xinderalla Wow that's cool. We can all be little 'rubbish artiste' in our own little ways too. For example, we can use used magazine/newspaper/containers to make birthday cards for our friends. Some people even make ornaments out from tin can and drinks can. With a little creativity, i'm sure we can go a long way in recycling our own stuff and saving some penny.

nzyjordan woho, here's optimus prime made out of trash!

nzyjordan http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/15/chinese-make-optimus-prime-out-of-junk-garbage-pail-megan-fox-s/

victortky You have to hand it to the chinese. They have lots of resources, as well as the passion to work on a project that large. They are also devoted fans of the Transformers fanbase, and they decided to pay tribute to MIchael Bay by creating this Optimus Prime out of scrap metal.This really shows their creativity as well as dogged determination when it comes to creating breathtaking works.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/15/chinese-make-optimus-prime-out-of-junk-garbage-pail-megan-fox-s/

cmo Not only are artists using rubbish to create art, artists are increasingly incorporating environmental messages INTO their art.

Sustainability is an emerging philosophy for a new generation of artists who are invested in the environment, their communities, and pushing the boundaries of art and design. Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design brings together 13 artists and artist groups from North America and Europe, all of whom incorporate sustainable thinking in their art and social change in their message. The result is a compelling two-floor exhibit of installations, sketches, videos, photographs, and hands on multi-media platforms.

http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20060402/balancing-art-and-the-environment for details on the exhibition.

I think it's becoming increasingly commonplace for architecture and design fields to consider environmentally and socially sensitive structures and objects. I believe if we want to so strongly convey a certain message through our work, art or whatever, anything's possible.

shaunmaniax Heh, if anything, I love a good post-apocalyptic movie or anything that is like that. Though movies alone probably won't make much difference. I mean seriously. Did you honestly think that watching Wall-E makes you want to stop throwing away rubbish? It is one medium but not the only one.

luiting Surely, movies like that would make a difference in a gradual way. The media is so powerful in the sense that it changes our mindsets slowly. Therefore, if movies were made to "go green" the fad will soon catch on, as we can see, there already are hints if more and more people supporting the green cause, what with all the movies and documentaries, prompting people to conserve the environment, some in subtle ways while others in direct manners.

xinderalla Youth nowadays don't like to have message thrown directly in their face. 'You better go green, or the ice caps will melt and we will all die'. 'Threats' like this would probably backfire in this time and age. I believe movies/songs is a very good medium to weave these go green message into as it is subtle enough and youths are generally more receptive to it. True, it might not have an instant effect on youths to change their lifestyle 180 degrees, but the awareness of going green will spark a gradual change in their lifestyle over time.

toinkie Movies indeed have a lot of influence on youths nowadays! Among those movies about environment, Wall-E has really caught my attention and it did make me think of what would happen to our future generation or maybe even to us if we don't start taking care of our mother nature!

zhenggggg Yes! I agree that movies and TV can be useful media to put a message across. It need not even be the main plot of the movie, but even a subplot can bring the message across just as effectively. After all, let's not forget that the fourth element of power a nation can have in this day is 'soft power', or how its culture is spread across the world. One of the best movies would definitely be 'An Inconvenient Truth' by Al Gore.

victortky Since most people nowadays do not pay attention to the green messages, the only way to put it across is through media such as movies and television broadcasts. It can even be simple reality TV shows, or documentary shows such as national geographic and the Okto nature shows. The movies such as 2012 and WallE bring across the deep message of what happens when mother nature decides to take action on what the humans have done and eventual waste that consumes the Earth completely respectively.

fionaseah Now that explains the haze we experience almost every year.

Tobacco companies flourish in third-world countries like Indonesia that obviously don't see the need to protect our environment. The Indo government NEVER implements nor enforces strict rules on tobacco like Singapore which gives these irresponsible companies to do whatever they want.

Do they have to experience the consequences to learn their lessons?

jittelicious I completely agree with the two above statements. In fact, many people are unaware of tobacco's danger to the environment. A cigarette bud actually takes around 25 years to decompose! And despite it being an environmental issue, like xian said, it is also dangerous to people. In the U.S, cigarettes are the leading cause of all fatal fires!

sptammy And to think such a small toxic thing like cigarettes can burn such a humongous hole in our tree population, what more can so many other things we use in our daily lives do. Let's continue to save and recycle the little things that can make a big difference for the trees on Earth! Every little step counts.

jumpyqueen Now, all of us know that smoking is not only bad for our health, it's also very damaging to the earth. So let's us be all anti-smoking!

dtyw By not smoking, we are actually contributing more to our environment than we think. To any of you smokers out there deciding to quit: save the environment and have a healthier body - two birds with one stone!

sharon9280 Sounds good, doesn’t it? Let’s look at the statistics.

In 2009, about 6.1 million tonnes of waste was generated in Singapore, and each person generated around 1,230 kg of waste. For the 3 common types of waste disposed, their recycling rate is still low and these are mostly household wastes:
• Plastics (9%)
• Food Waste (13%)
• Paper/Cardboard (48%)

This means that Singaporeans rely on government efforts to increase the recycling rate. More efforts are needed to reduce the amount of paper, plastics and food waste disposed and to increase their recycling rates. Half of the paper and cardboard waste generated still ends up being burned.

And do you know that recycling is actually the least efficient out of the 3Rs? This means that we can’t depend solely on recycling but we also need to reduce the waste disposed, in other words, more reducing and reusing of waste.

What say you?

jade Recycling rates are low mainly because many choose to throw it in the ordinary bins instead of the recycling ones for the sake of one's own convenience. Not only is it more difficult to sort out the rubbish, these people neglect the fact that this may lead to some items being left out, as a result, not recycled.

Therefore, we should always try to use the recycling bins whenever possible. And in SP, it is very easy to spot one everywhere you go.

khairul03 I've to agree with sharon. Instead of wasting time and effort to recycle, why don't we just reduce our waste? Try to maximise every single paper that we use in school. Past tutorial papers that we didn't bother to copy down answers can be used as rough papers. In addition, while printing, use both the front and back pages. Don't just use the front page and ignore the back. You can reduce the number of papers by half.

teehee01 I think we should just reduce our waste and try to reuse papers to its fullest. More recycling bins should also be placed so that people can conviently recycle their waste.

keshias I'm glad that the government is taking small steps at a time. Change can't happen overnight. With the target and goals in mind in every short-term period, we can work towards a clean and green city. We have a lot of obstacles to overcome before we can attain environmental sustainability.

jumpyqueen I agreed with keshia. Change can't happen overnight. It takes time for the citizens to adjust.

jade , khairul03 , xian , sharon9280 , keshias like this.

bluefairy Edmond is truly a good man. Maybe SP can consider giving him a pay raise or (God-forbid), a promotion. The amount of energy and paper he helps to save daily from the hands of the students is incredible. A true environmentalist.

fionaseah I think Edmund is just doing his job, really. Hahaha..

But one suggestion about printing in the studio since we're on it, I don't know if it's just me but, is there a way to actually print on both sides? It makes me cringe whenever I see a thick stack of printed papers (on 1 side) when they can actually be half of its thickness.. that is, well, if you print on both sides.

tanyanhan Mmm, even if edmund doesn't allow us to print freely in the studio, we would have to print ourselves too at the printing room and it is equivalent to wasting as much paper and ink and also MONEY $$! :(

xinderalla hahaha yeah! I am equally guilty of always printing more than i need just because it is free of charge. Now Edmund keep the stack of paper in his room and provide us with just the amount we need to print our work on. It is a little sad that we are abusing the privilege we enjoy but all's not too late yet! We can start by printing just the number of pages we need and print it on double page! We can also educate our juniors on the importance of this. Let's make the world a better place for Edmund and Gaia! <3

greenism Hahaha. I agree with Fionaseah. I guess Edmund is just doing his job but part of his responsibility is to reduce the number of paper and ink that we use every day. Unconsciously, he is actually saving the environment as he wants to reduce the occurrence of paper and ink wastage!

As students, I feel that we should not take advantage of the facilities that is available to us. As mentioned by Wahidah, we should only print what we need, not what we want. It is disturbing to see stacks of "unwanted" papers (after they have been printed out) not being unaccounted for at the studio.

Maybe we should propose to have a recycling bin inside DMS?

annabellaftw Now that Edmund has even gone the extra mile and has started rationing A4 paper in the studio, I think it has taught all of us to appreciate whatever few pieces of paper we have. Personally, since he started limiting the paper supply, I think twice before making additional copies of whatever I need and I try my best not to waste the meager few pieces of paper given to us. Indeed, consciously (or probably unconsciously), Edmund has taught all of us a very important lesson of reducing the number of paper used in our daily lives.

toinkie Edmund indeed has done a good job!!! And yes, as Wahidah has mentioned above, we all should print only what we need, not what we want! Also, greenism has a good point! I always see a lot of unwanted printed papers inside the studio. Maybe with the recycling bin available, we can save more trees and at the same time, we can save our Lady Gaia as well!

waltzingmathile Yes. We DO need more recycling bins around the SP campus, and also bigger ones. Yesterday after the green march, we had a whole bunch of things to recycle but we had to resort to throwing them in the bins because the recycling bins were too small to contain the cardboards/boxes!

Wouldn't bigger recycling bins catch people's attention and remind students to recycle too? YEA that's what we should have! Big recycling bins!!!

keshias Intriguing point. That's probably why Edmund took away the papers in the printers and some of us have to resort to taking papers from home so that we can print, using the studio's printer ink :P It is true that we print stuff like free. A few hours before assignments are due, you'll often find students crowded in the studio to print, rather than print at home or at the photocopy shop. I'm not saying that we shouldn't print at the studio, but since we've been given the advantage, we should use it wisely and not waste paper. And yes, I've often wondered if the printer can print double-sided. Because back at home, I've to manually flipped the paper.

dtyw Amen to that.

We all complain about good ole' Edmund, but maybe his actions wouldn't be so unfathomable if we were to spend a day or two in his shoes - watching students taking the printers, ink and papers for granted and wasting the school's resources. Sorry for having that grudge against you time and again, Edmund!

hellodufis It's funny that Edmund probably don't know that he's saving the Earth by chasing us out of the studio. Not to mention, Edmund has taken drastic measures by keeping all papers in the studio away so that we do not waste paper. So, to Edmund, yay you!

bluefairy The human beings that once occupied Earth have evacuated Earth and are now living in a large space cruise ship.

I know that this is only a movie, but it bears a very important message for us all. Our Earth is constantly under threat and is doomed for destruction if we continue our way of life. If we continue to plunder the Earth's resources and pay little heed to the impact it would have on our environment, this little figment of imagination from the scriptwriter might come true.

Do we really have to wait for the situation to worsen before we do something?

denzelljy My post before this was on 'green' music. I know this movie features an old French song called 'La Vie en Rose' covered by the legend Louis Armstrong. Check it out manz.
I should give Wall-E a viewing.

jade Imagination always stems from some kind of truth however little. I reckon Wall E is a more family-friendly alternative to a documentary feature like An Inconvenient Truth!

notsosunnily I forgot to mention this movie in my post, but it's okay. Wall-E has got to be one of my favorite animations, although I get distracted by how cute the whole story and characters are. It goes to show that while our Earth will probably be destroyed by then, humans will have become so lazy that we'll have "evolved" into large, round meatballs from our laziness.

Oh, that and we should start saving the environment before we end up like that movie.

keshias Other environment-related movies include Soylent Green (1973), Burning Season (1994), Ice Age 2 (2006), Happy Feet (2006), Earth (2009), 2012 (2009), Furry Vengeance (2010). Be it documentaries or animations or action fillms, they bring across the environmental messages in an engaging manner.

victortky Wall E actually shows the grim reality if we humans keep on producing waste till the point that it has completely swamped the earth to the point that humanity has to live among the stars. But it does convey a point though: If we, as humanity, take a stand to save and preserve the Earth, we can help the Earth heal itself, and perhaps avoid the fate that humanity has to face in any sci-fi movie that has a Earth that is devastated by pollution, such as James Cameron's AVATAR.