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  Today Online 3 Jan 06
Trash for food: Residents trade recyclable materials for groceries
 938Live

RESIDENTS in South West CDC spent their public holiday yesterday trading in unwanted clothes, newspapers and any recyclable materials for groceries.

As part of a five-year-old annual exercise aimed at getting them to be more environmentally friendly, residents started out as early as 9am, armed with bags and trolleys of recyclable materials--some weighing in at more than 70kg--to exchange them for grocery vouchers. For example, one kilogram of clothing can get a resident 1kg of rice, while 1kg of paper gets you a packet of instant noodles.

Said Dr Amy Khor, Mayor for South West CDC: "Residents have been finding this very appealing--trash for exchange. You will find that residents actually keep their clothing for this event. It helps to promote awareness and also to keep the habit of keeping these recyclables for an event like this or for recycling."

Some 24 tonnes of paper, 13.5 tonnes of clothing, 22,000 pieces of plastic bottles and 16,000 aluminium cans are expected to be collected.

Channel NewsAsia 2 Jan 06
Trash-for-groceries exchange kicks off at South West District

SINGAPORE : Residents in the South West District are exchanging old clothes and unwanted newspapers for groceries. They left thousands of unwanted items at the 12 Community Clubs in the area, in return for coupons to redeem rice or instant noodles.

The Clean Up South West exercise is aimed at promoting estate cleanliness and recycling, ahead of the Clean & Green Living campaign.

Grassroots leaders also swept up letterbox litter at HDB blocks. To counter the problem, the district will be introducing a custom made "junk free" letterbox, designed by ITE students.

Said Dr Amy Khor, MP for Hong Kah GRC and Mayor, South West CDC, "The recent anti-dengue blitz shows that one of the breeding grounds is actually littering. If we have an anti-junk mail device like this, that will also help towards reducing the amount of litter that we see around the boxes and in the void decks." - CNA /ct
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