Research Education Final Report Done by: Bryan Low (4) Shin Hyon Young (24) Theodore Choo (25) Zhang Yimin (30)

7/29/2011

Contents

Why this Design for Change journey? ...................................................................................... 2

Background Research .................................................................................................................... 3

Preparation for Action Week ....................................................................................................... 5

Our Action Week .............................................................................................................................. 7

Reflections .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Appendix .......................................................................................................................................... 10

Bibliography.................................................................................................................................... 14

Why this Design for Change journey? a) Our team had chosen to take part in this DFC challenge due to the fact that we all lacked experience in giving back to the society that had nurtured us for years and this DFC challenge provided us with the perfect opportunity for giving it a shot, so we decided to undertake this DFC challenge. b) The objectives of this project would be to raise the environmental awareness of the general people in Singapore so that they would be aware of the fact that Singapore is not exempt from the environmental problems that plague the world and that we face several environmental problems of our own. Also, we would like the people to be aware of what problems we face and take action to solve them and become environmentally responsible denizens of the world. c) We are campaigning for a change in the ignorance and apathy of Singaporeans towards environmental matters and their behavior regarding the environment. What bothers me is the fact that often, people just ignore rubbish on the floor or the rubbish and recycling bins nearby them just because they find it too troublesome to throw away their litter. Also, people completely ignore environmental problems around us and continue behaving in an environmentally irresponsible manner. d) Our project is about stopping litter and raising environmental awareness in Singapore. We will be looking into excessive littering and ignorance among the general public of environmental problems that we face and the available and proposed solutions to the problems, like the recycling sites around Singapore. We will be carrying out a service by distributing flyers in the Western, Northeast and Central districts of Singapore to inform the people on why they should not litter. Also, we will be holding a talk in Bryan’s Primary school, Montfort Junior to educate the students on environmental awareness and why they should not litter. In addition, we will be publishing a Facebook page and a mass email to spread the word and rally supporters to our cause, as well as send a petition to the government to suggest measures that could be taken to improve Singapore’s environmental situation. The people involved would be the general public, our fellow students and schoolmates in Raffles and our juniors in primary school. The service will be held over Facebook and email, in Montfort Junior primary school and in our residential areas.

Background Research a) Our research on the environmental problems in Singapore and our findings on the matter, our research on the litter problem in Singapore and our research on the level of environmental awareness in Singaporeans are involved in this project. The issues involved in this project would be the issue of littering in Singapore, the issue of global warming and other environmental problems in Singapore as well as the environmental ignorance of Singaporeans. b) Everybody living in Singapore right now will be affected, as well as the future inheritors of our nation. c) The situation is actually quite severe, as according to a survey we had done, the majority of Singaporeans have littered before. In addition to this, our research has shown the Singapore faces “persistent littering”(Tan, Lee, Tan 2009), as well as showing that most Singaporeans are unaware that there is a looming climate change crisis and thus have not made any efforts to curb global warming. In addition, our preliminary research has further stated, “Illegal dumping and littering have marred coastal landscapes”(Chua 2007) showing the extent of the illegal dumping we face. In fact, even Singaporeans themselves seem to understand that things are moderately severe, as they have stated during our recent survey. However, nothing effective seems to have been done about it, despite persistent efforts to solve these problems by the government and the people, due to the fact that they still exist even now. d) The various solutions for the problem would be, firstly, to educate the people. In the case of the litter problem, heavy enforcement and cleansing is already in place, so the root of the problem is the people, not the government. Also, it has been stated by some Singaporeans that there is a lack of awareness about the recycling programs that have existed in Singapore for years. If we educated the people about these programs, for example, more people would use them and this would help to reduce the potency of the problem. In addition, if people understand why they should not litter, dump their trash on beaches, or waste energy, they will not do so, removing the need for further enforcement or campaigns. In addition to these reasons, the majority of Singaporeans seem to believe that this is the way to go, according to our survey. In addition to educating the people, we could of course heap more fines on them, as with heavier penalties, no one would litter due to it being too costly to pay the fines. However, Singapore has already have enforced this quite heavily, with limited effectiveness. Despite this, many people still believe that this is a viable solution. Furthermore, many people have suggested that we simply install more bins and recycle bins in the country. If we do so, it will be easier to just throw away one’s trash due to the fact that there are dustbins everywhere, and it will also be easier to recycle. This would eliminate the laziness and inconvenience factors and ensure that most people will dispose of their litter appropriately. In

addition, many people believe that this is a solution as well, according to our survey. e) We arrived at the solutions by surveying various members of the public, analyzing the problems that we noticed during our research using books and Internet resources.

Preparation for Action Week Our action plan, in essence, was to distribute flyers to members of the public, put up a webpage for people to show their support for our cause and to provide information to them on the subject in future. Also, we would send a mass email, return to Bryan’s Primary school for a talk, and if possible, send a petition to the National Environmental Agency. a) On the subject of work allocation, we needed to create a presentation for the students, design and give out flyers, create a website, draft a petition and create and send a mass email. Bryan and Yimin were responsible for creating and editing our presentation to the students in Bryan’s Montfort Junior School. As for the flyers, everyone was responsible to distributing them; however Yimin and Theodore were responsible for designing and editing them, with Bryan also doing a bit of editing. As for the webpage, Bryan was responsible for creating it, and the mass email was designed and first sent out by Yimin, though everyone also sent them out. Bryan drafted the petition. b) Our timeline of tasks was rather unusual, as due to our schedules and the schedules of the primary school, our action plan occurred on staggered days. However, it was something like this: On the 1st day, we gave out flyers, doing so for the 2nd and 3rd day. Our website was released on the 4th day and the email was drafted and sent on the 5th day. On the 6th day, we went to Montfort Junior and gave a presentation to the primary 2 students there. Finally, on the 7th and last day, we sent out a letter of appeal to Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister for Environment to enlist the help of the government in increasing the number of bins so people would not litter just because there are no bins around to throw their litter away and also to educate people to increase their environmental awareness. c) As for resource management, we did not need any funding, except for money to print the flyers. Our expenses due to printing were the cost of approximately 12-18 pages per person, depending on how much they did. As for manpower, we did not have to utilize any more people other than out four-man team, the only exception being during the talk, where we had to mobilize the aid of some teachers to solve technical issues and organize the students. d) In the area of risk management, we minimized our risk of failure by distributing our emails to those who we knew personally first and recommending the site to those we knew personally. As for the flyers, we attempted to minimize risk by providing an address for people to contact us; however otherwise there was not much that we could do. No risk was involved in the talk, other than wording our proposal well. e) The people involved would be members of the general public, Primary 2 students, fellow Rafflesians and other acquaintances or former schoolmates of ours, as well as the involved personnel at the National Environmental Agency.

f) We did a survey at Jurong East MRT some time ago, however our success there was limited, due to the exceeding rush of most people that prevented us from doing our survey with them. So, we only managed to get about 20 entries there. To overcome this problem, we chose to survey our friends and family, allowing us to reach the target 50 respondents. However, due to time constraints, we were unable to conduct an interview. We observed that the survey seemed to take a while to complete and that we could perhaps have streamlined it further. Also, we observed that we were not so confident in giving out surveys, with one member of the public noting this. Also, the area we chose obtained its foot traffic through commuters, which were mostly in a hurry and unable to answer our survey.

Our Action Week a) During the action week, we gave out flyers informing people on why they should not litter, with a short reference to the recycling bins in Singapore, to residential areas in Jurong and Lorong Chuan. Also, we sent out a mass email to classmates and former schoolmates in our contacts with identical text to our flyer, to disseminate this info to our classmates. Also, we created a Facebook Page with a short info section to rally support and subscribe people to future information broadcasts from us. In addition to all this, we travelled to Bryan’s primary school and gave a talk on the environment, why we should stop doing environmentally inconsiderate things, our environmental problems and some solutions recommended by us. Finally, we sent a petition to Minister of Environment Dr. Balakrishnan to enlist his help in raising the environmental awareness of people in Singapore, as well as to stop litter and solve the environmental problems we face. b) During day one, two, and three of our action week, each individual member of our group gave out the flyers we designed in their own residential areas, namely Jurong and Lorong Chuan.(Refer to the appendix for the flyer) On the fourth day we created a Facebook page to raise publicity for our cause and educate the people. (Refer to the appendix for the webpage). On the fifth day, we composed an email and sent it to everyone whom we knew and asked him or her to help spread the message by forwarding it to everyone whom they knew. On the sixth day, we went to Bryan’s primary school, Montfort Junior, and gave a presentation to some of the primary twos there. (Refer to appendix for pictures of the talk). On the seventh and final day, we sent a letter of appeal to Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister for Environment to enlist the help of the government in increasing the number of bins so people would not litter just because there are no bins around to throw their litter away and also to educate people to increase their environmental awareness. (Refer to the appendix for the letter). c) We think that our action may have impacted society in some way and educated and convinced some members of the public not to litter as when we asked the primary twos at Montfort junior whether they enjoyed the presentation and whether they learnt anything from it, they all screamed yes excitedly.

Reflections Our objective of informing the public was met partially, as we managed to disseminate information about the environment and why we should not litter to 5 primary school classes, as well as our classmates via email. However, due to the lack of responses for the flyers provided, our public information campaign could be considered a failure. Also, we received a dismal amount of responses on our website, even after promoting it numerous times to our classmates and friends, so our website’s objective to rally support for our cause could be considered to have failed as well. 1. I think that our team has displayed the “I can” attitude a lot during our Design for Change journey. Even when we were struggling to meet some deadlines, we remained optimistic and put in our best and managed to meet our deadlines. Also, even when we were faced with problems, instead of giving up, we searched for alternative solutions and managed to find the answer. 2. Our team’s strengths would be our cohesiveness and team spirit. We did not have any arguments and found it easy to come to an agreement on a certain issue. Also, we had a lot of commitment, with every member appearing on time if possible and we were fairly productive during our meetings and stipulated Research Education periods, being able to finish a fair amount of our work in them. However, our team had some weaknesses. For one, when at home, we sometimes slacked off and procrastinated, creating some delay. Also, there was a lack of planning, especially on the leader’s part, at times. Also, we were sometimes dry of innovative ideas and found it hard at times to think of creative solutions to our problems. 3. We encountered various challenges and difficulties in the process of our Design For Change Journey. For one, we had to think of creative solutions to our problems, and we found that hard at times, as we were not used to thinking laterally. Also, we found it hard to get a meeting at times, as our schedules were all different and we ended up with a very limited time frame to do our work due to the various commitments we all had. In addition to this, we also had to deal with distances, as two of our group mates lived in Jurong and the others lived in the Bishan-Marymount area. Thus, during the talk that we held, Theodore was not able to come due to the extreme distance involved. Also, we would procrastinate at times and thus get bogged down for weeks and waste valuable time. For example, we did not do anything for the whole holiday and thus got severely sidetracked. 4. We have learnt a lot from this project. For one, we have learnt that we need to manage our time well to meet our deadlines. If we fail to do so, we will not be able to complete our task on time. Also, we learnt how to think out of the box and we realized that there is more than one solution to a given problem and we just have to find it. In addition to this, we discovered that we were not very good planners or hard workers at times and had to learn to plan well and work hard in order to prevent delays, like in this project. Also, I learnt that we sometimes handle problems in an angry manner and failed to keep a cool head,

which we needed to solve problems or did not want to take the initiative to do things, which was necessary for us to seize opportunities and succeed. Furthermore, we were sometimes scared of giving out surveys or talks and needed to be more confident. In actuality, we discovered that my life experiences were not too different from these people, as our project was aimed at people just like us. We have grown a lot during this project as well, as we have learnt to realize our ideas, as well as handle problems with maturity and take the initiative to do things. The things that are stopping us from picking up the habits are laziness and not daring to do certain things, as well as lack of initiative. For example, sometimes we are too lazy and do not follow through with the project or finish it on time. In addition, our group is fearful of giving out surveys or talks. We do not really think that we have the makings of a good social worker yet, as we are not selfless or committed enough. Also, we are sometimes unable to empathize with the plight of other people. This will have to be improved on in the future. 5. There are many improvements that we could be making. For one, we could be less lazy and more committed as if any group member was lazy or forgot to do his part, the whole group would be delayed. Also, we could plan our schedule better and make sure that we stick to it, so that we do not get delayed or sidetracked by too much. Also, we could learn to be more confident when doing surveys and giving talks as we often feel apprehension when it comes to doing this type of task. In addition, we could have procrastinated less so that we would have completed our work faster. Also, we have to be more creative and innovative so that we can create ideas that are fresh and this would help increase the idea’s popularity. Finally, we have to learn to handle problems calmly and keep a cool head in order to make the right decisions.

Appendix 1. 2. Our webpage: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stopping-litter-and-raising-environmental-awareness-in-Singapore/225297177509624

Raising Environmental awareness and Stopping Litter in Singapore.

A student initiative by raffles institution students: Bryan Low

Shin Hyon Young Theodore Choo

Zhang Yimin

This is a picture of a rubbish dump.

This is what Singapore may look like if we continue to ignore the many rubbish bins set up and litter wherever we want. Do we want to live in such an undesirable condition? So, please thrash the misconception that you can simply throw your rubbish on the ground and someone else will pick it up and clean up after you. On the contrary, people will get the wrong idea that littering is okay and follow your actions blindly. It is not. Once people start thinking that way it will not be long before Singapore starts looking like a rubbish dump. For a cleaner living environment tomorrow, stash your trash and do not litter. Thank you.

Picture from http://apwsm.org/trash Any queries? Please contact dontlitter68@yahoo.com.sg

Our flyer

3. Pictures of our talk at Montfort Junior:

5. Our letter of appeal: Dear Dr. Balakrishnan,

We are students from Class 2E of Raffles Institution working on a project on environmental awareness and stopping litter in Singapore, entitled “Stopping litter and raising environmental awareness in Singapore”. We felt that we wanted to make a change in Singapore’s environmental solution and had decided to write to you due to your expertise on the matter, resources and manpower. Not having much first hand information, we conducted a survey to find out a bit more about environmental awareness and littering in the public. In the course of our search for information, we found out that many of the respondents wanted more recycling bins and dustbins in the country and felt that this measure would reduce our current environmental problems. In addition, the respondents felt that heavier fines would help solve this problem as well. Finally, they also felt that we had to put in more effort to educate the people. (Attached in this email are our survey questions, findings and analysis.) Therefore, after finding out about the viewpoint of some members of the public, we were inspired to do our part to change things. So, could you please consider installing more recycling bins and dustbins, imposing heavier penalties and finding new and more engaging ways to educate the people about the need to keep our environment litter-free so that we can move one step closer to our collective dream of a clean, green Singapore?

Thank you for your time. Regards, Bryan Low H/P: 92230303 Email: bryanlow66@gmail.com Shin Hyon Young Email: mcvain77@gmail.com Theodore Choo Email: tb1234567890@gmail.com Zhang Yimin Email: zhangyiminzhang@yahoo.com.sg

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