The best Green Plan is an action plan
Today marks the 7th day of the #lunarnewyear, which is also known as 人日, the day when humanity was created. On this occasion of everyone's birthday, I wanted to share some pictures from my 'beach day' this past weekend on behalf of the environment, which is so crucial to nurturing and sustaining life on this planet.
These pictures were taken at the beach at Pasir Ris Park, where I had joined The Litter Club Project for the past two weekends on their clean-up activities. Many people I have shared this with are stunned when told this is in Singapore, but that is precisely why I think it's important to spread greater awareness and spur more people to take action.
While the main pathways of the park are kept 'cleaned and green', the beach tells a different story.
Walking around the mangroves, one is greeted by the depressing sight of roots oft entwined with a mind-boggling amount of plastic straws and wrappers. As a little mental break, just see how many pieces of plastic you can spot in this picture on the left.
The more I tugged at the visible bits and bobs, the more layers of trash beneath were unearthed - kind of like a trash 'Lo Hei' (though honestly nobody's wishing for this to be a 年年有余 situation). The shoreline was black and greasy with plastic and wooden planks weighed down by oil residues. I wished we had an excavator to directly scoop up all the trash along the shoreline.
What further stuck with me was a comment from the organizer that all this trash was visible and washed ashore because of the low tide then - just imagining what was lurking beneath the surface of the sea further out from shore sent shudders down our collective spines.
Lest I be mistaken, this is not just about the trash-covered beach being unsightly. The bigger issue here is about how it endangers wildlife and potentially threatens what we consume with microplastics. The park is home to a host of birds and popular with bird-watchers whom I spotted on both weekends. I was rather tempted to tell the people fishing not to eat the fish though, considering all the plastic pollution.
While this has been a rather sombre ramble on my part thus far, I did want to close on a more positive note - I was pleasantly surprised to find that the volunteers were a demographically diverse group, with some bringing their children along and a sizable number being expats, including an Australian gentleman who was volunteering the day before his return to Australia, marking the end of his 13 years' stay in Singapore.
Policy-minded readers may turn towards the government and ask if some systemic remedies could be introduced rather than relying on the goodwill of volunteers picking away at the beaches every weekend. I think the two should certainly go hand-in-hand, because plastic waste is a problem that everyone can take action on, starting from their own consumption behavior and their social circles. The waste problem is not just caused by improper disposal - Semakau landfill in Singapore is projected to run out of space by 2035 so consumption habits must meaningfully change towards reduced single-use consumption and a higher take-up rate on recycling.
No action is too small - the responsibility for making Singapore clean and green rather than 'cleaned and green' must be recognised by citizens as one they must shoulder in order to make any Green Plan truly sustainable and impactful.