In 2010, Singapore threw away 0.64 million tonnes of food waste and only 16% was recycled. This means that on average, each person in Singapore generated about 126kg of food waste a year. This is common throughout the world and according to a 2011 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about 1.3 billion tonnes or one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year gets lost or wasted.

Food waste has several environmental and social impacts, and represents a waste of resources used in food production, distribution and disposal, such as land, water, energy, fertilisers, labour and capital, and produces unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions leading to climate change. The food wasted could be used to feed the poor and the nearly one billion malnourished people in the world.

To tackle this problem of food waste, we are thinking of organising a campaign to reduce food waste in Singapore. The campaign would aim to help consumers, households, food outlets, retailers, caterers, food distributors, and food manufacturers in Singapore understand the environmental and social impacts of our food cycle, and take actions to reduce, redistribute and recycle food waste in Singapore.

We are still in the process of conceptualising the campaign and trying to get sponsors, and will share more about the campaign later. Meanwhile, if you have any ideas and suggestions, do share them with us. Thanks!

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Green technology was the last thing on the mind of semi-retired marketing professional Renee Mison, but the arrival of a Korean-made machine that turned food waste into sludge water changed all that.

Mrs Mison, 48, was impressed, and also saw that it had a lot of potential.

It led her to buy the intellectual property rights to the food waste decomposer and the company’s Singapore units, and eventually set up Eco-Wiz last year.

Eco-Wiz has since spent more than $500,000 on research and development (R&D) to improve the functions of the decomposer, which is also named The Eco-Wiz.

The company has almost 40 staff, including engineers, researchers, production staff, marketing professionals and salespeople.

The progress is evident in the decomposer, which can now turn the sludge water into dry compost or cleaner water.

Eco-Wiz has installed the decomposer at several hotels including the InterContinental Singapore, and institutions such as the Singapore Polytechnic. Clients can either buy the decomposer, or rent it monthly.

They can then use the dry compost it produces as fertiliser for their gardens, while the water is clean enough to be used for washing floors and watering plants.

The Eco-Wiz stands on it own – it does not have to be hooked up to a drainage system or water supply.

One tonne of food waste generally produces one cubic metre, or 1,000 litres, of water, Mrs Mison said.

The machine has not only helped organisations become more eco-friendly, but it is saving them money as well, she added.

‘In Singapore, for every tonne of waste you send to the landfill, you have to pay a rather high disposal fee. Our clients have found that they are getting savings of 70 per cent on disposal fees after taking into account the purchase price of the machine.’

Eco-Wiz is not finished with its R&D. It has signed an agreement with a Thai research institution to improve the microbes that are used to break down food waste into water.

Microbes are microorganisms that act as decomposers, and are used in the process of recycling nutrients.

Eco-Wiz wants to develop microbes that can ‘specialise’ in the breaking down of certain food groups, so that the machine can perform its task faster and more efficiently.

‘So when I sell the machine to a food processing company that makes salads, for example, I will fill the machine with microbes that specialise in fibre,’ Mrs Mison explained.

This will allow Eco-Wiz to more effectively market its machine to food factories, supermarkets and even slaughterhouses, she said.

It also hopes to gain hospitals, schools and property developers as clients. ‘We could provide every household with a garbage grinder, attached to their sink, which can grind down all their food waste. We would also install the pipes that would then lead all this food waste into our machine,’ she added.

The machine would generate useable water piped back into homes for washing use.

Using the garbage grinder and The Eco-Wiz would also greatly reduce the number of pests that gather around rubbish chutes, Mrs Mison said.

While Eco-Wiz is still in negotiations with prospective clients here, it has started selling its machine to customers in the United States, Europe and China. The company is also studying ways to expand its business scope. In particular, it wants to develop the technology to recycle ‘grey’ water.

Grey water is wastewater generated by domestic activities like laundry, dishwashing and bathing that can be recycled on-site and used for flushing toilets or washing floors.

Eco-Wiz has also applied for a grant from Spring Singapore to conduct R&D into turning food waste into gas.

About the company

ECO-WIZ has refined a machine initially developed in South Korea that can turn food waste into dry compost for fertiliser or into clean water to be used for washing purposes.

It claims to be the only firm in the world to have equipment with such capability.

Eco-Wiz, which was set up in July last year, has sold its machine to 20 clients here. It has also ventured into the US, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy and China.

There are also plans to develop special microbes that will be more efficient in breaking down certain food groups, allowing the machine to be used in slaughterhouses and by food wholesalers. Eco-Wiz also aims to refine the machine further to allow it to recycle water and turn food waste into gas.

The company has about 40 staff and expects to turn profitable by mid-2012.

Source: The Straits Times

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A world without plastic bags would be quite unimaginable for many consumers long used to having these items to hold their purchases. This is why despite being in the green business, Alan Yeap, chief executive officer of green technology solutions company New Quantum Holdings, decided to incorporate rather than eliminate plastics from his company’s product line.

Still, mindful of the fact that plastic bags are not at all kind to the environment, New Quantum decided to manufacture eco-friendly bags which both look and feel like ordinary plastic bags but can degrade within two years, unlike conventional plastic bags which take more than 1,000 years to disintegrate.

Currently, the company produces the bags under its two in-house labels: Oxium and Ecoplas. Oxium provides plastic bags for the mass market, and has plastic polymer chains that have been chemically shortened to increase the speed of plastic degradation through the oxidation process.

Then there is Ecoplas, New Quantum’s luxury line of biodegradable bags that are produced using starch extracted from tapioca roots.

For Mr Yeap, the idea of developing eco-friendly plastic came about due to the challenges of applying the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) principle of environmentalism in the plastics industry.

‘Most plastic bags are reused as garbage bags to throw garbage. While a small percentage of plastic bags end up being recycled, it is a difficult process due to the huge amount of manpower, money, water and energy that is needed,’ said Mr Yeap.

‘In some incidences, improper recycling processes could lead to contamination of the recycled finished product, and this creates another set of social and environment problems.’

Even for PP (polypropylene) non-woven shopping bags, which are supposed to be more environmentally friendly because they can be reused many times, problems still exist.

‘Our research has also shown that the majority of consumers do not use these so-called environment-friendly plastic bags in accordance to the reuse and reduce concepts. According to one United Kingdom researcher, in order for PP non-woven bags to be efficient and effective in reducing plastics usage, it has to be used 170 times as the PP non-woven bag is 20 times thicker than normal polyethylene (PE) plastic bags.

‘Sadly, most of us do not reuse these bags that many times, and they end up increasing the total garbage amount in‚ open landfills, drainages, rivers and oceans as non-degradable plastic waste,’ he lamented.

Given the ‘lack of good alternatives to plastic bags’, New Quantum has chosen to focus on making plastic bags eco-friendly, said Mr Yeap.

And choosing to use their environmentally friendly bags need not hurt the pocket too. Mr Yeap describes his pricing strategy as ‘competitive’. Its Oxium degradable bags are priced 3-5 per cent higher than the conventional plastic bags. In contrast, other companies usually price their degradable bags ’20 per cent more expensive when compared to normal plastic bags’, he claimed.

‘The cost leadership model that the Oxium bags are based on – using oxo-degradable technology to turn normal plastic bags into environmental friendly green products – has worked well for the company so far,’ said Mr Yeap.

In fact, the company now counts well-known brands such as Nike, Zara and Carrefour among its clients. This year, New Quantum has also managed to achieve total revenues of US$30 million.

But success did not come overnight. New Quantum spent its first eight years doing research to develop the product prototype for the environmentally friendly bags, while another two years went into commercialising and testing the sustainability model of the product in order to perfect the degradable plastics into a marketable form.

During the long pre-revenue stage, Mr Yeap said he managed to overcome the trying period by constantly reminding himself that ‘we need to love our world from now on, and if we don’t do something now, environmental disasters will come’.

This environmentally conscious message that New Quantum seeks to promote is not limited to product development but is present at every stage of the production process, from sourcing to marketing efforts.

For example, while the same biodegradable technology can also be found in eco-bags made out of corn, the company has chosen not to use corn in making the Ecoplas brand of eco-bags.

‘The reason why we have chosen to use tapioca roots as the raw material for our Ecoplas bags is because it is not the main food staple in many parts of the world.

‘Had we chosen to use corn (which is eaten more widely) in making Ecoplas, we would not be solving the environmental problem but would create another set of problems in terms of a possible food crisis.’

An added benefit of using tapioca in making biodegradable bags is the social impact on tapioca suppliers. New Quantum estimates that for every 100 tonnes of Ecoplas bags that they produce, they contribute to the livelihood of 1,000 tapioca farmers who are able to sell their crops at a fair trade price. As a result of this practice, the company is also in the midst of getting a Fair for Life certification for its Ecoplas bags.

Likewise, in the marketing of its products, the company walks the eco-friendly talk. The office that it occupies at its Bukit Batok location does not store stacks of paper brochures promoting its in-house products. Customers who ask for product brochures will instead be sent an electronic version through its e-commerce channel which is ‘borderless and can therefore help the company to efficiently reach the global market’.

As an industry veteran in the green technology business, Mr Yeap admits that one key challenge that he has to constantly face is the growing price inflation of the raw materials he uses in his plastic products.

‘With higher (raw material) price comes higher risk. Price volatility is very common in the commodities market. But our profit margins remain the same despite increasing raw material prices.’

To cope with the challenge of high capital tie-ups and low profit margins, Mr Yeap said there is a ‘need to set a clear direction for value chain growth’.

In line with the ‘value-added business model’, New Quantum forms strategic business partnerships to set up regional manufacturing centres in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, so as to capitalise on the relatively cheaper labour costs in these countries.

It also taps into the ‘quality human resources that can be found in Singapore’ to work on the technology application, design, branding and intellectual property involved in its eco-friendly products, and uses the local platform to reach the global market.

Looking forward, the company expects annual 20-30 per cent growth for the next three years, given that the ‘green business is booming as the world continues to face plastic waste pollution and also climate change environment issues’.

Profits aside, Mr Yeap is driven by a sense of urgency that the world needs to do something right now to build a sustainable future.

‘We are responsible to protect the earth, for ourselves now and the generations to come.’

Source: The Business Times

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A team of researchers from Ngee Ann Polytechnic has found a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly way to filter raw water – using recycled glass.

The project, called GLASSwater, has helped the polytechnic’s Environmental & Water Technology Centre of Innovation (EWTCOI) secure S$10.3 million for more such industry projects over the next three years.

Central to the process is a porous ceramic membrane made of recycled glass.

Dr Gurdev Singh, who is leading the research team, expects the technology to drive down production costs considerably.

He said the current production cost of ceramic membranes is about S$100 to S$200 per square metre, as they are made from natural raw materials.

With the GLASSwater membrane, it will be two to three times cheaper, costing only S$50 to S$100 to produce.

Waste glass is also usually dumped and melted at high temperatures (1,600 degrees Celsius), consuming a lot of energy and emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide and other toxic gases.

But with the new invention, the glass won’t go to waste.

Although GLASSwater needs to be treated further before it can be safe to consume, Dr Singh said it is ideal for other applications where the water does not need to be so pure.

Car-wash companies can use the membrane to recycle water to wash cars.

The water can also be used for irrigation.

Dr Singh elaborated: “Besides its ability to eliminate solids and pathogenic bacteria that cause diseases like typhoid and cholera, the glass ceramic membrane also has a high flux, meaning water can flow through it very quickly. All you have to do is insert the glass ceramic membrane into a bottle cap and pour.

“Car-wash companies, for example, can recycle the huge amount of used water they generate by channelling it through the glass ceramic membrane system. Another possible application is to collect rainwater on rooftops, run it over a battery of glass ceramic membranes in the storage tanks, and channel it to a tap for gardening.

“GLASSwater is also suitable for irrigation where the prime concern is to remove the turbidity and bacteria. Ultimately, our project will help to maximise usage of a very precious resource – water.”

The next stage is to improve the purification properties of the glass ceramic membranes to produce drinking water.

The latest S$10.3 million in funding for EWTCOI comes from SPRING Singapore and Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

Set up in 2006 under a strategic partnership between the polytechnic and SPRING Singapore, the EWTCOI serves as a one-stop centre to catalyse the growth of small and medium enterprises which tap on its technological capabilities to develop commercially-viable solutions.

To date, the EWTCOI has provided consultancy services to more than 150 companies and has also secured S$5 million to work on 18 research and development projects.

Source: Channel NewsAsia

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Fertiliser that smells like cupcakes? Hard to imagine and you’d suspect that it probably doesn’t work. But not only does a sweet- smelling form of fertiliser exist, I was assured by its producer, Biomax Technologies, that it is pretty potent fodder for plants – packed with three times more potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen than conventional fertiliser. It can even double as fish food.

‘It’s sweet because it’s made from cake. And there’re a lot of vitamins in it – suitable for fish! Fish like it,’ says Puah Chum Mok, the lecturer-turned-technologist of homegrown Biomax, as he handed over the jar of the pork-floss looking ochre powder.

As I cracked open the other jars loaded with darker powder – labelled ‘Chicken dung’ and ‘Palm Fruit Bunches’ – I pointed out they didn’t exactly smell like paradise, although they are far from the reek of rotten eggs in normal fertiliser.

‘Of course they smell! There’s some ammonia after the waste material is processed. But at least there’s no hydrogen sulphide’ that gives fertiliser its rancid top notes, says Dr Puah who is the chairman and chief technology officer.

Biomax was formed a little over two years ago from Dr Puah’s kernel of an idea to accelerate how fertiliser is usually made from waste through composting or anaerobic fermentation.

What is done on farms is that dung and all manner of garbage are shovelled into a pile on the ground or into a dug hole. Fertiliser is eventually produced three to nine months later when bacteria, deprived of oxygen, essentially feed on the stinky mountain of waste.

But, points out Dr Puah, the resultant fertiliser may contain enough pathogens to slay a cow – salmonella, brucella, and diphtheria may lurk in the manure. Biomax’s thermophilic digestors changes all that. Animal or food waste – along with sawdust to soak up the moisture – is loaded into the machine which, at its largest, is taller than two grown men, instead of being left out in the open.

Then, a tailor-made mix of enzymes is added in the machine – the secret formula X that speeds up digestion to last only one day, ushering in the industrial age of fertiliser production.

The machines, large enough to fill a spacious boardroom, operate at 80 degrees Celsius, killing off toxins and harmful bacteria. And in the oxygenated process, a more pleasant-smelling 100 per cent pure organic fertiliser is formed 24 hours later.

‘Farms are pressured to move because of expansion of townships,’ says Dr Puah. ‘People get annoyed by the smell so this helps farms handle their waste faster and also cause less nuisance to residents living nearby.’

While much of urban Singapore may not find much use for Biomax’s technology, it has resonated with many others. Biomax has received inquiries from 33 territories as far away as Brazil, South Africa, and Dubai about its system.

Still, Biomax got its start in mid- 2009 in its own backyard at chicken farm, Chew’s Farm. Dr Puah created his first prototype to handle the farm’s chicken dung there.

Though Biomax’s technology has won praise and snagged a high level of interest from around the world, the marketing team is met more often than not with some scepticism. ‘Singapore is not a farming country, so a lot of them do not believe that a Singaporean company has come up with the idea to make organic fertiliser within 24 hours,’ says Dr Puah.

Farmers usually shy away from trying it. They are concerned about splashing out the money – and space – on machines that might spit out unsellable fertiliser that reduces crop yield or changes the flavour of crops. So bags of Biomax’s fertiliser are sent to the sceptics for free to test them out.

So far, this sales pitch has worked. Farms in more than 10 countries have bought Biomax Rapid Thermophilic digestors and the enzyme pack and the phone has been ringing off the hook thanks to publicity in trade publications in more than 10 countries.

One reason why the Biomax Rapid Thermophilic digestors are marketable is that they are of themselves a revenue-generating asset for the buyers. The money spent on the machines – the largest 80,000- litre unit is priced at over US$1 million – can be recovered when buyers sell the fertiliser they make.

For Biomax, the two-in-one digestor system makes sense in bolstering its cash flow. Once Biomax has sold a digestor, it gets recurring income as the buyer has to buy the special BM1 enzyme mix.

The company likens the system to buying a car: Without continually topping up the petrol tank, it would just be a heap of metal. Likewise, the digestors would be left collecting dust without its fuel – the BM1 enzyme.

The good response it has received and its recurring income stream are why the company is optimistic that next year it will enter the black. After all, this year it has pushed out almost $1.7 million in sales and gross profits of about $670,000. Expansion and marketing activities however dunked it in the red with net losses of $1 million.

Even when Dr Puah knows Biomax has got itself a solid product, he is still devoted to research, research, research. The enzyme mix has to be constantly tweaked according to what type of waste – food waste, vegetation or animal waste – is put into the digestor.

Dr Puah also knows the technology is only as relevant as the timings it is able to clock on its digestion process, so research dollars are ploughed into making it quicker. At the moment, Biomax’s machines are for large farms. But it has its eyes on the more urban market.

The next step it wants to take is to go small with a 200-litre reactor to reach out to restaurants and hotels, which discharge mountains of wasted food daily. It seems the sky is the limit. There are opportunities for Biomax’s technology in waste incineration or water utility companies.

After waste is burnt in a furnace or after water is filtered, the resultant effluent can be collected and treated by Biomax and packaged into safe organic fertiliser. Like the company’s motto goes, Biomax is in the business of turning waste to wealth.

Source: The Business Times

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Singapore, 1 December 2011 – Five major printer brands based in Singapore: Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson and Lexmark, with the support of the National Environment Agency (NEA) and National Library Board (NLB); have announced the launch of Singapore’s first-ever joint funded and managed printer brand ink and toner cartridge recycling initiative: Project Homecoming.

As the first international expansion of a successful joint printer brand recycling project (called “Ink Cartridge Satogaeri”) started in Japan three years ago, the project aims to encourage community awareness and environmental responsibility among Singaporeans through convenient cartridge recycling initiatives and education.

Project Homecoming will provide easily accessible cartridge recycling bins at 13 NLB libraries where the public can deposit used ink and toner cartridges from printers of any brand for recycling – even those of other brands not in the Project Homecoming partnership. The cartridges are then periodically collected for proper recycling.

“We aim to bring greater convenience to the public who are keen on making a personal contribution to recycling efforts across the island, and are proud to be working together as a team to jointly fund and promote the culture of recycling in Singapore,” said Andrew Koh, lead spokesperson for Project Homecoming and Senior Director and General Manager, Consumer Imaging & Information Products Division, Canon Singapore. “With strong support from the NEA and NLB, we will be able to give back to society through this initiative as socially responsible organisations, while driving home the message of environmental awareness through cartridge recycling as part of joint sustainability efforts from the printing industry.”

Joseph Hui, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of NEA said, “We are proud to support Project Homecoming, which is an exemplary initiative by thefive brands and the National Library Board to bring greater convenience to the community to recycle used printer cartridges so that they will not go to waste. Together with the support of the community, we hope to see more organisations promote waste reduction, reuse and recycling and to form partnerships wherecommon sustainability objectives can be found.”

Elaine Ng, Chief Executive Officer of NLB said, “The National Library Board is pleased to participate in Project Homecoming, the first-of-its-kind initiative outside Japan and in Singapore. This partnership allows NLB to contribute and reinforce our commitment to environment sustainability for the greater good of future generations. Through our network of public libraries, we hope to bring the message of the importance of recycling closer to the community and foster a green mindset. We also encourage our library users to play their part in protecting the environment.”

Recycling vendors of the joint initiative will collect the cartridges from the boxes and break down recyclable parts including plastics and metal. These recycling processes will help minimise waste, landfill and pollution while maximising the recovery of valuable resources.

Project Homecoming’s partners and supporting government agencies hope that the project will achieve a similar measure of success in Singapore, and that similar schemes will be replicated throughout the world in the future.

About Project Homecoming

Project Homecoming is an ink and toner cartridge recycling initiative that is led, managed and jointly funded by five brands – Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson and Lexmark. Together, these brands aim to make it easier for the public to recycle their used ink and toner cartridges. This is the first time globally outside Japan that these five brands have come together to initiate a joint recycling project. Through this initiative, the brands aim to contribute to the community as socially responsible organisations by educating and encouraging the public on recycling while cultivating a green mindset.

The NLB libraries, located in the North, South, East, West and Central parts of the island as follows:

1. Ang Mo Kio Public Library

2. Bedok Public Library

3. Bishan Public Library

4. Bukit Merah Public Library

5. Geylang East Public Library

6. Jurong Regional Library

7. Jurong West Public Library

8. Marine Parade Public Library

9. National Library Building

10. Queenstown Public Library

11. Tampines Regional Library

12. Toa Payoh Public Library

13. Woodlands Regional Library

Source and Image: Project Homecoming

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Singapore’s largest food waste recycling company has shut for good.

But IUT Global’s closure does not spell the end of the industry, as its customers search for alternatives and new players come on the scene.

The homegrown company started in 2008 and was feted by then Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim as a milestone in waste management and recycling.

The company aimed to one day process 800 tonnes of food daily, turning it into organic fertiliser and biogas for electricity to power up to 10,000 homes.

But by March this year, it was still collecting only 120 tonnes to 130 tonnes a day. That produced gas for electricity to power just 500 households, and it sold or gave away the organic compost that remained, said IUT managing director Edwin Khew.

Up to 40 per of the food waste was sullied with plastic bags and other inorganic trash, which meant that it had to be sent for incineration, raising operating costs.

In February, IUT Global entered voluntary liquidation. Two months later, it stopped collecting waste from customers. By the end of May, its Tuas premises and part of the equipment from the 2.8ha plot were sold to recycling firm Enviro-Hub Holdings for $15.8 million.

Singapore has long faced an uphill struggle to recycle its food waste. Only 16 per cent of the 640,500 tonnes generated last year was disposed of in this way. That is a slight increase from the 13 per cent rate for the past two years. But it is a long way off the target of 30 per cent by next year outlined nearly a decade ago in the Singapore Green Plan 2012.

As Singapore’s largest food waste recycler, IUT Global’s customers included hotels, cafeterias, food manufacturers and markets. Some of them are now looking for alternative recycling services, while others have resorted to incinerating their waste.

Pan Pacific Singapore is one of those looking for alternatives. Although the food recycling has stopped for the moment, the hotel is ‘still continuing its green efforts in other areas such as reducing energy and water consumption’, said marketing communications director Alexandra Schmutterer.

The National University of Singapore had been recycling 25 tonnes to 50 tonnes of food waste a month, said its sustainability executive Marcus Tay. One of its canteens was certified an Eco Food-Court in a Singapore Environmental Council scheme earlier this year. That certification is valid for a year but it runs out in January. So NUS plans to appoint an alternative food recycler, said Mr Tay.

The small number of food recyclers here have seen enquiries jump this year. They include Eco-Wiz, which sells and leases on-site waste digesters.

‘Quite a handful of potential customers are signing up to get the digesters, which can convert up to one tonne of food waste at a time into compost,’ said sales manager Amanda Tan. The devices cost up to $110,000 up front but users save on incineration fees, she said. Eco-Wiz has installed 15 of them so far.

IUT Global’s Mr Khew still believes there is a future in recycling food waste. Now, he is looking overseas to the rest of South-east Asia.

‘We were planning to build more plants but this has sort of dented our capabilities and resources,’ he said. IUT Global took eight or nine years to develop, build and grow.

‘I still have the patents,’ he said. ‘But I have to start again from square one.’

Source: The Straits Times

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INSTEAD of buying toys for her daughter, a housewife rents them. A Singaporean tutor learnt to drive in the United States by swopping his computer-repair skills for lessons.

And a young couple who traded his Hindi for her Mandarin even hit it off and tied the knot.

A new breed of consumers is renting, sharing, swopping and bartering, and a growing number of start-ups are popping up to meet their needs.

While such ‘collaborative consumption’ has been around for years, technology is playing a bigger role than before.

For example, websites such as Rent That Toy make it easy for parents to choose and order toys online, while car-pooling start-up MyRideBuddy has an iPhone application for people on the go.

Figures on how much such businesses make are hard to come by.

But the trend goes beyond straightforward consumption such as renting handbags or gowns; consumers also get to know one another and build communities while swopping skills.

Technology consultant Akshay Regulagedda, 29, met his Chinese Singaporean wife at a party nearly four years ago, but got to know her better when they decided to exchange language skills. Their language exchanges lasted several months before they started dating.

‘My Mandarin is still bad, sadly,’ the Indian national joked. ‘You do need some structured learning for grammar, vocabulary and so on, along with unstructured learning from exchange partners or wives.’

This year alone, at least seven local start-ups using the collaborative-consumption business model have launched or are about to do so.

Mr Ashoke Sengupta, founder of MyRideBuddy, said technology lowers the cost and effort of coordinating car-pools and other types of sharing.

‘Almost everybody has a smartphone,’ he added.

The public is also more cost- and environmentally-conscious.

For instance, housewife Andrea Kwan, 37, does not buy bulky, expensive toys for her toddler but rents them instead.

‘A child’s attention span is really short,’ she said. ‘Even if you buy a toy, there’s no guarantee she’ll like it. And she’ll outgrow it quite fast.’

A large play stand can cost $200 in shops, but can be rented for just $36 a month. And as her family lives in a three-room flat, space is at a premium, Ms Kwan said.

Environmental consultant Eugene Tay of Green Future Solutions said: ‘The advantages of collaborative consumption are that fewer resources would be used to make and ship products, and less waste is generated and disposed.

‘In addition, it maximises the use of space and time, and connects people of similar interests.’

But there are specific characteristics that make the model work, said marketing professor Ho Teck Hua, who is also vice-president of research strategy at the National University of Singapore.

There must be idling capacity – for example, most people drive cars for only a short time each day, but a shared car will be driven a lot, by many people.

There must be basic rules to stop people from taking unfair advantage of the system – such as by stealing a rented car – but there must also be ‘room to learn to trust and be trustworthy’.

And there must be a critical mass of people who want to use the product or service.

Social enterprise tech start-up Newton Circus found this out the hard way.

Its group-buying service, SwayTrain, started out as an alternative to group-deal sites such as Groupon. It got customers to search for what they wanted rather than ‘pushing a product on them’, said founding partner Jason Aspes, 38. But there were too few people here who wanted the same product at the same time. Now, the site just offers price comparisons and lets online shoppers donate a percentage of what they spend to selected charities.

Other potential stumbling blocks are perhaps more specific to Asia, where Prof Ho says owning a car or a grand piano is still a way to say ‘you’ve made it in life’.

And here, family responsibilities often come before individual wants or community sharing, pointed out design researcher Soh Lishan, 27.

And not everything on the spectrum of collaborative-consumption goods and services is for everyone. Miss Soh, for instance, said she would not couch-surf, which is to stay in a private home while travelling. She values her privacy.

Yet for all the obstacles to collaborative consumption here, it could deliver other, hidden benefits, said Prof Ho.

As Singapore’s population grows and its diversity increases, collaborative consumption could nudge people into trusting and sharing with each other more.

‘Singapore is where it’s less likely to happen but, in some ways, a place that needs it the most,’ Prof Ho said.

‘The US is one of the most individualistic countries, but they are able to share. Why shouldn’t we learn to do it too?’

Source: The Straits Times

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Having come across many green ideas over the past few years, there is one recent idea Eugene would claim that he ‘die die must share’ – the idea of Collaborative Consumption.

Collaborative Consumption refers to the idea of sharing that is empowered by technology and social networks, and how it changes consumption and the way businesses operate.

Sharing also covers renting, swapping, lending, trading, exchanging, bartering, and gifting. The advantages of sharing are that fewer resources are used to make and ship products, and less waste are generated and disposed.

The term Collaborative Consumption was first described in 2010 in the book What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers.

Other resources with similar ideas on sharing include the book The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing by Lisa Gansky and the Shareable website.

Eugene believes that Collaborative Consumption is an important and emerging idea because consumers are starting to realize that they can share rather than buy more stuff.

This is motivated by greater environmental awareness and cost consciousness, the proliferation of mobile peer-to-peer technologies and social networks, and the need to be part of a community.

In the book What’s Mine Is Yours, the authors describe three systems of Collaborative Consumption – Product Service Systems, Redistribution Markets and Collaborative Lifestyles.

Product Service Systems

Product Service Systems is where you pay for and enjoy the benefit of using a product without having to own the product.

Local examples in Singapore include HollywoodClicks.com, which rents movie DVDs to customers who receive and return the DVDs via post; Maternity Exchange, which offers maternity and nursing wear rental for mums-to-be; and Clean Mobility Singapore, which provides electric vehicle sharing and rental scheme.

Another example of Product Service Systems is MyRideBuddy, a dynamic and real time carpooling solution in Singapore, which matches users near common start and end points so that they can share a car ride together according to their convenience and preferences.

It allows individuals to benefit from the convenience of the car without owning one, while reducing costs and the problems of congestion and air pollution.

Redistribution Markets

The second system of Collaborative Consumption is Redistribution Markets, where you transfer used or unwanted stuff to somewhere or someone where they are wanted.

Local examples include SG Freecycle, where anyone can post their unwanted items or request for stuff that they want; Offstock, where companies can buy or sell excess stocks of chemicals and raw materials; and Pass It On, which allows the public to donate used furniture and appliances, which are given to needy families and charities.

Another example of Redistribution Markets is Waste is not Waste (WINW), an online waste exchange for businesses and organisations in Singapore and Malaysia.

WINW facilitates the exchange of waste materials and unwanted items from companies and organisations that no longer need them to businesses, non-profit organisations, designers and schools that can utilise those waste.

This reduces waste and keeps valuable resources out of the incineration plants and landfills while helping companies save time, money and reduce their environmental impacts.

Collaborative Lifestyles

The third system of Collaborative Consumption is Collaborative Lifestyles, where you share and exchange less tangible assets such as time, space and money with people of similar interests.

Local examples include Hackerspace Singapore, which provides a co-working and relaxing space for techies to work and collaborate; Give.sg, which allows anyone to organize their own fundraising campaigns; and SG Cares, which matches volunteers with volunteer groups and opportunities.

Another example of Collaborative Lifestyles is Milaap, a social enterprise providing a microfinance platform that enables individuals to make microloans that help villagers in India gain access to basic services, such as education, healthcare, electricity, and clean water.

While Collaborative Consumption is still in its infancy in Singapore, Eugene believes that this idea would gain more interest in the coming years and more companies would start to explore the business opportunities of sharing.

The earlier business examples show elements of sharing, but they have not really made full use of technology and social networks to better enhance sharing.

For the companies, they would have to work with the green and tech community, and maximize the use of technology to come up with better and more sustainable ways of sharing.

For consumers, it’s time to get ready for Collaborative Consumption.

Images: Love God and your neighbor 1 by sraburton; Collaborative Consumption Graphics – The Complete Picture by Rachel Botsman under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license

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Organisers of a new recycling initiative are asking students to take photographs that illustrate the importance of caring for the planet, then post them on social websites to help spread the green message.

These pictures could include people doing their bit for the environment, for example using recycling bins.

Children from 22 schools were sent on a five-day training programme at the end of last month. There, they were taught how to capture striking images and use them to promote sustainable living.

The move is part of the National Environment Agency’s new Thank You For Recycling initiative, which aims to give credit to those who are already making sure their rubbish is not wasted and motivate others not yet doing so. A youth committee will also be formed by year end to come up with schemes to promote environmental causes such as recycling.

Canon Singapore is the official partner of the initiative, which was unveiled yesterday by Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources.

Her announcement at ITE College West in Choa Chu Kang coincided with the first day of the annual Clean and Green Singapore Schools’ Carnival. Started in 2003, the islandwide event aims to instill environmental values in students.

Source: The Straits Times

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