| Part 1: Introduction When places become urbanized, the level of consumerism
rises.
People living in developed cities are more likely
to be able to afford such products as electronic goods and packaged foods off supermarket
shelves.
What many people probably do not realize, is that
as consumerism increases, so does the amount of wastes or rubbish created.
Do you know that all the plastic products, paper,
used batteries, and other unwanted stuff that you throw away can become a huge problem for
our living environment?
Professor Qu Geping, head of China’s
environmental protection committee of the National People’s Congress recently
lamented that of the 600 cities in China, more than half faces a waste disposal problem.
If even a huge country like China has
problems with refuse disposal, how much more serious will the problem be in a small
country like Singapore?
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China’s cities produced about
130 million tons of wastes in 1999. This figure is expected to increase by 10% each year,
as China becomes more developed and affluent. In the capital, Beijing itself, there are
4,700 rubbish dumps to handle the trash created by the residents.
China is not alone in facing this stinky problem.
It is a common problem among all urban cities, Singapore included.
If there is no proper system to manage the problem
of waste disposal, one day, we may all end up living in "Trash Cities", with
rubbish dumps as our neighbours!
Part 2:
Singapore - A Case Study
Part 3: The Three R's
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