Kenneth’s Reeses Puff

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

Can educate the public on how to properly dispose their items for recycling. Can have more recycling bins in shopping mall.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

need to further elaborate on the concrete actions. but i think the scope is a little too broad and they should focus on tackling one issue first

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

The two initiatives of optimizing the process of recycling and increasing informed decisions are well-intentioned. On the former, if the barriers to usage are low, consumers may be willing to do so. A physical machine that facilitates recycling while offering a reward may have a large impact if they become ubiquitous in the community. On the latter, there is likely to be limited info on how items are packaged if platforms are aggregators and not direct sellers.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

I think the decontamination of recyclables is a good idea and will help reduce the barriers to entry for people to start recycling more. I\'m not sure about the gamification idea. (IIRC some shopping malls already have vending machines for people to drop plastic bottles for evouchers or points, those vending machines seem sufficient)

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

I think this is a really innovative idea that approaches the problem at multiple aspects. However, I believe there are still improvements your team can make! First, regarding the educational and publicity initiative in schools, I think it\'s not enough to simple educate students. Instead, more can be done to be what they learnt into action! For this, your team could work with the schools and perhaps host inter class or inter cohort contests with attractive prizes (snacks) to see which class / cohort is able to practice what they have learnt. For example, you could host recycling contests, organize door-to-door visits to neighboring blocks to collect recyclables or even tour recycling plants. Rather than it being a one hour educational session, I believe it\'s better to stretch it out and let the students participate in recycling so that it\'s more memorable for them. Second, regarding the implementation of a machine that removes contamination from recyclables and provide incentives to encourage the habit, I think i\'ve heard of similar projects like this which provides incentives for can drinks to be recycled. However to my knowledge, i believe these projects are not very sustainable because of the cost incurred if they were to be implemented on a long term. Also, since the participants may only be after the cash incentives, the habit of recycling failed to be instilled within them as they stop recycling the very moment the program is stopped. Perhaps your team would have to think of some form of incentive that can encourage participants to continue recycling in the long term. Or maybe your team could explore and research more about existing programs and the incentives provided by these programs to see if there are any aspects where you guys could perhaps work together to leverage on the existing efforts. Third, regarding having an application extension that tracks the waste generated from online purchases, I think it might only work on individuals who are more environmentally conscious. The reason why many people likes to buy things online is because of the cost savings, and also the convenience of shopping at home. For many people like myself, I buy online because it\'s so much cheaper after redeeming all the cash vouchers. The cash savings i can reap is a lot more than if i were to shop physically. While i understand and is aware of how much waste and cardboards are being used due to online shopping, I think being able to see how much waste is generated from my online purchases may not be enough to deter me from doing so, because my main concern and aim is still to reap cost savings. Hence, I think such an application extension may only work on those who are more environmentally conscious or are willing to pay more for more sustainable packaging. Perhaps your team could work with online shopping platforms like shopee to encourage sellers to reduce the amount of packaging used, or to shift to a more environmentally friendly packaging.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

the main problem with recycling is intrinsic. Therefore, ideas have to be personal and direct. I think it is good that the team has thought about this and planned campaigns for in school, games, and stuff like that. However, the reality is that these do occur already, and when people reach adulthood, they are too lazy to separate their trash. How can these campaigns continue to create long lasting impacts into adulthood? If the behaviour was facilitated by more bins around, public sinks (like how in europe they have outdoor sinks and water fountains) to clean our recyclables, it makes it easier to create a habit.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

Ensuring the extension is not able to be compromised by hackers to track card details

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

More content and market outreach for the tech savvy new gen like tiktoks

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

your target audience seems to be the younger generations, hence the focus could more be on education having the extension to track the usage is a novel idea, how to really ensure that you are able to track the amount of plastic used in every single online shop I\'m shopping in? most of the time, information on packaging are not even available on the websites. if the information is obtained by communicating with online shops directly, how can you ensure they are not lying to attract environmentally friendly customers?

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

I love the idea of an extension showing how much waste is generated. It would be even better if a union or some sort of certification was set up for online businesses to voluntarily sign up and list how much waste is generated with the purchase of each product. The information can be displayed on their website to all shoppers (not only those who have downloaded the extension), and they are likely to think twice before buying an item

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

Most of the people have a don’t care mindset about recycling, reusing and reducing as they do not believe that a single person’s action is going to change anything. So in your spreading awareness campaign , you guys could try to bring the problem closer to them. If I am not wrong , there is a lot of data online that proves that even a single plastic wasted kills some turtles or smth. So use that kinda of information to convince them that their actions matter. Also for the interactive recycling bins you guys could consider partnering with existing recycling bin making companies to install your project. It will also help you guys to gain credentials and ultimately traction.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

With regards to online shopping waste, people shop online for the convenience and easy browsing and having an extension would make the process less optimal by being too interruptive to the user experience. This would make general consumer start to ignore rather than appreciate the extension as unless you are already invested in environmental issues you wouldn\'t really care for such numbers. Perhaps targeting the producer side of things by having an app that enables more efficient packing/collation of orders from a singular customers would be more effective in reducing waste. (E.g. if all clothes purchased are from one brand, an app would inform the brand such that each item would no have to be wrapped individually and then wrapped all together as a package again.)

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

Would it be useful to focus on (1) emphasising environmental consciousness in schools; (2) conceptualising simple ways for households to recycle items. For e.g. NEA has trialed the use of transparent recycling bins to separate glassware / plastic / paper recyclables. There is synergy in both efforts. For online shopping, this is good effort though it may require partnership with major retailers, as consumers have no influence over their packaging decisions. Hence, this may require extensive effort beyond the team. Nevertheless, the team can conceptualise alternative packaging for various items (e.g. bubble tea, clothing, bubble wraps for furnitures, etc) and recommend useful ideas to business associations for endorsement.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

The idea proposed by the team is great using a three-prong approach - Schools, Households and Online Community. I would like to recommend 3 suggestions: 1. Schools - Complement recycling with increasing digitalisation in schools. Speak to school management how they can digitalise their paper handouts, this will reduce paper used in class. Alternatively, Schools can also consider having recycling competition within the school to encourage creativity and positive competition amongst students on ways to decorate their rooms with recyclables or which class/level can recycle the most every month - to rewarded with ice cream. 2. Households - Using the existing plastic recycling machines available around Singapore, we use the same concept to come up with cans/plastic bags/other forms of recyclables machines to trade for monetary incentives. The best incentive to get Households to adopt a new routine to recycle is using money. 3. Online community - Partnering with Blogshops or online retail websites, they can have a points system to show how much plastic each individual has saved in their membership portal. If they accumulate a specific amount of points, they can trade for $5 off their next purchase. Or they can trade for $5 that the blogshop will donate to a social cause.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

I think your extension targets people who already are aware and considerate about their impact on the environment. They therefore already have an intrinsic motivation to recyle. Comparing that to someone who, frankly speaking, doesn\'t give a shit, they would not be concerned about how much plastic their behaviour is generating. If there is a way to highlight to them how recycling can bring about personal benefits that they can reap, they may be more motivated to change their behaviour. In educating people, what approach will be used? Because current education methods already exist, and the approach must be something novel.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

Tackle one issue at a time, if you are looking at recycling, then do that first. If you want to tackle waste from online shopping, then do that. Seems to be many things in your solution to solve the problem.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

Through the education and publicity initiative, it is best to not only promote recycling and shed light on the proper ways of doing so, but also on the benefits/impacts it brings to our environment, community and ourselves.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

Singaporeans are often time-strapped, help make it less time consuming (washing and drying takes time, space and mental energy to keep track)

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

I do think that convenience plays the biggest part in recycling. Maybe we don\'t have to start big (i.e, start recycling every bit of plastic you can find). Maybe we just need to start small, by recycling drink cans and plastic bottles first. Once this habit gets ingrained in people, it will be easier to get them to recycle other plastic packaging (like fruits packaging). Good luck!

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

The gammification process needs to be well thought out. Incentivising is a good idea but have to be balenced out such that you don\'t end up losi g on operating cost

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

I think there needs to be an awareness about who this is targeted at. As someone who is already convinced that recycling is a worthy cause, I think you guys might need to address how to enable people like me to act, and set up an ecosystem that empowers me to recycle

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

I order from online sellers once in a while - perhaps, once in three months and more often than not, a lot of the purchases are wrapped with so much plastic to a point that’s unnecessary or comes in bigger cardboard boxes. If there’s a way for me to only support online sellers who commit to using lesser resources, it’ll be great and both sellers and buyers will benefit from this arrangement - and needless to say, the environment too. Great idea, team!!

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

It’d be good if the extension could provide alternatives. Maybe down the line, it could also factor in other considerations such as emissions from transportation mode etc.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

Since we will be more aware about the amount of plastics used when we online shop for products, maybe provide an alternative as to where else we can get those products from instead so that we can be sustainable. - Singi Das, singi.das.7@gmail.com

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

More details on the gamification

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

There are some other initiatives in Singapore that reward recycling behaviours. I believe what would be useful for the team to tackle is the awareness, to inculcate the idea of recycling from young and to get children \"excited\" about recycling and sustainable consumption. Hopefully, recycling will become a part of our culture like in Japan and Sweden.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

Consider starting at the schools. My own recycling habits were formed because of the school I attended in the United States that was very environmentally conscious.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

Is there any other ways than having a machine to remove the contamination? It may sound abit expensive to build and also you may need to find experts to build such machine.

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

If your extension is also able to recommend a suitable environmentally alternative instead of just stating the plastic waste of the product i am looking at, it will help reduce the effort needed on consumer\'s end to search for an alternative. This will greatly help user adoption of environmentally free product. Hope this helps and all the best!

In response to "How Can We Improve?"

One improvement that can be made would be to make the gamifying process an environmentally friendly & fun one — this is to ensure that we do not create extra waste while trying to make it fun. Another improvement would be to include the amount of impact one can make when recycling. Eg. On the interactive machine it can state “ you just saved .....” or “ this amount could .....”. Through showing the impact, it would help one to visualise the impact, encouraging them to make a change!