follow up and we left it at that.


In the meantime I had emailed Jonathan, the only way I could get hold of him and he called me. He'd spoken to Sangeeta (all this despite her categorically telling me that she could not communicate with him) and that he'd found out that the top of the tax return had been left out when the page was copied.


He kindly volunteered to walk over to our security post if I could bring the document down. Lin was very sweet and volunteered himself (despite the rain); I think he wanted to prevent bloodshed!


So the paperwork was completed and sent off once again.


But that is not the last of it; Rose called on Friday when I was at the golf course and said my card would be delivered that evening. I did say I would not be home but that my husband would be home. We left it that the courier would either deliver it to our flat or leave it in the mailbox.


I am not sure exactly what happened but there was no envelope from HSBC; not at home nor in our mailbox.


Watch this space for the next chapter, unless you are as tired of this as I am!


By the way, I started of with a chip-in birdie and then a par on the NEW course at SICC, enough for one of my playing companions to ask if I had been secretly practising at home since no one has seen me on the golf course in Singapore!


Suffice to say, the old, well-remembered bad habits returned and I barely broke 100 for the eighteen holes (what, you thought for the nine?).


CAT FINDS IT'S TONGUE


There's a resident cat at our magnificent Botanic Gardens; it's white with ginger markings.


When it's admirers went walking on Thursday morning they spotted a cage with a crudely written sign saying (if there was a cat in the cage) not to let the cat out of the cage and to call a certain number.


This incensed the cat lovers so much that they went to the Nparks office to take it up with them. And then they drafted emails to NParks to register their objection to the cat being trapped and removed.


This is how my friend summed it up:

Dear Sirs
I am writing with great dismay to find a nasty looking trap set for the above mentioned cat who has been a resident and a favorite mascot of regular visitors to Botanic Gardens.

I wish to enquire why there is a need to remove this cat which is harmless and adds to the character of the Gardens. We understand that there has been a complaint that feeding this cat will attract other strays and that plastic bags of food left by well-meaning people is unsightly. Regarding the former, this cat has been here for many years and we have yet to see any other strays coming in to that particular area - the services entrance of the Orchid Pavilion - because of the food. Besides the cat appears to have been neutered. As for litter from leftover food, that can be taken care of in your routine maintenance, as with all other human litter.

Surely this Garden does not merely exist for a few animal-phobic human beings whom I am sure are a minority.

I urge you to call off your pest control people and get them to remove the trap. I also hope you won't resort to poisoning either.

NParks responded the very next day and said:

Thank you for your kind feedback. 

The management has been informed of the situation and we have since remove the trap.   

Once again, thank you and we hope to see you soon.  We wish you a good week ahead. 

So now the Botanic Gardens mascot has gained a reprieve and did not have to use up one of it's nine lives!

Weathering the "perfect storm of multiple failures"

Passengers and crew of the Qantas A380 which recently made an emergency landing at Singapore Changi airport must bear charmed lives. In the ECONOMIST it was reported that:


Confidential preliminary reports seen by Fairfax Media reveal that high-velocity parts spat from the engine tore through a fuel line and wiring looms, punctured structural spars in the wing, struck the fuselage between the two decks of windows, hit the fuselage belly and tore through wing panels.

Patrick Smith, a pilot who writes for Salon.com, refers to a "perfect storm of multiple failures". He reckons the biggest problem the pilots faced was the need to land an overweight plane, since the system that allows them to jettison fuel was not working.

Had the plane gone off the runway and caught fire, or burst into flames because fuel was ignited by the overheated brakes, it is still entirely possible that everybody could have survived (see Air France in Toronto, et al.). However, Qantas Airways' proud record of zero fatalities, intact since the 1950s, would have been in very serious jeopardy.

The massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was another example of a calamity resulting from the failure of multiple lesser factors.


In Hong Kong the SARS epidemic of some years ago was not simply due to SARS hitting the territory, but multiple failures in responding to the first signs and patients.


Here, in Singapore the escape of Mas Selamat, hitherto Singapore's most infamous detainee was also the culmination of multiple factors that favoured his escape.


Yesterday we read in the main stream press that the reason why he managed to get to the home of his brother was that he has over 100 relatives and it was impossible to keep all under surveillance. Surely he does not have 100 brothers and sisters - IMMEDIATE family?


All the above examples are in the past, but looking forward I am rather worried about our (mankind's) ability to learn and keep improving our ways to prevent and react to failures, both small and big.


We cannot rely on luck or good fortune to get us out of fixes.



The Department of Health in the UK published a piece on human error:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/publications/publicationspolicyandguidance/browsable/DH_4936329


People in government, management, the armed forces and all walks of life would find it useful and interesting reading as what is said in the article has universal relevance.


I would recommend reading the next chapters which include 'Factors influencing learning from failure' and the following list of conclusions:

• Awareness of the nature, causes and incidence of failures is a vital component of prevention - ("You can't know what you don't know");

• Analysis of failures needs to look at root causes, not just proximal events; human errors cannot sensibly be considered in isolation of wider processes and systems.

• Error reduction and error management systems can help to prevent or mitigate the effects of individual failures;

• Certain categories of high-risk, high-technology medicine might be regarded as special cases. In these areas the level of endemic risk is such that serious errors or complications will never be eradicated. The evidence suggests that here a focus on compensating for and recovering from adverse events might be an important part of the approach to improving safety and outcomes;

• Organisational learning is a cyclical process, and all the right components must be in place for effective, active learning to take place. Distilling appropriate lessons from failures is not enough: there is a need to embed this learning in practice, and it is at this stage that the "learning loop" often fails;

• It is possible to identify a number of important barriers to learning which must be overcome if the lessons of adverse incidents are to be translated into changes in practice;

• Culture is a crucial component in learning effectively from failures: cultural considerations are significant in all parts of the learning loop, from initial incident identification and reporting to embedding appropriate changes in practice. Safety cultures can have a positive and quantifiable impact on the performance of organisations;

• Sound safety information systems are a precondition for systematic learning from failures. They need to take account of the fact that low level incidents or "near misses" can provide a useful barometer of more serious risks, and can allow lessons to be learned before a major incident occurs;

• Given appropriate approaches to analysis, it is possible to identify common themes or characteristics in failures which should be of use in helping to predict and prevent future adverse events;
• The NHS is not unique: other sectors have experience of learning from failures which is of relevance to the NHS.

Although written in the context of the NHS and the practice of medicine, the principles apply elsewhere.


But all this presupposes that the governments or organisations are not in denial or caught up in their own collective egos.


It may be an over-simpification but they are made up of people and people are not perfect, infallible creatures.


Or perhaps the 'chosen' people have no or insufficient regard for their populace. 


When the ruling class are hell bent on maintaining their closed circle and are arrogant to a fault, how can their minds be open to learning?


Before the enthusiasm and arrogance of young bureaucrats overwhelm them, they might take heed of this:


Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (George Santayana, Spanish philosopher)


A saying which is oft times quoted as, "history repeats itself".


Already in Singapore's young life we have witnessed significant flip-flops in government policy. Only history will tell if our leaders were right.


In bigger, older countries and communities substantial changes are somewhat slower and harder to effect as they have to meet with the approval of a broad base of people who might have different languages, cultures and religions. Not to mention that some countries span time zones and climates.


In the meantime we in little places like Hong Kong and Singapore will feel the buffeting of the political and governmental seas more acutely.


So, let's hope and pray that our governments learn well the lessons from the storms that have beset us in the distant and the near past.