the wonders of the earth

RE: PROPOSAL

2008-06-20T06:19:00.001-07:00

We've submitted our proposal on 16 June and tomorrow, 21st June, the groups will be informed if they are selected. But the outcome is not really important because we all did our part for the environment in some ways:)

& good luck to everybody :D

RE: Measures to fufil our 3Cs

2008-06-14T23:54:00.000-07:00

SOME MEASURES TO FUFIL THE 3Cs

CONSERVE

SCHOOL
Ø After consuming the beverage from the drink packet, we should wash them and flatten them before recycling it into the bins that collect drink packets.
Ø After drinking the bottled drinks, wash them also and dispose the clean bottles into the bins provided in school.
Ø Introduce CIP activities e.g. picking up dead leaves, collecting rubbish in the school compound or Singapore parks, go around neighbourhood flats to collect old newspapers, which can be used to process new paper that is recycled.
Ø There must be frequent reminders to off the lights and fans in classroom so to conserve electricity.
Ø The air- con temperature in the hall, staff room and general office must not be lower than 24 degrees Celsius. This will also save electricity.
Ø Canteen vendors should wash the utensils when their load that collects utensils is full. This is to prevent the waste of water.
Ø In the canteen, the canteen vendors should not provide plastic utensils but instead metal ones that are non- disposable.
Ø Encourage teachers to use double side printing of materials to save paper
Ø The paper that prints consent form should be changed to used paper that is processed to recycled paper.

HOME
Ø Use light- saving bulbs
Ø On the fan instead of the air- con
Ø Turn off water heater after bathing
Ø Take a shower instead of a bath
Ø Use a mug when brushing teeth
Ø Turn off the shower when soaping
Ø Use water from washing the rice to flush the toilet or water the plants

CONVEY

SCHOOL
Ø During assembly programmes, there should be more activities to encourage students to practice the 3Rs.
Ø Hold a 30- min session weekly to let teachers convey the message of conservation to students so that they have a better understanding.
Ø Draw posters on conservation and paste them in school.
Ø Have more competitions regarding the environment to get students and staff involved.

HOME
Ø Students should bring the message of conservation back home to spread it to their family and friends.

COOPERATE
Ø To save the earth, will more or less take some effort.
Ø We should not find conservation as troublesome as we should think far for the younger generation. What would happen if they live on an Earth which is damaged and the resources are used up.
Ø Therefore we should be considerate.
Ø No matter how messages of conservation are conveyed, if no one cares, the effort taken would be wasted.
Ø With everyone involved and cooperating in conserving and conveying, the Earth would thus become a better place for everyone.

THE END! COPYRIGHTED FOR YOUR INFO.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. SOMETHING!

Taking the first step

2008-05-28T02:50:00.000-07:00

As we had mentioned before, SOMETHING! met at jiaen's house on the 25th May to embark on our new idea.
First of all, we washed the bottles that we had picked during at bedok camp.
After that, we began to peel off the labels on the bottles.

The labels that were peeled off were being thrown into the plastic recycling bin.

There were 6 or 7 boxes of bottles to peel.

We packed the peeled plastic bottles into their respective boxes again.

As jiaen had booked the function room in her condominium so that we had a larger space to work in, all 5 of us carried the boxes of bottles and other materials required down.
We started work by sorting the bottles according to their shapes and sizes.
That was quite an easy task given the amount of hands available.
Next up was creating the layers of bottles to be the tree trunk.
Basically, we connected about 20 bottles into a ring shape using scotchtape.
After that, to ensure that the bottles at the bottom layer of the bin would not topple, yilin, angelina and jiaen went to get soil to pour into the bottles so that they could withstand the weight of the bin.

Transferring the soil into the bottles was quite a tedious job as the bottles' openings were quite small, but creative us used newspaper to make our own funnels to speed up the process!
Our soil kept running out so some of us had to go out and get soil.

After making 6 layers of bottles with the bottom 2 layers filled with soil,we stacked the layers with difficulty.

This is probably the most difficult process of all.

We used alot of scotchtapewe used wire and coil around the bottles to strengthen them.

Initially, the bottles tend to get out of shape so we thought of different ways to keep them in shape.

After some hard work, we managed to get all the 6 layers stacked up.

However, when everything is done, we need to "transport" the bin up to jiaen's house.

To our dismay, the scotchtape could not really withstand the weight of the layers of bottles.

But SOMETHING! would come out of another solution to salvage the bin.

We decided to reward ourselves by treating ourselves to a meal made by Jiaen's Mum.

Next meetup would be finishing the bin (hopefully) and do the proposal.
SOMETHING! jiayou!

important facts about plastic.

2008-05-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

Below are extracts from an article from the website- CREDITS: http://www.dancewithshadows.com/business/pharma/plastic.asp & we express our gratitude for the information provided.

It shows important information about plastic and its impacts on the environment and our Earth.

We do hope that after reading this piece of information, you do get a better understanding and realise the importance of conservation.

The very first thing to do, is to reduce the use of plastic.

Of course, we will not pause but continue posting more articles on our blog so as to influence you :D

Please read the article with a serious attitude. This is not a joke. It is a true fact.

The next time you do the shopping and carry home the things in a cute, comfy plastic carry-bag, think: you are contributing your share to a deadly pollution whose ill-effects are irreversible and capable of reaching out to numerous generations to come.

Plastic is one of the major toxic pollutants of our time. Being a non-biodegradable substance, composed of toxic chemicals, plastic pollutes earth, air and water.

There is no way whatsoever you can ‘safely’ dispose of plastic waste. Plastic causes serious damage to environment both during its production and disposal. So the only way to reduce the hazards of plastic is to reduce the use of plastic and thereby force a reduction in its production.

The major chemicals that go into the making of plastic are highly toxic and pose serious threat to living beings of all species on earth.

Like in the case of all other chemical substances, ‘disposal’ of plastic is a myth.
Once plastic is produced, the harm is done once and for all.

Plastic defies any kind of attempt at disposal – be it through recycling, burning, or landfilling. When you recycle a hazard, you create a hazard.

Recycling of a toxic waste merely puts the hazardous material back into the marketplace and, eventually, into the environment – thereby making no reduction in toxic use. Since plastic does not undergo bacterial decomposition, landfilling using plastic would mean preserving the poison forever.

Apart from these perils, recycling of plastic is very uneconomical, dirty and labour-intensive .Recycling of plastic is associated with skin and respiratory problems, resulting from exposure to and inhalation of toxic fumes.

Plastic wastes clog the drains and thus hit especially urban sewage systems. The plastic wastes being dumped into rivers, streams and seas contaminate the water, soil, marine life and also the very air we breathe.

Choked drains provide excellent breeding grounds for disease-causing mosquitoes besides causing flooding during the monsoons. Any attempt to ‘get rid of’ plastic through landfills is also dangerous.

Apart form toxic seepage from the landfill, resulting in the contamination of precious water sources, the waste mass impedes the flow of ground water as well and obstructs the movement of roots.

The only way out of the deadly and lasting danger of plastic is to cut down the use of plastic, if not avoid it altogether.

Say ‘no’ to plastic – whenever and wherever you can.

Setting examples and being influenced.

2008-05-24T04:54:00.000-07:00

This is a little out of the topic, but it might seem imporatant after all. Today [the five of us are NDP participants] we went Bedok Camp for National Day Parade Practice.
Bottles of mineral water were provided for us due to the extreme warm weather.
Obviously, the majority of the students just threw the bottles in the large transparent garbage bag.

The five of us saw the bottles thrown into the plastic bag and we thought that we could pack it back to school so that we would have more bottles for our invention of recycling bins.
However, we had the thought that the Singapore Armed Forces army soldiers would handle it the right way, which was to collect the bottles separately from the other waste materials, and to place the bottles into recycling bins.

Sad and disappointing, the soldiers claimed that there were no recycling bins in the camp. It was somehow shocking to us as we thought that the army should also emphasise on the importance of recycling and doing their part to save the environment.

However, we must thank the soldiers for helping us to sort out between the other waste materials from the plastic water bottles.

Our motto was not achieved by them. The first C, CONSERVE, was not achieved. Without the first C- Conserve, carried out, this will speak no success of the following two Cs in our mission-CONVEY & COOPERATE.

We were thinking that maybe the goverment can enforce more conservation values for the army soldiers?
We always say that soldiers are the defenders of the country, thus we feel that some improvements should be made.
To influence the citizens and, soldiers should first do their part and show a good example for the people to follow.

So in this case, we feel that we had set a good example as students and we truly hope that people around us get influenced.
Below is the photo taken. The plastic bags contain the bottles. Angelina, Jinghui and Yilin brought it home.

This is the picture. From right, Yilin, Angelina and Jinghui. The smiles on their faces showed their enthusiasm and passion for conservation. Aren't they the role models for youths? :)

We realised that taking part in this project made us much more aware of the imporatance of conservation. Also, we know the consequences of the result of not recycling. Thus we are doing something to save the Earth.

This in turns show the fact that our Singaporeans are not doing enough for the planet. WHY?
It is not that our people do not know the consequences of recycling.
It's that they do not bother.
Also, the limited facilities and implementations made it quite tough and inconvenient for conservation to take place.

Of course, recycling is always on the extra mile.
It might be quite inconvenient, but if we think far, what will happen to our future generations if plastic and other materials are not reduced, reused and recycled?
Our selfish acts will cause an early extinction of human beings and fast destruction of the Earth.
It is an honour that all of us have a chance to do our part in saving the Earth. Compare the positive and negative points of conservation.
There are many positive impacts of conservation. It might create a little inconvenience for individuals to recycle, reduce and reuse but think, it's all worthwhile.
Make conservation a daily habit, and you would not think that conservation is troublesome.

Also, we should clear misunderstandings if there are any.
Many youths in Singapore have the wrong concept.
They think that recycling is boring and a waste of time.
They think that they should not be involved in such events.
They feel that conservation can just be carried out by the older generations or by some weird people who care for the environment.

However, these interpretations are all wrong. We all live under one Earth, and CONSERVATION SHOULD BE EVERYONE'S RESPOSIBILITIES. We should all do our part. Conservation is long- term, and we should encourage each other to preserve the environment. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
It involves EVERYONE.
It's everyone's duty. We should start now, before it's too late.
We should learn from other countries, such as Korea. As plastic cannot be recycled, we can only sort them out.

Theses are the pictures from the website- CREDITS: http://thedailykimchi.blogspot.com/2006/08/koreas-amazing-recycling-initiative.html & we express our gratitude for this website.
The first picture is Macdonalds in Korea. Look at their recycling system. It is wonderful.

The second picture is an ice- cream shop in Korea, called Baskin Robbins. They go to the extent of separating plastic spoons that are just so tiny. :D

The third and fourth pictures show The Coffee Bean in Korea, again. The system goes by where once you place your plastic cup into the recycling bin below, you press the red button on this machine and it will refund 50w[in Korea $] to you.
That is the charge for a take out cup.
It is systematic and creative, convenient at the same time.

It thus can be seen that Singaporeans have a lot to learn in conservation, and we are sure that Singaporeans would be influenced by the ideal recycling systems in other countries.
We should learn and adopt some methods.

Starting On Our New Approach

2008-05-22T07:06:00.000-07:00

Our facilitators Karen and Gavin came over to our school at around 4pm today.
We headed for our school library and discussed there.
Much to our delight, we found the "new approach" in less than one hour.
Using recycled bottles to build recycling bins, thick wires and cling wrap are needed to tighten them together.
We decided to start on it right away as we did not wish to lose precious time.
Our school has these bins which is located in the canteen.
One of the bins holds used plastic bottles.
Seeing that it's overflowing, we took come bottles to embark on our invention.
(We've asked the teacher-in-charge, of course)
We washed the bottles to make sure they're not sticky and sweet which will attract insects.

Us in action of washing the bottles.

Washing the bottles thoroughly.

The washed bottles.

Putting the washed bottles into recycled cardboard boxes for easy transporation.

Packed bottles .

We'll be going to Jiaen's house on Sunday to start working on the dustbins.
Jiaen took all the bottles home so we need not carry them to her place on Sunday.

RECYCLE BOTTLES NOW!

Trip to Ikea

2008-05-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

Trip to Ikea to find inspiration for our new invention was not a fruitful one.
Our idea of invention was to build creative and unique recycling bins.
Much to our disappointment, we found only small bins which could not possibly hold a day's waste.

We then scanned Ikea around to find more materials.
After a day's work, we did not purchase anything as none of the items there were relevant to our invention.
Is our invention practical?
Is our invention doable?
Can our invention be finished by the dateline?
We finally decided to change our idea and go for a new approach.

Some pictures we took there:

Even Ikea is playing it's part to conserve the environment.

Ikea's recycling bins

dreadful consequences, due to ignorance.

2008-05-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

Natural disasters are frequently happening due to global warming and deforestation. rise in temperature cause ice bergs to melt, rising waters level and possible submerging of low land nations will be flooded soon. there will be pollution of water if there's flooding, and causes percentage of clean water, food and land to decrease and eventually, harming the humans.

of cos, this is just a starting and a brief introduction.