softbunlet It's sad that things like this happen; however, we must not lose hope in recycling e-waste. As consumer demand for electronics increase, we must find ways to ensure that when their end-of-life is taken care of.

firstbornunicorn I suppose there will always be scum and unscrupulous people as such who will take advantage of public fear or fads and work them to their advantage.

I think we as the consumer public just have to be a bit more alert and vigilant, and stay on our guard against scammers. It's best to research thoroughly before giving our e-waste away for recycling. It may take a little more effort on our part, but I'm sure it is something we can all do.

wahidah Oh Josiah, always the pessimist. On the contrary, recycling computer parts is a hard and tedious process, it's not easy to distinguish and separate parts form each other. High heat, pressure and cost is spent for these meticulous processes so therefore it isn't easy to do it while looking all grand and eco-friendly.

xyrhs This was exactly what I felt.

Sometimes, I feel that celebrities who claims to go green, are "going green" just because of their image. They talk about going green and being eco-friendly, but are they walking the walk?

John Buckley, managing director of Carbon Footprint, an eco-awareness non-profit group based in the U.K., says there are many stars who don't practice what they preach when it comes to saving the Earth.

Here are some of the examples of "green" celebrities, who aren't walking the talk:

Laurie David, producer of Al Gore's Oscar-winning global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and estranged wife of actor/writer Larry David, has become one of the most widely known environmental activists. But Jackie Mendez-Diez, David's neighbor in celeb-popular Martha's Vineyard, Mass., told FOXNews.com she's a hypocrite.

Green activist Leonardo DiCaprio reportedly flew his family from Paris to Rome on a private jet in 2006; he also reportedly declined a journalist's challenge that he never fly private again, though he has vowed to fly commercial as much as possible. Ken Sunshine, who represents Leo, recently told the New York Post's Page Six gossip column, "No star at his level flies commercial planes more than he does."

John Travolta was branded the ultimate hypocrite when the actor (and pilot) publicly spoke out about the need for alternative fuel, and then was reportedly found to be stashing five airplanes in his own backyard. His representative declined to comment, but said that Travolta owns two airplanes and has never owned five.

Former Live Earth spokeswoman Madonna is one of the worst offenders, Buckley says — but that's not entirely her fault, considering her profession and the wattage of her star power. His calculation of Madonna's 2006 carbon footprint is about 1,018 tons — 651 tons from touring that year, mainly from flying on private jets.

We should acknowledge the real efforts done by the real stars, and not these "stars" who just do the talking and nothing significant is done to help the environment!

sptammy I find it intolerable that while a good part of the world is in poverty, and while the rest of us are trying to scrimp and save and save the Earth by cutting down on several things, all these celebrities are spending their money on sprawling homes, incredibly high maintenance lifestyles and over indulging in so many things. It all boils down to knowing the stark difference between a NEED and a WANT. I really do not get it, how most celebrities are so selfish and take so many things for granted!

hanfei I am sure there are stars that is helping to save mother plane. They might be making donations or they might be helping in some other way to save the planet and maybe these are not shown on footages. With that said, i think it's every one is critical in the role of helping mother nature and it's not just more of their responsibility.This responsibility is ours as much as it is to environmentalist , actors or actress etc.

rhcp09 I do agree with sptammy about celebrities indulging in expensive homes and vehicles that may actually contribute to more global warming. Although there are some celebrities who do take the time and effort to go green and even educate others about it, I think that more should step up to such efforts. Most people do idolise celebrities and they would definately be motivated to go green when they see their favourite celebs to so. As such, celebrities should stop wasting money and increasing green house gas emissions by travelling on private jets and purchasing numerous. More of them need to go green to encourage others.

therealjosiah I would really like cut my electricity bill too, but how does one do so when my unit's windows face the corridor?

Opening the window renders me vulnerable to rubbish being thrown in and mosquitoes and if i close the window and turn on fan it's damn stuffy. Plus my unit doesn't face north south, so open window also no wind at night.

How?

mjquek There is a reason why lots of people say that 25 degree Celsius is the right temperature for your air-conditioner. You save cost and cut down on carbon dioxide emissions.

For me, I'm not a firm believer of air-conditioner. I do not have any air-conditioner at home and do not even use one in the first place. I think fans are good enough even though Singapore can be terribly hot at times.

alrickoh03 This is something that my family practices. Before you sleep think about the amount of time you are going to sleep. Then set your air con timer to switch off about 1-2 hours before you wake up. If you are afraid that your room will get too hot it actually takes awhile before your room actually starts to feel warm. In the long run, that 1 or 2 hours to save everyday is going to help the environment in a huge way.

jittelicious Yes air-conditioners have been harming our environment ever since they were invented, but I think the future of the air-conditioner will be a much, much more environmentally friendly one. Recently I read this article about a company called DEVap discovering a new air-conditioning system that will cut energy usage by up to 90 percent! Furthermore, this new system does not produce the harmful gases, CFCs, and HCFCs.

Read more about the article here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100621071943.htm

chenxwdawn I think the usage of air con forms a vicious cycle actually, one that we're all guilty of. More air con = more carbon emissions = global warming = temperatures rise = more air con. It's true that Singapore is unbearably hot at times but perhaps we can be more conscious about the temperatures and settings of our air con. Monitor it according to the weather and don't set it so low unless necessary. Every degree makes a difference!(:

victortky The best way to use an air-conditioner is to set it at an optimum level when in use, and switch it off immediately when not in use. In this way, you can cut down on the CFCs being produced and save electricity at the same time. Two birds with one stone.

crazymadzy Yeah!

I have a lot of used green packets in my drawer! I'll pass it to my parents!
And yes, i do agree that there are tons of ways to go green during Hari Raya!
We can reuse a lot of things! From the fake flowers to the decorations!
All we need is to wash them!
Hope you guys won't spend too much on new things!

mohammadsyafiq What a great post! Yes, we should do them. Many shoppers from the Muslim community don't know the benefits of going Green yet! :) Hope this would be tackled soon!

Have a great fasting month ahead, and spend lesser! :P

dorkyain So true!

i always have so many green packets that i don't know what to use it for. It's either i give them to my parents or just throw it away. I think that its good that the older you get the lesser you get so the lesser you can pollute. I can never fit my old shoes so i end up giving them to my younger cousins which they put to good use i hope.

oh and you can also reuse those baju kurungs that you cant fit anymore to make your pillow cases or even pencil cases.

alrickoh03 great suggestion. However, i think that it should not just be for Hari Raya. It should be spread across to all sorts of people in Singapore. Such practices could be used and should be encouraged in other yearly events such as Chinese New Year and Deepavali.

codenamebutter That's absolutely true.
Especially when there's a lot of things, for every season, that we can absolutely re-use or recycle.

For the month of Hari Raya, there's always green(or red if it's CNY) packets that can be re-use. Old baju kurungs can always be re-use by younger siblings or cousins while spring cleaning gives us a lot of opportunities to recycle or give away things we already don't need.

For Christmas, one should always sort out the wrapping paper and recycle them, instead of just bagging them together with the trash.

So always remember to keep to the 3R's :)

therealjosiah I know right! I collect my old red packets too and give them to my mom, who uses them again next year. Though I must say, she gets some funny looks from relatives every now and then.

johnngxe Fascinating! Personally, I prefer using TweetDeck's Directory, which provides a great resource for environmentalism.

http://www.tweetdeck.com/directory/taxonomy/politics-causes/environmentalism/#directory

Anything from renewable energy, ecology, climate change is available. Indeed, social media is a strong tool to be used for furthering environmental causes - ignorance is our enemy. We, as responsible young adults, just have to take the initiative to go out there and find it!

bydaylight This is most definitely a good idea!

Everybody's been hopping onto the Twitter bandwagon, so we should definitely use it as a tool to spread the green message. It's effective and a really simple idea.

mohammadsyafiq Imagine the amount of things that can get things done with twitter. Its mobility and ease of access are no match for the old and clunky social media sites of before!

dorkyain Twitter is the greatest platform in our generation. Ever since it was started, so many different campaigns have been on it. Especially the power of the "trending topic". Once you see a topic you would want to click on it to know why it is trending.

We can certainly make a difference just by the most efficient way to get through to everyone.

notsosunnily I definitely think that Twitter is a exceptionally smart method of reaching out to the masses. Almost everyone, youths and adults alike, are on Twitter. Twitter gets messages out and across in short amounts of time, what with trending topics and mentions.

It's almost too easy to get a message rolling on Twitter, and sending out a green message on a social networking site like Twitter is a quick and effective way of raising awareness in the society. Also, with everyone using Twitter on the go now, there are ways to get interactivity by having them take a picture, or tweet about how they've started going green!

mjquek Twitter has been creating lots of official profiles for various causes, such as the recent one for affiliated advertisers. I feel it will be great if Twitter can create its own official profile for environmental issues where supporters of the green movement can follow the profile and share tweets about the environment.

It will also be a great branding strategy for Twitter - a social networking platform that actually cares for the environment!

waltzingmathile Yes I agree! Twitter keeps everything short and sweet, which is great for offering little snippets of green advice and green quotes! It is a great way of reminding people. And it also reaches out to the increasing number of people using twitter!

logesh It's starting to be a trend these days for hollywood stars isn't it? Not only Marion but people like Orlando Bloom and even Emma Watson are all doing their bid for the environment. Orlando Bloom for instance, is building an environmentally friendly- house or eco-friendly house! It's baffling how people who have the fame and fortune actually spend their time taking care of the environment! I think we ought to do better! :D

notsosunnily It's heartwarming to know that not all Hollywood actors/actresses behave like "I'm a star, so I should get everything the way I want it, when I want it." But I suppose that's a common stereotype, just like the stereotype that all people from Texas own ranches, ride cows/horses and speak like retards.

The fact that large names like Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are doing their bit for the environment, should be motivation enough for us to start saving mother nature. If at most, we do not give back, we need to ensure that we're not making things worse.

If Hollywood stars like Edward Norton (Hulk's going green!), Josh Harnett, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, Cameron Diaz, Pierce Brosnan, Will Ferrell, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Matt Damon can do it, why can't we?

therealjosiah well I'd say they managed to achieve their goal.

denzelljy What actors have at an advantage is the media of course. So i think the least they should do is setting an example for people if they are keen on promoting environmental messages. They have the resources to do so after all. On our part, aside from staring at Marion Cotillard's face and flying hair, we can also make baby steps to live a 'greener' lifestyle and save money at the same time. Still, isn't that quite a 'paradox' for us too? Saving money to go green? What for? To spend on something more expensive (and prolly more environmentally-detrimental) later on?

firstbornunicorn I think they are just jumping on the green bandwagon, and trying to seem relevant and "in the scene". Most of them are just wealthy hypocrites trying to gain some public adoration and idolatry.