THE karang guizi man is not the only one interested in recycling your rubbish. The Government is also getting in on the act.

As part of Earth Day 2001, the Jurong sector yesterday launched what is hoped will become an island-wide recycling scheme.

Residents will be given yellow plastic bags for cans, glass bottles and plastic containers. Housing Board residents will also get blue bags for paper waste, while those on landed property get special recycling bins.

Waste collectors will make door-to-door visits every two weeks to collect the bags and issue new ones.

The Jurong sector covers some 120,000 households in Ayer Rajah, Bukit Batok, Jurong, Yuhua and part of Bukit Timah, according to Mr Toh Eng Peng, vice-president of Altvater Jakob, one of the waste collectors.

Mr Toh estimates that 200 tonnes of recyclable waste can be collected a month under the scheme.

The waste will be sold to some of the 120 companies in Singapore that deal in recyclable products.

Paper will be turned into cardboard boxes, toilet paper and hand towels. Plastic will be remoulded, while glass can be recycled to make new bottles and containers.

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, mayor of Bukit Timah Community Development Council, who was guest-of-honour at the launch at Jurong East Street 24 yesterday, said: "If we can recycle our paper, piastic ana tins, we will conserve resources and at the same time, serve the world and serve nature."

After officiating at the launch, Mrs Yu-Foo, who is also the Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Community Development and Sports), visited some residents in a nearby HDB block to help out in the maiden collection of the yellow and blue recycling bags.

One of the residents visited, Mr Edwin Ong, 39, an interior designer, said recycling would be more convenient now, not only because separate bags are provided, but because they would be collected from his home. "It will help tidy up the environment for the next generation," he said.

Another resident, 31-year-old broker Azian Anis, said: "It’s a very good proFamme, my whole family is in favour of it."

Earth Day was commemorated with several other events.

A centre for environmental studies was opened on Pulau Ubin, to be used as a base to promote nature-appreciation programmes.

Fifty tree saplings were planted at a degraded patch of rainforest in Mandai forest, while a clean-up exercise took place at Sungei Buloh Nature Park.

At the Singapore Zoological Gardens, there were activities to educate people about recycling and minimising wastage.

And at Bukit Timah Hill, participants from the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore trekked through the tropical rainforest.

-By Steve Dawson

Source : The Straits Times, Apr 23, 2001

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