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  Straits Times 15 Jun 07
He has anti-dengue plan right at his fingertips
By Melissa Tan

Straits Times 15 Jun 07
No botanist but she creates green spaces in hospitals

Straits Times 15 Jun 07
Drink cartons are not rubbish, he tells paper mills

Channel NewsAsia 14 Jun 07
Inaugural Ecofriend award goes to 15 Singaporeans

SINGAPORE: Fifteen Singaporeans have been recognised for their varied efforts to protect the environment. They are the first group to receive the Ecofriend award from the National Environment Agency (NEA).

A garden at Alexandra Hospital, carefully designed by landscape artist Rosalind Tan, helps patients to de-stress and speed up their healing process. And for her green efforts, Ms Tan has been chosen as an Ecofriend.

She said: "This award is very timely because Singapore is facing a lot of problems with global warming and if each of us put in our effort to help the environment, I think Singapore will be a better place to live."

That is the same message that Tan Li Jian wants to share with his peers. The Raffles Junior College student has been organising Earth Day programmes and initiating paper recycling for lower secondary students.

He said: "I feel that youths can play a bigger role in environmental work in Singapore and I think all of us have different strengths which we can contribute... what we can do is to offer whatever we have."

Another Ecofriend award recipient, Ong Lye Huat, has helped to keep 500 tonnes of tetra packaging by forging a partnership with four public waste collectors.

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Environment and Water Resources Minister, said: "The Ecofriend award seeks to recognise individuals for their commitment and efforts towards making our living environment a sustainable one.

"We hope to inspire others to take on the challenge of promoting and adopting environmentally sustainable lifestyles."

And this will be the focus of a new Climate Change Exhibition at the Singapore Science Centre next year. Dr Yaacob announced that the project is a partnership between the Science Centre and NEA.

Straits Times 15 Jun 07
No botanist but she creates green spaces in hospitals

They are of all ages and from different walks of life, but a common thread runs through the 15 winners of the National Environment Agency's EcoFriend Award, which was given out for the first time yesterday: their passion for the environment and an innate desire to do their part.

We cast the spotlight on some of these green role models

By Arti Mulchand

ALEXANDRA Hospital (AH) draws taxi drivers, student photographers and even tourists - but they are not there to see its doctors. They go there instead to step into the hospital's 12ha of landscaped gardens and butterfly trail, a green wonderland for which they have retired AH occupational therapist Rosalind Tan to thank.

The garden had its seeds in 2000, in a conversation between her and the hospital's chief executive Liak Teng Lit. She was supposed to discuss her upcoming retirement and potential successor with him, but the conversation kept drifting to plants and her dabbling in gardening.

Before she knew it, she had agreed to spearhead the greening of the hospital. 'I was no botanist, and no horticulturist. But I got my husband to help and we just hantam only,' said the laughing EcoFriend Award recipient, using the Malay colloquialism for 'try'.

Her husband, Mr Tan Wee Lee, was a former Urban Redevelopment Authority architect. Not having planned a garden of that scale before, Mrs Tan boned up on the subject.

But mainly, she let herself be led by her senses when it came to planning the garden. The result: an open green space that offered sights, sounds and smells through various species of plants and trees, medicinal and aromatic herbs, water features, and special plants to draw butterflies.

Soon, butterflies and birds showed up. The patients started taking strolls through it, and soon, even non-patients were dropping by.

Mrs Tan's Watten Heights home functions as a 'nursery' to the hospital's garden. There, she nurtures seedlings, including hard-to-find species.

Since AH, she has gone on to other greening projects, most recently for the Kwong Wai Shiu Nursing Home and the Institute of Mental Health. Her next project is the new hospital in Yishun, where some AH staff will move at the end of 2009.

Already, 200 trees have been planted, which she hopes will be mature enough by then. 'We want to recreate AH, bring in nature and greenery, and provide shade for the next generation. It also makes for a better healing environment for patients and Yishun residents,' she said.

She is also helping the South West Community Development Council plant 100,000 trees in the area, and with the greening of the Jurong Medical Centre.

Straits Times 15 Jun 07
He has anti-dengue plan right at his fingertips
By Melissa Tan

MR RAJA Mohan has the way to tackle the dengue scourge at his fingertips. To raise awareness of this disease spread by mosquitoes, he has been donning hand and finger puppets to put up regular shows for children at kindergartens, primary schools and student care centres for the last two years.

Through his puppets, he has been telling them the simple things they can do to get them involved in the fight against the virus - such as by turning pails over and telling their parents about stagnant water.

The 46-year-old organising chairman of Hougang Constituency, a winner of the National Environment Agency's (NEA) EcoFriend Award, said he chanced upon the idea in 2005, while playing with his two children, now aged five and six, who he boasts are now even more alert than he is to stagnant water.

He said of the puppets: 'They really capture the kids' attention. They learn a couple of tips, and we also send back pamphlets for their parents. That way, the message goes home with them.'

Inspired by friends who were in community service, he quit his job as a computer engineer in 1997 to become chief programme coordinator for the Sunlove Home, a voluntary welfare home.

He has been involved in constituency work since 2000, including the various 'Singapore's OK' campaigns, which were public education drives by the NEA to promote better hygiene as a counter to infectious diseases like Sars.

Mr Mohan also established the Hougang Environmental Network, which ropes in students, hawkers and even religious groups in the area to keep an eye out for mosquito-breeding spots and monitors the cleanliness of public areas.

And with dengue back, he is busy right now with 'Mozzie Walkabouts' in his constituency and with organising educational exhibitions on the disease.

Straits Times 15 Jun 07
Drink cartons are not rubbish, he tells paper mills

IF THE 40 million drink cartons thrown away here every year are lined up end to end, they would go around Singapore's coastline more than 20 times.

This was an image distressing enough for Mr Ong Lye Huat to make it his mission to convince the National Environment Agency (NEA) and paper mills that packaging materials, which make up a third of the rubbish Singapore throws out, did not need to end up as ash in landfills.

The 45-year-old, the manager overseeing safety and health for drink-carton maker Tetra Pak, said: 'It is unnecessary waste. Europe has been recycling drink cartons for many years and turning the fibres into useful paper products. There is no reason why Singapore can't do the same.'

He went around to regional paper mills with empty cartons, a pail of water, and a will to recycle, to sell the messages that recycling would neither cost a fortune nor would recycled pulp spoil production equipment.

Mr Ong, who was one of 15 people to win the NEA's inaugural EcoFriend Award, said:

'People did not realise how easy it was... If you tear the carton into small pieces, put it in a pail of water and stir for just 15 minutes, you can already see the fibres start to separate.' Those separated fibres can safely be made into paper products, he said.

It took well over a year of cajoling for him to get a Malaysian mill on board. It tested the logistics of collecting cartons in Yishun and Woodlands last July and began recycling them two months later. Mr Ong's passion for managing waste goes back 15 years.

He was working at a health-care company then and was roped in to cut down its amount of chemical waste. Today, he coordinates Tetra Pak's contribution towards the Singapore Voluntary Packaging Agreement, which has pulled in 500 food and beverage companies in a national effort to cut packaging waste.

His efforts to save the earth also extend to his workplace, where he pins up news clippings about environmental issues in the staff common area. It is about changing mindsets, he said, adding: 'We need to spread the message and show people how they can play their part in protecting the environment.'
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