Introduction to public understanding of sustainability in Singapore: Current norms and attitudes that Singaporeans have towards sustainable living

Current norms and attitudes that Singaporeans have towards sustainable living

Currently there are recycle bins in every housing estate in Singapore. However, they are underutilized. This is due to the fact that people in Singapore have no habit of recycling. The habit is not instilled in them from a young age. Sustainable living is a skill that has not been picked by the older generation of Singapore therefore is not passed down through the generations. There is a generally poor attitude towards being a more sustainable country by taking action on the individual level. The current Singaporean society places great value on convenience. Therefore, even though there are many opportunities to reuse, reduce and recycle, they fail to do so. For example, there are multiple recycle bins in housing estates but people rarely take the time to separate their trash and take recyclables to the recycle bin located in void decks of people’s flats. In offices and in schools, the public do not endeavor to cut down on usage of paper by going electronic. There is great wastage of scarce resources. Singaporeans are also notorious for wasting food in restaurants and in functions. According to statistics, Singapore generates about 788 600 tones of food waste each year. Individuals in Singapore fail to acknowledge the serious challenges that Singapore faces due to global warming and climate change. They are not willing to take responsibility for adding to the problem by being wasteful and inconsiderate towards the environment despite government efforts to keep Singapore a clean and green city.

Some retail companies try to reduce the use of non bio degradable plastic bags to package their items however most companies still pioneer the use of plastic bags such as supermarkets like Fairprice and cold storage.

Singapore being a capitalist country, has a very unsustainable consuming culture. There is very little room for old and used products in people’s life as buying new things is looked upon fondly by most Singaporeans. An interesting point about Singapore would be the 5 Cs that each Singaporean looks to own to be seen as successful in Singapore. The 5 Cs are cash, car, credit card, condominium, and country club membership. Singaporeans are engrossed with consuming more and more products and resources and being rich and having the five Cs is the ideal Singaporean dream. They are less concerned with how the effect of this high consumerism affects the environment. It is socially normal to be wasteful and being wasteful is not that much looked down on in Singapore society. Singaporeans can be seen to be entitled and privileged and tend to always push responsibility to other factions of society without willingness to accept personal accountability to be more green and aware of the need to be more sustainable.

Much more can be done by the public to make Singapore a more sustainable country. There needs to be a constant reminder to people on the dire need to become sustainable as soon as possible to help mitigate the problem of global warming and climate change. Constant reinforcement on the importance of living sustainability is needed in order to change current norms and attitudes of Singaporeans about sustainable living.

References

Food Wastage in Singapore (2014). Retrieved from:

http://www.foodbank.sg/index.php/the-big-issues/food-wastage-in-singapore