With all the delightful food we have in Singapore,
it’s deplorable that we’ve resorted to eating it out of
environmentally irresponsible plastic foodware!
Our warped economic reasoning, addiction to convenience, and apathy about the earth have led us to produce 803,400 tonnes of plastic waste each year.
One-third of household waste is packaging waste, and more than half of that is food and beverage packaging.
We can be so much better than a society of waste.
Zero Waste is a philosophy that encourages the design of resource life cycles such that they emulate sustainable natural cycles. It aims to minimize incineration and landfill, and promote reuse instead, all out of a belief that the output of one process can be another process’ input.
Operation Zero Waste Dabao* is a youth-led campaign to encourage reuse over wastage, and a means to research the barriers consumers and food outlets face in adopting sustainable practices.
From July 29 to August 9, a network of F&B outlets will also, to the best of their abilities, pledge to
- kindly remind customers to bring their own reusable tumblers and containers (and get rewarded in return!), or to buy special-edition eco-friendly reusables on-site for their takeaway orders
- open up their premises as places for honest conversation about our unsustainable consumer culture through customer surveys and personal interviews
- use eco-friendly cleaning products
- use bioplastic bags and agri-waste bio-composite disposable cutlery and containers for takeaway/home delivery/catering orders
The campaign’s target is to reduce the use of disposables in the outlets by 70% of all takeaway orders on August 9, 2013: a National Day truly worth celebrating.
Learn more about The Backstory and Operation Zero Waste Dabao!
*“Dabao” or “打包” in Chinese refers to take-out/take-away/take-home orders. In-house dining usually uses reusable cutlery and tableware.
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Popiah photo by food_in_mouth/flickr; smashing styrofoam photo by Halimah Ilavarasi and Gangasudhan from VegVibe.
