Minty

Just thought I'd share with you the drink I made today with mint leaves and hot water. It's definitely fresher than using a mint tea bag :-)

It's falling........

Oh dear. Commodity prices have been falling and falling since the credit crunch. With less product orders and a slowdown in manufacturing worldwide there is now less demand for recyclables. What has made it worse is that the price of oil has dropped dramatically from the all time high of $147.50 per barrel just 4 months ago to just $48.50!!! So it is now economical for manufacturers to use natural resources for things like plastic, instead of used plastic.

Remember the uncle that I blogged about who would diligently plough through rubbish for recyclables? He's no longer at it. It probably now means that what could have been recycled by people like him are now going to our landfill or IPs. I hope the public will continue to put their recyclables in the recycling bins or bags. I also hope that the bigger recycling companies will continue to recycle instead of sending it to the IPs or landfill....

Cycling in my neighbourhood

Yeah! We have cycling tracks (the path on the left of the photo) in our neighbourhood now. Cycling is good but not when the pedestrians and cyclists have to battle it out on the foot paths. I have yet to see a cyclist use them though.

More reconstruction!

Will be flying off to visit my parents during the Chinese New Year and I have been making a little bag for him to carry on the plane. Actually, I'm not sure whether he will like it cos when I mentioned it to him he said "why do I need another one!". I was a bit shocked cos it is true but it's a small one to carry his water bottle for school.

Anyways, I took apart my old black jacket and I'm going to add on some embellishments (the spotty material from an ugly turtle neck). Will show all later!

No reply from NTUC Fair Price

It's been ages since I emailed NTUC Fair Price about the organic standards that they have set for their organic veggies (remember I blogged about it in Aug 08). It would be nice to know cos I like to be informed about products I buy. Its label tells me it is organic but more information about it makes me understand and gives me the wisdom to make the right choice.....I'm still waiting...... :-)

Are you game for a composting toilet?

The idea of having a composting toilet sounds pretty ugh, doesn't it? It will probably take you back to the days when Singapore used to have their pooh and wee away in buckets ..... (ok, we're not from that generation, but you know what I mean). But I had a look at some pics (see above), and you can have it in your house and technology means you don't need to go back to those days :-)

You don't have to live in a house to make it possible. It has actually been done in an office block in Canada.....The C.K. Choi Building at the University of B.C, Canada. It has 10 flushless toilets!

I think a composting toilet does make sense when you think about all the water and chemicals currently used to treat our sewage. I wonder what PUB would think about the idea.....

Green space

I am glad to be living in Singapore because it has a lot of open space and they have done a good job in planting trees. It feels relaxing after a hard days work. It is a big difference from living in Hong Kong. Although we had lots of mountains, living conditions were cramp if you lived in the city (unless of course you were on expat pay or mega rich, which of course is another story altogether) and you had to go to the mountains or hills to see trees and grass.

I came across this article which highlights the importance of having green space. This research about green space could help those concerned with health care and social justice to see the value of preserving a more natural world.

Green spaces reduce stress and encourage more outdoor activities (and hence healthier lifestyle).

Something's fishy

Two fishy stories!

a) I heard from my sources that WWF Singapore is going to publish a seafood choice guide for fish eaters this week (Friday, I think). It will be along the same lines as the one published by WWF Hong Kong. So, when you go to restaurants or the market, just whip out your guide and you will know which are not sustainable and therefore shoudn't eat. It's also good for communicating to the fishmonger! WWF is involved in promoting sustainable fisheries through the Marine Sustainable Council. If you have lived in the West you will have seen the MSC symbol on packets of fish or at the market. Hope it catches on in Singapore and the rest of Asia.

b) Then I read about the blue fin tuna this morning. Global stocks have dropped by 90%. A lot of pple like to eat it raw. Anyway, as an environmentally conscious person, I think we shld only patronise Japanese restaurants that do not sell this item. Why don't we start a list of the restaurants that do or don't?

Just in case, the Japanese for "tuna" is "tsuna", "maguro" or "chu-na".

Zoo

We were at the zoo today. It was lots of fun and it was very crowded. There were 3 corporate events at the zoo and they were handing out bottled water to their guests. Can you imagine how many plastic bottles came out of there? Anyway, I only saw one recycling bin at the zoo for plastics. There may be more but I only saw one. Think the zoo needs to do something about it considering visitors would bring/buy bottled water when it's hot and sticky.

What to do with your cardboard boxes

Bought something that came in a huge cardboard box? This is what we did with the cardboard box that came with our massage chair (no, not the Osim one). It became a drawing, or rather a scribbling, board for my 3 yr-old.

But I thought creating your own cardboard furniture, http://www.foldschool.com/, is really cool, especially if you want a challenge and have lots of time on your hands. It's good if you can get your kids to help too :-)

Singapore Energy Efficiency

An energy efficient forum was organised a few days ago. The Grant for Energy Efficient Technologies (GREET) was launched and provides funding for companies to offset part of their investment cost for energy efficient equipment or technologies. The scheme will co-fund up to 50 per cent or up to $2 million per project, whichever is lower. Do you think this will push organisations to take up energy efficient equipment/technologies?

Where's the bail out for the environment?

I attended a lecture given by Professor Jesuthason ‘Dodo’ Thampapillai (who is a professor at the LKY School of Policy at NUS) yesterday. He's an environmental economist and he commented that since governments are so willing to bail out the financial markets, why can't they do the same with the environment.....

Bail out figures so far (I hope these figures are correct, but basically, they are B-I-G figures):
a) UK - £50 billion
b) USA - $700billion (£448billion)

With the melt down, the markets are supposed the be restructuring. While they are at it, will someone tell the economists to price the environment into the costs of everything on the market? This way I don't think we would need environmental taxes etc etc.

Predictably Irrational

I have just finished this really good book called "Predictably Irrational" by Dr. Dan Ariely. His work is based on behavioural economics, which basically in a nut shell means that the traditional economic theories forget that people are human, and by nature do not make rational decisions in life. His book is entertaining (you won't get bored, I promise!) and gives a lot of examples. I think behavioural economics could be used to explain why some communities are environmental, while others are not. Maybe governments (incl. Singapore) should start looking at behaviour seriously so that they can use specific tools to initiate a behavioural change towards environmental sustainability. It could also be applied to health education too.

If you don't have time to read the book (it's available at the library), Dr. Ariely gave a lecture at the London School of Economics earlier this year. You can find it at the LSE website.

So, by the time everyone has read it, we can all hope to be highly rational in our decisions :-p

Recycle Mini-Challenge

Had a look at the latest creations from Nikki's recycle mini-challenge.

My favs are the:

a) Recycled fleece by erdronen from USA.
b) Dad's recycled shirts by ailuja from Italy

c) Water fairy mermaid by Kittyriver from USA

Don't u think these are great?