Combine Literature Review Draft

Minutes of Meeting (29/1/13)

What did we discuss?
-How to combine our literature reviews together
-Introduction, methods, conclusion and results of our combined literature reviews

How did the rest collect data?

Data Collection : For all of the literature reviews done by us, the data are collected from quantitative data collection. They used surveys and questionnaires to find out the values and plot graphs to find trends.

Shaquille and Ibrahim's Literature Review: The people who contributed to the questions and information are mostly organisations like zerowastesg and the National Environmental Agency (NEA).

Wun Juan's Literature Review: The people who contributed to the information are mostly volunteers who are willing to voice out their opinions and ideas on how to reduce waste to save the environment on online articles.

Example of graph collected:

Source : NEA Website

Literature Review (Ibrahim)

Name: Muhammad Ibrahim Bin Azmansah         Class: S2-03 

Literature Review of Reducing Waste

Every year, tons of waste are generated by us. In Singapore, the waste mostly end up in landfills, such as the Semakau Landfill, or end up in the incineration plant to be burn for energy. Most people do not realise that the waste causes affect the environment. Although part of the waste is recycled, prevention is always better than the cure. So with that said, we aim to urge Singaporeans to reduce their waste usage, and make the world a better place.

Even though plastic is the least common type of waste generated in Singapore, it does not mean that we should ignore the excessive use of plastic. About 684,400 tons of plastic waste was generated in 2008. The elimination of the excessive use of plastic and reducing of plastic used should comply. 

It takes about 331 million barrels of oil to make plastic products. Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours. Hence reducing the use of plastic would lead to a smaller environmental impact as less oil will be used and more energy can be saved, thus there will be less pollution and less destruction to the forests and can save endangered animals. 

Ways to reduce the use of plastics are:

1. Recycle plastic waste into decoration, art or musical instruments.
2. Eat ice cream using a cone.
3. Bring along environmental friendly bag when going shopping.
4. Reuse plastic bags that is collected.

Recycle plastic waste into decoration, art or musical instruments for your home, school or work. For example, you don’t have to waste money or plastic just to have a lava lamp, you can use the bottles as a maracas and you can make plastic bottles as a beautiful piece of artwork which you can be proud to show off to everyone who come to your house.

Think before you act, eating ice cream using a cone, wafer or bread is a much better way as you can eat the cone, wafer or bread together with the ice cream. If you eat ice cream with a plastic cup, you would be throwing the plastic cup away after you eat the ice cream. That would increase the amount of plastic used.

Bring along environmental friendly bag when going shopping so as to reduce the amount of plastic wasted every time you buy things. So to encourage people to bring their bags, IKEA charges $0.20 per every plastic and NTUC charges $0.10 per every plastic. The environmental friendly bag can also be reuse every time you go shopping.

If you have been asking for plastic every time you shop, reuse plastic bags that is collected to line the bin. Bread bags make excellent freezer bags. Plastic bags can also be reuse for packing your bag on a holiday if you’r afraid that your clothes might get dirty in the bag.

Source: zerowaste.sg
               National Environmental Agency (NEA)

Literature Review ( Wun Juan )

Rubbish is produced anywhere, anytime, and the only ways to dispose them is by incineration or burying them in landfills. But a lot of people do not know that the ways of disposing the rubbish have many harmful effects to the environment. So this literature review will cover on different ways to reduce the amount of rubbish produced by us.

Firstly, we can reduce the amount of rubbish produced by avoiding to create rubbish at the first place. By not creating rubbish, there will be no need to dispose the rubbish. Below are the different ways to avoid creating rubbish. 

1. When buying or shopping for stuff, we should avoid using the plastic/paper bags provided by them and instead bringing your own re-usable bags. When you use your own bag, you will not need to bring bag the plastic/paper bag, which will normally end up in the rubbish bin.
2. We should also avoid buying bottled water from drink stalls, vending machines etc. We should instead bring your own re-usable water bottle from home. 
3. Avoid using disposable items. When going to a picnic or putting batteries, bring the picnic set with normal cutlery and rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones.

Secondly, we can reduced the amount of rubbish produced. Below are some of the examples on ways to reduce rubbish: 

1. Buying only what you need. If you don’t need stuff, don’t buy it as it will only end up being useless and it will be thrown away. 
2. Buying stuff which are second hand or recycled. By doing this, you will not need to buy new stuff and instead get the maximum lifespan out of the goods. 
3. Buying refills. Instead of buying the product again with more packaging, buy refills. 

Thirdly, we can reuse waste, so that it will not be directly be disposed and instead use to its maximum lifespan. Below are some of the different examples on ways to reuse waste: 

1. Reuse plastic containers which are given when taking away food for food storage. This can help to save from buying jars etc. 
2. Reuse any products as many times as possible.
3. Reuse plastic bags as bin liners.

Lastly, we can recycle the waste, so that it can be recycled and remade or re-manufactured into something new that which we can use in our daily lives. This also can reduce the amount of waste which are needed to be disposed which is great for the environment. People should also be buying  recycled products so that it can help conserve the environment and also support the recycling industry so that more products will be recycled instead of being disposed away. Below are some of the tips on what can be recycled:

1. Council Bin Recycling - Recycle all recyclable materials like the following in your local council free curbside collection recycling bins:-Paper

-Cardboard

-Magazines

-Newspapers

-Glass Bottles

-Glass jars

-Aluminum Cans

2. Recycle Other Materials, Products & Items - Take them to the relevant recycling facility that accepts them including items like the following:

-Mobile Phones

-Printer Ink & Toner Cartridges

-Acid Batteries

-Building Materials like bricks, concrete, timber & tiles

-Chemicals

-Electronic equipment

-Computers

-Metals including copper, lead, brass, steel, aluminium

-Oil

-Paint

-Plastic Bags

-Tires

-White Goods (Appliances)

Literature Review (Shaquille)

Each year, tons of waste are generated by us, the human race. In Singapore, the waste mostly end up in landfills, such as the Semakau Landfill, buried in the ground or in incinerators where the waste will be burned. Most people do not realise that the waste is connected with global climate change. Although part of the waste is recycled, prevention is always better than the cure. So with that said, we aim to urge Singaporeans to reduce their waste usage, and make the world a better place.

In Singapore, paper is the most common type of waste generated, about 1.26 million tonnes of paper in 2008. The elimination of the excessive use of paper and reducing of paper used should comply. Reducing the use of paper will lead to a smaller environmental impact as less energy and water will be consumed, thus there will be less pollution and less destruction to the forests and their biodiversity. There are several ways to reduce the use of paper. The ways are:

1. Avoid printing emails and web pages
2. Print or photocopy of both sides of paper
3. Avoid printing ATM receipts
4. Use cloth instead of paper towels
5. Read the news online

Avoid printing emails and web pages unnecessarily. Instead, just ‘bookmark’ the email or web pages for easy reference. While printing or photocopying multiple documents, print them back to back, thus maximising paper usage. If you are short of cash and need to withdraw some, there is particularly no reason to print it, only if you really have to. This also reduces the litter, as receipts are always spotted near ATMs. 

Spilling liquids is always a hassle and you need to clean up afterwards. Just use a rag or a t-shirt that you rarely use. You reduce the usage of paper towels, and reuse an old shirt. A win-win situation.Read news online. Some newspapers and magazines are available online and some even with no subscription fee. 

These ways of reducing waste are possible, and are also what we do in our daily lives. So, as long as we implement the steps and ways, we should be able to reduce the usage of paper in Singapore. 

Prevention is always better than the cure. So as said, recycling is always an option, whether you want to or not. But, some items are acceptable to recycle, while other are unacceptable. Here are the steps to start recycling: 

1. Learn about you recycling programme
2. Find out what you can recycle
3. Remember your recycling collection date

The three steps should be simple enough for any citizen of Singapore, young or elder. 

According to our research, statistics have shown that in 2000 to 2011, only 2% of total waste increased but the waste recycled increased by a staggering 117%. This shows that Singapore has already made huge progress on recycling and reducing waste. We feel that the organisations such as the National Environment Agency (NEA) and websites like zerowastesg.com have taken the waste usage in Singapore seriously, thus the great result. 

Sources: Zerowaste.sg
               National Environment Agency (NEA)

GANTT Chart (Updated)

Roles and Responsibilites

Wun Juan - Note Taker, Blog Manager.

Shaquille - Leader

Ibrahim - Time Keeper

T1W1 2013

Tasks:

-Reorganize your blog according to the requirements of the E-Portfolio

-Work out on group research timeline on a gant chart ( using excel or numbers) and publish it on E-     Portfolio

-Work out your individual roles & responsibilities and publish it on your E-Portfolio

-Secretary to take down notes of discussion and publish it on your E-Portfolio