Singapore's food culture is fantastic... except for its plastic. Be it plastic or paper disposables, single-use is not a sustainable lifestyle for our planet. Singapore is fortunate to not see its waste (we have thousands of cleaners and incinerate our waste), but with this comes with the ability to easily ignore or deny the plastic pollution problem. In reality, plastics escape our waste management system and end up everywhere in nature. But also many studies have demonstrated the health risks of using single-use plastics and packaging. If you want to fight plastic pollution join us here

WHY SINGLE-USE PLASTIC IS SO POPULAR:

Since the 1950s, more than 9.1 billion tons of plastic has been produced... by 2014, plastic production had grown no less than 20 times. 
 
The plastic economy has benefitted consumers, who have found a reliance on this convenient, virtually costless material than enabled single-use products to proliferate. But it's also benefitted businesses by cutting down costs, and why manufacturers and packaging businesses are the first to look for an alternative; they advocate the global recycling system which employs approximately 1.6M people worldwide for an annual turnover similar to the GDP of our neighbour Malaysia. While future plastics should be made from existing ones, an alarming 90.5% of plastic waste ever generated has never been recycled.

THE F&B INDUSTRY and SINGAPORE IN THIS: 

In a nutshell, packaging is the dominant sectoral use of plastics globally and accounts for over 40% of all plastics made, and since packaging tends to have a much lower product lifetime than other products, it is also dominant in terms of annual waste generation. It is responsible for almost half of global plastic waste. How much plastic do you use every day, just once, then throw away? Well guess what, AWAY is just at your doorstep (on in your plate). 

It's not new that plastics present health risks, some more than others, and single-use is not designed to be reused (unsurprisingly), at the risk of leaching chemicals. When plastic ends in our oceans, it makes its way back up the food chain and into our diets, along with all the toxins it has been exposed to during its journey. 

How much packaging could we completely eliminate were it not for marketing and convenience? Assuming we could recover wasted plastics, we would still face the impact of the wasted resources a single-use item consumes during its life, of which over 99% is spent not in use (and how would we handle so much waste to recover and recycle?). Moreover, the value of plastic packaging material depreciates by 95%, the equivalent to up to US$120 billion per year.

WHY I CARE ABOUT THIS: 

As a fashion designer who has seen the massive waste generated from mass-consumption of disposable consumables, I am concerned that our planet cannot support our demanding and abusing lifestyle. I have seen how fast waste accumulates, and how the mentality that singe-use is fine is using what resources we have at an alarming rate. We ought to remember that nature does not need us, BUT THAT WE NEED NATURE. 

I am an animal and wildlife lover and care about the species that are at risk of extinction due to our plastic pollution. Oceans are the greatest source of all water on earth and the beginning of life. Ecosystems are fragile and easily disrupted, with enormous and sometimes irreversible impacts on the entire food chain. But given the chance to spring back, nature can thrive again. 

Regardless of whether you care about the planet, sustainability is not an option you simply choose or forego, it should be something we all take part of and understand. Whatever your concerns are in your business or in your personal life today, will have no significance if you cannot guarantee a safe future tomorrow. 

THE ONLY SOLUTION IS TO REUSE WHAT DOES NOT NEED TO BE DISPOSABLE

Sign the petition to show F&B businesses that you CARE about how your takeaway is served. 

For more on solutions to reduce disposables: JOIN US HERE