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  Channelnews Asia 20 May 06
Online environmental portal for youths planned
 By Rita Zahara, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE : Young environmental activists here want to see a more consolidated effort between government and groups to map the way ahead in environmental awareness and protection.

This was one hot topic raised at a dialogue between 30 activists and Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim.

Twenty-five-year old Angela Lee, a post-graduate student in knowledge management for sustainable product development, feels strongly about recycling. Having organised a two-month-long competition involving some 150 schools to collect the highest volume of recyclables, she now wants to inspire restaurants and eating outlets into going green.

Said Ms Lee, "One of the ideas, suggestions that we can bring across to the F&B industry is that because every day they generate a lot of waste -- from food waste to plastic wastes to glasses -- so if we could actually get them to voluntarily, or maybe by law separate out these recyclables and channel more of their waste into the recycling bin, I guess that will help to reduce the amount of waste that we consume every day."

Another green activist, 25-year old Mohammad Noh, would like to link up more effectively with players in the industry. He said, "NGOs cannot be left alone to fend for ourselves. Besides funding, we also need other kinds of support in order to reach out to schools."

Mumtaz Maideen, a teacher at Bukit View Primary School, said, "We would like to have a platform provided so that schools actually know that there are lots of NGOs who are supporting environmental programmes. We can collaborate together."

To answer that call, a first-stop environmental portal, "Youth Habitat", is in the works. Developed by the Singapore Environment Council, this resource aims to help youths to exchange views and put ideas into action.

Said Dr Yaacob, "What we want to do is to create platforms which are meaningful, that will help to facilitate the growth of more environmental NGOs, especially among our young. It is also a way to engage and push information towards them, and we hope they will also use the portal service to give us feedback and ideas."

The portal is expected to be up by the end of this year.
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