so many plastic bags used??

[Wind In My Hair]

About the plastic bags, one of the worst offenders is NTUC. Whereas I buy the same amount of groceries that I know would fit in one bag, NTUC would put them in five! Sometimes I told the nice lady to just put it all in one bag and she insisted that she put some of the stuff in a separate bag anyway.

It has to do with not putting 'wet' food like fish or meat with dry or packaged food. I am constantly saying "no need bag" and often they ignore me and put it in a bag anyway, until I empty everything into my large tote and return them the plastic bag. I wish more people would do this.

[Eau2011]

Well, I give up if you even don't know the name of those supermarkt chains....! Are you SURE you have lived there?
I've stayed in NYC and Florida for a while, I saw their way of living...I saw how my friends lived.

Well what can I say but that I haven’t. I know Lidl, Aldi, Kaisers, Netto, Metro... .... DM, Rossman, Schlecher and so on...
Well, we have different experiences in different supermarkets. and now, go to those more environmental friendly stores.

Ah Sehr gut meine freunde, something we agree on! [/color]
I'm female. you can say: sehr gut, Mädchen.

Angenehm
Gerne geschehen.

Er... windmills need 24/7/365 power station back-up. Electric cars get electricty from the same. Can you explain what is renewable please?
Then tell me what's behind....intrigue. Or you want to say they are all stupid.

You mean what is behind ‘climate change’ and all of that? Well, they call them watermelons don’t they? Green on the outside, red inside. Anyone you meet that supports it is either making a living from it, or stupid (sheeple (refer seperate complex side discussion re: false religions and Western self-hatred)). It is down to taking money from the successful.

I can't agree on you. I just can say people or country who don't support or are against it are either (also) considering their own interest or blind(?)

Sure, behaviours are moderated by fines, crime is moderated by law, not much different.

Eau dear You have moved from an essentially extremely formal and civic society to a wanton Chinese free-for-all. In time you will understand.


I come from a much more complicated society (China) than Germany, so I have seen more Huntun than you can imagine.

Gosh SGns must seem civilised to you! lol

Always depends on with what you compare. I've travelled all continents, have seen extremly bad things. I'm definetly not the one who is so fragile. The difference is always the gap between what you get and what you expect. If I live now in Indian, I'll not talk about plastic bags, but I live in Singapore now.

What I heard and read blah blah is about how organized the Sin society is, I thought it must be so perfect. But just an example, I'm probably the only driver to wait and let the pedestrians cross the streets... The old people have to work nonstop in the airport and food courts, heard they don't have pension or just too less to survive....



What I want to say is: essentially extremely formal and civic society is regulated by law.

But Germany does not need to fine people for not flushing a public toilet. Consider why
Have you heard an old story about 50 steps and 100 steps? try to google it.
Well, not in the extrem case of flushing a toilet, but more or less. Imagine what would happen without so many laws and provisions. You should know in the world the most laws and provisions are written in German. Why?


Do you know the MNC will try to take advantage of those societies if law is incomplete there or there is law but it's not strictly followed? I know many of these. Without law restriction, will they really talk about ethic??

Is it just MNCs or all companies? In fact is it all companies, or individual/sole traders as well? In fact in your eyes are people parasites on society? Do these parasites need to elect other parasite-controllers in order to control their parasitical tendencies?


Talking about MNC is because they act differently in different countries.

I just saw the same companies which grant all the rights to their German employees but not to the employees in other countries where no law asks them to do so. They take the advantages. You must also know Adidas has used child labor indirectly in Indonesia before... Will they dare to do that in Germany or not to control their subcontractors?? That's the reality, believe it or not.

OT: if they do have moral high ground, why do they still do business with those countries which violate human rights? e.g. China.

When talking about the sanction, their own interest has always the highest priority.

They are quite flexible, huh?

[Eau2011]

About the plastic bags, one of the worst offenders is NTUC. Whereas I buy the same amount of groceries that I know would fit in one bag, NTUC would put them in five! Sometimes I told the nice lady to just put it all in one bag and she insisted that she put some of the stuff in a separate bag anyway.

It has to do with not putting 'wet' food like fish or meat with dry or packaged food. I am constantly saying "no need bag" and often they ignore me and put it in a bag anyway, until I empty everything into my large tote and return them the plastic bag. I wish more people would do this.

Hey, WIMH, that's a good advise, thanks.

I'll do the same. even for rubbish bags I don't need so many.

[intellectualsmuse]

One of the supermarkets back home introduced a scheme where people could return plastic bags which would be re-used. They didn't have much success with it though.

[Eau2011]

Eau - Recycling does happen, even if it's on a very small scale. Some estates do have recycling bins and they come around every 2 weeks to take all your recyclables. This includes PET, paper, glass and alu.
We have here paper bin and blue bin in our condo.

Actually, I really dislike reusable bags. A study has shown that most of reusable shopping bags harbour an enormous amount of bacteria. Have you ever washed yours??
Believe it or not, I did wash my shopping bags in D.

But Singapore does do it's small part. Do some research about Pulau Semakau. It's actually a landfill area, but done in a special way. All incinerated items are sealed in these special containers which are used to increase the land mass of the island. And special care has been taken to ensure that intertidal marine life, mangrove swamps, etc... are not upset in anyway. It has been there for sometime and so far it has been thriving.

If you are upset about plastic bags, don't take them! But I think there are worse things out there! Think of all the aircons in use in Singapore. Think of your carbon footprint each time you drive or worse, FLY!
Yes, I will try to take less of them than our household demands (I mean as rubbish bags).
I also thought about aircon, but at home we seldom used aircon, only when it's extremly humid.
Right, I try to fly less than neccessary. If I can take public transportation, I'll not use the car.

[Nath21]

Nearly everything in Singapore is incinerated.

From the Asian Green website

The waste collected by the PWCs and general waste collectors are disposed of at the four incineration plants (Tuas, Tuas South, Senoko and Ulu Pandan) and the offshore Semakau landfill. Waste that are incinerable are sent to the incineration plants while non-incinerable waste and incineration ashes are sent to the landfill. About 90% of waste are incinerated and 10% are landfilled.

So effectively any recycling you think your doing by putting things in different bins in singapore is a waste of time. everything is over wrapped in plastic and burnt.

[Eau2011]

What I want to say is: essentially extremely formal and civic society is regulated by law.

But Germany does not need to fine people for not flushing a public toilet. Consider why
Have you heard of an old story about 50 steps and 100 steps? try to google it.
Well, not in the extrem case of flushing a toilet, but more or less. Imagine what would happen without so many laws and provisions. You should know in the world the most laws and provisions are written in German. Why?

BTW I found the English idiom for the old story "50 steps laught at 100 steps": a pot calls the kettle black. I do like it

[paulzheng]

I came to Singapore two weeks ago from Germany. Yes a newbie.

Went to supermarket Giant a few times and saw they used so many plastic bags for carrying the goods. The same with bakery and other shops.

I can't keep thinking all the time how they do with the recycling. Will they do the waste seperation after they collect all the waste if they don't do it in the single household? Where will they dispose all those plastic bags? Singapore is such a small country. I'm not an eviromental freak, but this really bothers me much.

Can anyone give me clue? Thanks!

Then, could you introduce the situation in Germany? the people in Germany don't use plastic bag so often, right?

They do waste seperation in household. one for papers, one for waste, one for organic waste, one for plastic things (yellow bag).

In the supermarkets or other shops, you have to buy plastic bags for carrying. In some supermarkets they offer you paper bags for free, or you bring your own shopping bags, that's what Shanghai and Shenzhen are doing now, they have implemented this since 1 or 2 years.

We use those paper bags for organic waste, no plastic bags.

In the industry they introduced the green dot system. See wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Dot_(symbol)
Since its European introduction, the scheme has been rolled out to 23 European countries.

To be honest, I feel always guilty if I have to throw everything in one bag here in Singapore. Yes maybe like that guy said in Youtube, what's fuss about some plastic bags? But I try to live environmental friendly in my daily life.

As some guys already said: maybe Singapore govnt intended to do this, shopping plastic bags as rubbish bags for end users. Then I shut up my month cause I'm lack of joined up thinking..

But, as one guy said above:
"About the plastic bags, one of the worst offenders is NTUC. Whereas I buy the same amount of groceries that I know would fit in one bag, NTUC would put them in five! Sometimes I told the nice lady to just put it all in one bag and she insisted that she put some of the stuff in a separate bag anyway. "
I also have the same problem.

I'd prefer those biodegradable plastic bags...

Thanks for your detail introduction, i will add more admire to Germany people since the envirenment protection need everybody effort.

One of my friend come back from Canada, he is also disspoint for the singapore peolple 's weak envirenment protection thought and behavior.

I hope the situation will become more ane more better in the future.

[aster]

Went to the supermarket today and saw that they have a special line for those with eco bags. Might come in handy if ever doing shopping during "rush hour."

[Eau2011]

Went to the supermarket today and saw that they have a special line for those with eco bags. Might come in handy if ever doing shopping during "rush hour."

Which supermarket is it? Thanks for sharing the information.

[nakatago]

About the plastic bags, one of the worst offenders is NTUC. Whereas I buy the same amount of groceries that I know would fit in one bag, NTUC would put them in five! Sometimes I told the nice lady to just put it all in one bag and she insisted that she put some of the stuff in a separate bag anyway.

It has to do with not putting 'wet' food like fish or meat with dry or packaged food. I am constantly saying "no need bag" and often they ignore me and put it in a bag anyway, until I empty everything into my large tote and return them the plastic bag. I wish more people would do this.

Not all the time; most of them put 2-3 items in and put the others in a different bag already. Carrefour, for example, puts as much stuff as reasonably possible in one bag.

@Nath21: that gives me a whole insight to the internet expression "kill it with fire"

[sundaymorningstaple]

Nearly everything in Singapore is incinerated.

From the Asian Green website

The waste collected by the PWCs and general waste collectors are disposed of at the four incineration plants (Tuas, Tuas South, Senoko and Ulu Pandan) and the offshore Semakau landfill. Waste that are incinerable are sent to the incineration plants while non-incinerable waste and incineration ashes are sent to the landfill. About 90% of waste are incinerated and 10% are landfilled.

So effectively any recycling you think your doing by putting things in different bins in singapore is a waste of time. everything is over wrapped in plastic and burnt.

Actually, Ulu Pandan is becoming waste as well as we type. They stopped using that plant several years ago. I work around the corner from it and they are in the process of making waste of it too. I'm hoping they will demolish the smokestack US style with explosive charges to collapse it on itself. I'd like to be there to see it. It's just the demolition expert in me coming to the fore again. (I used to hold a US Federal Blasters License).

[Eau2011]

Nearly everything in Singapore is incinerated.

From the Asian Green website

The waste collected by the PWCs and general waste collectors are disposed of at the four incineration plants (Tuas, Tuas South, Senoko and Ulu Pandan) and the offshore Semakau landfill. Waste that are incinerable are sent to the incineration plants while non-incinerable waste and incineration ashes are sent to the landfill. About 90% of waste are incinerated and 10% are landfilled.

So effectively any recycling you think your doing by putting things in different bins in singapore is a waste of time. everything is over wrapped in plastic and burnt.

Actually, Ulu Pandan is becoming waste as well as we type. They stopped using that plant several years ago. I work around the corner from it and they are in the process of making waste of it too. I'm hoping they will demolish the smokestack US style with explosive charges to collapse it on itself. I'd like to be there to see it. It's just the demolition expert in me coming to the fore again. (I used to hold a US Federal Blasters License).

Take some pictures for demolition if you got that job for Ulu Pandan.
Keep us informed...

[nakatago]

Nearly everything in Singapore is incinerated.

From the Asian Green website

The waste collected by the PWCs and general waste collectors are disposed of at the four incineration plants (Tuas, Tuas South, Senoko and Ulu Pandan) and the offshore Semakau landfill. Waste that are incinerable are sent to the incineration plants while non-incinerable waste and incineration ashes are sent to the landfill. About 90% of waste are incinerated and 10% are landfilled.

So effectively any recycling you think your doing by putting things in different bins in singapore is a waste of time. everything is over wrapped in plastic and burnt.

Actually, Ulu Pandan is becoming waste as well as we type. They stopped using that plant several years ago. I work around the corner from it and they are in the process of making waste of it too. I'm hoping they will demolish the smokestack US style with explosive charges to collapse it on itself. I'd like to be there to see it. It's just the demolition expert in me coming to the fore again. (I used to hold a US Federal Blasters License).

You should meet Jamie Hyneman.

[aster]

Went to the supermarket today and saw that they have a special line for those with eco bags. Might come in handy if ever doing shopping during "rush hour."

Which supermarket is it? Thanks for sharing the information.

Carrefour. They also have a separate line for POSB cardholders.