In order to promote the “Clean and Green Week” and to improve residents’ awareness on environmental protection, Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC organized a “Clean and Green Family Day” on the afternoon of 16 November at Sengkang Neighbourhood Park. Tzu Chi Singapore was specially invited to set up a booth on environmental protection at the event. Picture:The six MPs for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, including Minister for Defence Mr. Teo Chee Hean, were guests of the “Clean and Green Family Day”. They were amazed by the research put in by Tzu Chi to convert recycled PET bottles into blankets.

The neighbourhood park was crowded with residents attending the “Clean and Green Family Day”. However, at a corner, a group of volunteers and residents were hard at work sorting out the recyclable items.

A display on the different types of recyclable items allows resident to understand at a glance how to categorize various type of recyclables.

Residents learn how to sort recyclables under the guidance of Tzu Chi volunteers

Mr. Zhu Bing Lai who never heard about Tzu Chi, was full of praises for our volunteers for working at the front line, setting up the recycling corner to promote environmental awareness in the community.

Mr Senthil, an Indian friend, brought his daughter to the sorting area to explain to her the importance of recycling and also encourage her to try her hands at recycling.

Member of the Punggol Hibiscus RC, Mr David Tan believed that residents benefited greatly from Tzu Chi’s sharing. Besides involving the whole family, they can also foster closer relationship with their children through recycling.

To encourage racial harmony, the government of Singapore has been actively promoting community activities through the community centres and resident committees island wide.  In support of the “Clean and Green Week” and to improve residents’ environmental awareness, the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC organized a “Clean and Green Family Day” on the afternoon of 16 November at Sengkang Neighbourhood Park, just beside block 119.

Tzu Chi was specially invited to set up a booth on environmental protection. On the day of the event, close to 70 Tzu Chi volunteers from the North East zone were present to explain to residents the importance and various methods of recycling. Responses from residents are encouraging and many of them personally had a hand on sorting out the recyclable items at the booth.

Recycling needs to be taught and practiced at the same time

Education and hands-on practice must go hand-in-hand. As such, the recycling booth was divided into two areas, one for displaying educational posters on environmental protection and the other a recycling sorting area.  At the poster area, volunteers were there to explain how recycling will help to conserve resources and reduce carbon footprints.  Where-else at the recycling sorting area, volunteers were there to show how to sort out different types of recyclables, such as newspapers, black-and-white papers and coloured papers etc.

Many residents, after understanding the importance of recycling, specially made the extra effort to return home and bring in their recyclable items like newspapers, metal cans or plastic bottles and personally participate in sorting them out.

Getting the whole family to be involved in recycling

The recycling booth gave many residents and their family a close encounter with environmental issues. Mdm. Zheng Li Lan was one of those enthusiastic resident. Mdm. Zheng was a former teacher in Malaysia where she actively promotes environmental awareness among her students. After moving to Singapore, Mdm. Zheng was surprised to discover the letterbox area in the HDB void decks was always littered with unwanted leaflets. She felt sorry for the situation.

Mdm. Zheng, who visited the recycling booth with her family members, believed that every item should be given the chance to maximize their life-span and that recycling is a concerted effort which requires everyone’s involvement. Seeing how Tzu Chi is promoting recycling among residential communities, Mdm. Zheng was deeply moved. To show her support, she returned home with her husband and daughters to gather the recyclable items at home and bring them down to our recycling booth.

Mr. Zhu Bing Lai (52 years old) is a strong supporter of recycling. Mr Zhu not only uses a recyclable bag but also sorted and separated his rubbish at home. Surprised that Tzu Chi has long been actively promoting environmentalism, Mr Zhu commented that Tzu Chi’s effort in establishing community recycling points as well as educating and showing resident how to carry out recycling will have a great and positive impact.

Although Tzu Chi volunteers are predominantly Chinese, the Foundation always welcomes friends of different ethnics. Indeed, many non-Chinese were attracted by the blue and white attire of the volunteers and walked into the recycling area.

Mr. Senthil, an Indian, was one of them. Believing that recycling is the way to save the Earth from more and more natural disasters and feeling the need to engage the young, Mr. Senthil made an effort to bring his daughter to the event. At our hands-on recycling area, Mr Senthil explained the recyclable categories to his daughter in their mother tongue and encouraged her to give it a try. Grateful for this educational opportunity, Mr Senthil believed that such activities will allow the seeds of goodness to nurture in the young minds.

Efforts recognized by local government

After years of hard work and diligence, Tzu Chi’s effort has slowly gained  recognition and support from the government and local communities in recent years and hence being invited to participate in the “Clean and Green Family Day” by the Pasir Ris - Punggol GRC.

Besides assisting Tzu Chi in this event, the organizing committee even drops its original plan of exchanging recyclables for gifts when they became aware of Tzu Chi’s philosophy of "Turning trash into gold and gold into love", where all monies earned from selling the recyclables go to charity.  Without hesitation, they fully supported Tzu Chi’s promotion of environmental protection through education in this event.

Member of the Punggol Hibiscus RC, Mr David Tan (44 years old) who visited the recycling booth with his daughter, believed that it is important to introduce the ideas of "Why do we do recycling?" and "How do we do recycling?".

Mr Tan is delighted that Tzu Chi has done very well on these. He believes the volunteers’ sharing would have inspired the residents to not only carry out recycling back home but also make use of the opportunity to foster closer relationship among family members.  

Special guests of the “Clean and Green Family Day”, Member of Parliament Mr. Michael Palmer commended the Foundation for its in-depth recycling efforts. Mr. Palmer believes that Tzu Chi’s method of converting recycled PET bottles into blankets and T-shirts is a very good educational material. Mr Palmer thinks many residents do not understand the concept of maximizing the life-span of all things and do not understand the impact of recycling. The efforts of Tzu Chi on recycling will encourage more resident to join the concerted attempt in environmental protection. The MP is also confident that there will be more future cooperation with Tzu Chi.

The positive response from the community leaders and the residents has given Tzu Chi volunteers much encouragement and confidence to engage more actively in community service.