Timeline - Put aside for the time being

Anyway we are to abide religiously to it, muhahaaa



Thank you Cheryl for doing it up.

ISO

Hi, I just found out that there is indeed such a thing as an environmental management ISO.

All the information reflected here can be found in the series of PDF files in this website

There is a segment on Business Benefits of ISO 14001, which might help us :)


Here's a small teaser on the overview of the ISO 14000 family (but it's quite blur :()
However I was wondering, is simply changing to paper bags strong enough a case for getting the ISO?

Here is a short case study.

Double A was given the ISO 14001 environmental management standard certificate in 1997 because of its impressive eco-friendly record.

- mill operations require huge amounts of water. Double A cleared land to create its own reservoir to store water during the rainy season. This provides all the water required for mill operations and also clean water to the Double A village in Prachinburi (Thailand) where the mill's workers live.

- While the bark of the tree is cut into wood chips for papermaking, the rest of the tree is also used as fel to provide electricity to run the mill and the village.

In short, Double A is kind of self-sufficient in mill operations.

I got all these information from the Lifestyle magazine Worldview section by Ambiga Raju.

Research - Alternatives to plastic bags (besides paper)

Source 1 - Planet Ark, daily guide to helping the planet

The ultimate aim of plastic bag alternatives is to reduce plastic bag litter and to save on resources. Plastic bags are very lightweight so each bag is not in itself resource intensive, however, Australians use over 6 billion every year.
Several independent analyses have concluded that using heavier duty, reusable bags saves on resources as less bags in total need to be produced - especially those bags that can be recycled at the end of their life.

Stronger carry bags, unlike the lightweight bags, are also less likely to be littered and, even if they are, they are unlikely to be transported into sensitive environments like oceans and rivers.

Polypropylene Bags

Polypropylene bags, like the 'Green Bags' seen in Coles and Woolworths supermarkets, are made from non-woven polypropylene that is manufactured from polypropylene gas, a by-product of oil refining. These reusable bags often have a solid removable base that is manufactured from nylon or PET.

Polypropylene bags can carry more shopping than plastic check-out bags, so shoppers use less. They are sturdy and designed to be reused repeatedly. They have a lifespan of up to three years and can be recycled.

Polypropylene bags reduce consumption (and therefore environmental impacts) of single use bags and may encourage customers to be more ‘waste-wise’ in daily life.

Calico Bags

Calico bags are made from cotton, which requires a lot of water resources to be grown. However, they can be reused and will hold more shopping than a plastic bag. The expected life span of a calico bag is 1 year.

Like polypropylene bags, calico bags reduce consumption (and therefore environmental impacts) of single use bags and may encourage customers to be more ‘waste-wise’ in their daily life.

Ezra and Breadtalk! Delegation of Missions!

Hi everyone,

I managed to contact Ms Chew Sin Ying, Breadtalk today (finally). Sandra tried umpteen times yesterday but was unsucessful. Ms Chew says that they have not reviewed our proposal yet and asked me when I needed a reply, and I replied if possible next monday? because it's a school project and we have deadlines to meet, and she said she would get back to me.

Which means our SL project will have to extend beyond Term 1, I know that most of us will have Research Module (RM) and the sports tournaments start Term 2, so we'll just put in our very best and we'll end SL with a bang!

Actually, we are already working quite hard. Thank you Zong He and Timothy, they have been calling so many companies to get quotations and whatnot :) Sandra too, she has been our secretary, drafting all our letters and also collating our investigation results :) and Cheryl for diligently writing down our minutes and also our first timeline :) Margaret for being ever so enthusiastic and getting our creative juices going (and coming up with so many ideas! )! Ganesh, for turning stale and boring meetings into fun ones and also attending every single meeting as of yet :)

Hopefully we can keep the enthusiasm going till the end of SL.

Now, we just need to prepare our presentation should Breadtalk be interested in our proposal. They must! They must!

Timo and ZongHe, can you two come up with quotations, measurements of the bags, and cost comparisons/long term savings, (possibly prototype?)

Margaret can you do some research and come up with a short summary, maybe around 1 slide worth of info, on paper being biodegradable and the like?

Cheryl, can you please try and think/research on other possible benefits for Breaktalk if they change from plastic to paper?

Sandra, could you summarise/collate the investigation results and analyse them? I think you have already done them, good job!

Ganesh, can you anticipate some questions that they may ask us and come up with answers?

and me, I'll collate everything and put them in a powerpoint. So.... can I have everything by, say one week from now, Thursday 9pm?

Thank you sooo much :)

Marjorie

minutes for 6th march

(we are currently waiting for sinying's reply regarding the email we sent her) the email was sent on friday 6pm, if she does not reply soon, we would call her on wednesday and enquire if she received it..

what we did today, during SL period:called up
- polar puffs
- old chang kee
- auntie anne's
- delifrance

only polar puffs replied (auntie anne's hung up half way while replying) and told us to send an email to huishin.ho@polarpuffs.com.sg. an email was sent promptly and she promised to reply the next day (tuesday.)

what we have to do: prepare a presentation of our proposal for breadtalk, when xinying replies with a meeting date.

proposal

hi, great work sandra!

just a few comments.

- shall we explicitly state that the project will be long term, since they asked?
- mention that paper is biodegradable will plastic is not.
-mention that we are in the victoria integrated programme and not just in vjc. (they might be more interested in hearing what we have to say)
- "All of us love BreadTalk as much as food loves salt." is it a bit exaggerated? maybe give real facts like we visit breadtalk at least twice a week. something like that
- mention the no. of breadtalk outlets after saying the estimated no. plastic bags used in a day to give the seriousness of the situation.

other than that i think its very good, especially how you fit in all the praises =D

margaret
marjorie

Meeting Minutes Feb 27th

1. Called up Breaktalk
" - Hi, I'm a student from VJC
- SL project, collaborating with SEC
- Project brief (to make Breaktalk more environmentally friendly)
- Who should I approach?
- Can you direct me to the appropriate deparment? "

sinying.chew@breadtalk.com

to send trailer to her asap before she forgets all about us.

Trailer to entice Breadtalk into asking us for more details/arranging with us to go down to breadtalk HQ to give presentation...

SinYing also asked about whether our project would be long term. Of course, and also rmb we have to emphasis that.

2. Proposal

Ms Toh suggested to include following parts into our proposal.

a. Intro (As a follow up on our phonecall on the 27th of Feb 2o'clock....VJ students, collaborating with SEC, plastic to paper longterm, we are students passionate abou the environment! Noticed that BT using alot of plastic bags. Furthermore BT is a huge company in SG with X branches, provide " stagering numbers")
b. Investigation results (Based on a study of 4 companies....tableform)
c. Quotations
e. Benefits of changing to paper
- Savings
- ISO?
f. Summary of how paper is less harmful to Earth

Things to do W9

Sandra:
-Intro + Trailer (by Wednesday thanks, send to Ms Toh for vetting, followed by to sinying.chew@breadktalk.com)
-Collate Results (Everyone please send to her asap. Cheryl and ZongHe's results are on the blog)

Marjorie:-Call up Delifrance
+ Why they change/use paper bags
+ Difficulties faced
+ Possibly how much their pay for the bags
+ Suppliers?
Rmb mention we are helping SEC. Rationale behind calling other bakeries is to preemp any questions which Breadtalk may have for us and hence have stronger proposal.

Ganesh:-Complete investigations asap (send to Sandra)
-Measure size of plastic bags used by Breadtalk (send to ZH and Timo)
-Possibly ask who their suppliers are

Zong He and Timo:-Find out quotations
-Savings in one month, one year, to quote Ms Toh " Staggering numbers...."

Cheryl:-Research and find out whether there is some environmental ISO

Margaret:-Research and find out on paper over plastic bags. Summarise.
- Call up Auntie Anne's

All, except trailer, due on Friday, 9pm.

P.I. For the Day - Reflections.

So i stood for 25 minutes, could have stood for longer - and counted 101 bags. No, i did not make the figure up even though it looks really nice and...made up. I did count 101. And i could have counted more had i stayed longer - but i am really sorry, people, i really have like, a crapload of homework i know i should have done eons ago but haven't done. But 25 minutes - isn't too bad, huh?(:

And so for the aspiring investigator, here's what i learnt from my one day stint as miss private eye:
1) Choose a persona, anything. So long as it doesn't make you look suspiciously like an Anti-bread terrorist or some secret agent from sweet secrets, or something. I chose for myself someone really annoyed and angsty about having to wait for friend/boyfriend/whatever.
2) Then stand in a corner and watch. Doesn't have to be all that inconspicuous - if it is, it probably means that the counter with the bags is likewise invisible. Just make sure you aren't in the way, aren't obstructing the flow and aren't standing too awkwardly in the middle of nowhere.
3) Watch. And count. But never look like you're counting, never strain your eyes look real nonchalant about it like - oh i'm waiting for my idiotic friend, see, see, i am even glaring at my watch periodically and angsting at his lateness but oh in the meanitme i shall stone at the bread and customers. And so you get to see the bags, but nobody knows you're counting or even thinking
4) Hold a handphone. Waiting friends always hold handphones because they're ever ready to launch a gigantic tirade past the fifteen minute mark. But more because handphones are good for recording the number of bags. I can't count past 4 if the whatever i am counting comes at irregular, longish intervals- can you?
5) Always have an excuse at hand - just in case. Although if you have to resort to this step, it probably means your crap at spying. Mine was made up on the spot - some typical girlfriend nonsense about counting the number of bags given out in the interval my evil boyfriend takes to come. The prissy salespeople will probably sympathise, see. Also, i think everyone knows not to throw out The Angsting Girlfriend. Hell hath known no wrath like a woman's fury, see. Or something. Whatever. The point is, it works.
6) Be nice - buy a bread when you're done. It's morally right - you immoral imbecile. For the services rendered - unwittingly or not. And anyway, Breadtalk has good bread, seriously. Also, if you have enough guts, you could smalltalk that guy and very casually make some phoney comment about oooh how there is so much human traffic and - say, how many bags do they give out a day, man?
7) I suppose you could be even nicer and not ask for plastic bag while you're at it.

And so yes. It works. So for those who havent completed their task...why haven't you?! And use this method. (: Remember, i only left after twentyfive minutes because i had homework. (:

And yes, the number if 101. And i was at Ctiylink. Which was probably why, my guise worked. Because it was so near the MRT station.

Lesson of the day: Their banana danish is reeeeally good! (:

Reflections for the week!

SO we ran into problems that seemed almost the stuff of all textbooks - Some wild, unexpected emergency that threw us all off for abit. (but then we are smart strong people! haha nevermind) But then we didn't panic - well, okay, we did but only for a leeetle while - and soon enough we were back on track brainstorming for new ideas.

I liked how that worked. I liked that we could pick ourselves up as easily as we did and move on. And that is, in essence, basically what we should do not just in projects but anything in life, i guess. But particularly in projects. And so, another takeaway from our SL journey. And how do we know that's just the thing to do in terms of crisis? (and by jove, having weeks worth of planning reduced to nothing by clinics certainly counts as one.) Because we tried that - we didn't sit about and grumble - and we came up with a new idea!

Which in fact, is in my opinion, tonnes better.
1) the success rate is much higher, definitely
2) and if it does succeed, then it's effectiveness in healing our sweet earth's even better! I mean i'm sure we have more bread-eaters than sick people in singapore, right?
3) And and we might even help our targetted company!

And the third'd definitely be a huge bonus for all of us, and hopefully for them. Because after all, we should only be benefitting SEC and ourselves. (: And yeah, of course, the earth. Or at least, our small part of it.

And so,
Lesson #1 of the Week: Don't let trouble get you down.
Ho ho ho! I'm doing this donald trump style! Haha for those of you who don't know, The Apprentice has these little snippets of information and tips for the aspiring business people in this format.

But that wasn't all - which is why i found this week a particularly fruitful one in an unconventionally unexepected way, of course. Fruitful in that we've benefitted alot this time round having learnt so much more and possibly, fruitful in that we're coming up with something that'll help SEC even more.

This week also honed in the message of learning from mistakes. I think we best exemplified this. This time round, we looked in more thoroughly at the past mistakes. And did what maybe we should have done long ago - we called the SEC for tips and pointers on contacting companies.

And then, maybe a smaller thing we all could learn from this, is that one neeedn't necessarily be thought something, or pick up new information in order to have learnt and gained something. Sometimes, we know what we should do but never do we practice it. And this week, i found that when one practices what is taught- i'm sure we all knew we had to review out past errors - the lesson stays a hell lot longer. And its giving life to the textbook examples and response protocols.

So let's hope these lessons stay with us forever. And cheers to our marvellous group (:

And now...for the tedious of counting.

P.S. I really wouldn't mind going straight to the counter and asking for permission - but can we?(: Oh my lord, i am so not made for spywork. O.o

What I wrote but didn't post

Written on 19th Feb

solution 1: we change plan
1) scenerio: bakeries bag every single bun into individual plastic bags. all the individual bags will then be put into a big plastic bag.

idea:
step 1: rather than individual plastic bags for buns, use a cardboard box and or the plastic thing carrefour is using. it lessens the materials used anyway. this is for customers buying x or more buns. people buying lesser than x buns can still use the small transparent plastic bag.

step 2: educate people bagging buns on how to squeeze buns into cardboard box.

reasons:
1)the small plastic bag will be oily after the bread is consumed. also, it would have absolutely no use due to its size. there is no way anyone will use the plastic bag to bag domestic waste. 1 one= 1 plastic bag, this is a huge amount of waste!!
2) if the number of buns that can be fitted into the box is determined by the area of its base, then more materials will be used. the buns are light, they will not be squashed if placed one on top of the other.

argument: the plastic bag is so that consumers will not dirty their hands.
counter argument: most people buying x or more buns are most probably going to eat them at home. they can easily wash their hands.

what we have to research on:
1) plastic bag vs cardboard/plastic container. how many buns can be put into the container without squashing buns. x will be that number.
2) i made some assumptions. we can go to a bakery for an hour and then ask customers who buy many buns whether they are eating it at home.


solution 2:
for clinics, sell cloth bags to patients. newly sealed medcine bottles will not leak. put up big posters encouraging patients to use the cloth bags on their next visit.

solution 3:
every chinese new year, millions of red packets are used and then thrown away. perhaps we could collect them and send them to be recycled into new year cards.

Sandra's investigation sounds scary............ ):

Btw, how many customers did Breaktalk serve in 15 minutes?

Anyways, just a little reminder :)

(off peak in bold) (peak in italic)

Tampines ------ Ganesh
Parkway ------ marjorie margaret
CityLink ------ cheryl
PlazaSing ------ Sandra
BugisJunction ------ Zong He Timothy

Timo ------ check up cost difference (paper vs plastic bag)

Btw, name_tt_everyone_can_see is our mentor GuiLi....... what a weird name haha

hi everyone, pls do not panic.

regardless of what happened last time, so long as we know that our solution will help save the environment and even if just 1 clinics accepts our idea, then we are sucessful. lets just come up with a good proposal and try our luck in any private clinics.

alternatively, we could use another idea of reducing the use of receipts in clinics. polyclinics print out a full A4 sized receipt with no use at all. it only shows the time/date and amount paid. this problem could be solved easily as they could just change the format of the receipt to make it fit a smaller piece of paper.

problem: will face problems finding someone with a high enough position to talk to in polyclinics.

Today Newspaper June 4 2005 - Bags full of Trouble

You might want to read this, especially the survey right at the end.

Bags full of trouble
Hooked on plastic, S'poreans won't change unless forced to by law
June 4 2005 Today Newspaper


Lee U-Wen
u-wen@newstoday.com.sg

THIS is a typical Singapore story in search of a happy ending.
.
Ask Singaporeans if their compatriots care about the environment and the answer is emphatic: No, they don't.
.
Ask them if they, themselves, know how serious the issue of plastic bags is — Singapore consumes an estimated 40 billion plastic bags each year or 27 per person per day — and, as expected, the answer is no. They had no idea the situation was so bad.
.
So now that the problem has been spelled out and the consequences explained, we inch towards the obvious solution.
.
Since this tiny island cannot afford to be swathed in plastic, which generally is not biodegradable, shouldn't there be a reduction in its use?
.
And since consumers take away at least a million plastic bags for free each day (the rest go into areas such as production, packaging and lining public waste bins) would they agree to pay 5 cents for each bag? Just so that bags are not needlessly used?
.
The answer is a resounding no. This from the 100 people who took part in a Today survey for this report.
.
The solution they propose on the eve of World Environment Day on Sunday is surprisingly Singaporean.
.
Turn the page and read on.
.
Just who will remove the wrapper?
.
Forget surveys. Would a business in Singapore dare to be different and risk losing its customers by making them pay for plastic bags?
.
Ms Christel Ludwig tried.
.
She runs the German Market Place, a store on Bukit Timah Road that sells food and spirits and used to go through as many as 5,000 bags per month.
.
Back in her home country, Germany, the practice of charging for plastic bags has been in vogue for 15 years and Ms Ludwig thought she had every reason to try it here.
.
"Probably, not many customers realise that the cost of the plastic bags used by stores is passed on to them," she said. "Charging is fair as only those customers who want bags get charged. This method also discourages waste as customers don't ask for more bags than they need."
.
But theory is one thing and putting it into practice in the Singapore market is quite another.
.
In January, Ms Ludwig took a deep breath and started charging customers 5 cents for each regular-sized bag and twice that for bigger ones.
.
The scheme has been a stunning success. The number of plastic bags the shop uses has dropped by half.
.
She has noticed that nearly half the people who visit her shop now bring their own shopping bags. And there has been no dip in sales.
.
But don't expect larger retailers to go this route right away. There is a catch.
.
Almost four out of every five customers at Ms Ludwig's shop are expatriates. Convincing the average Singaporean to follow suit is far more difficult, as Ikea found to its discomfort.
.
The furniture giant observed Earth Day in April by doing away with plastic shopping bags for three days and encouraging shoppers to bring their own.
.
It kept used plastic bags on standby and sold brown paper bags for 10 cents and its trademark blue bags for $1. An estimated 40,000 plastic bags were "saved" during that Earth Day weekend.
.
Encouraging? Hardly.
.
"We were berated by our customers for doing something stupid," said an Ikea employee who did not wish to be named. "I was frustrated and saddened. It all seems to boil down to that key problem in our country — self-centredness and a 'me, me, me' mentality."
.
But there was a glimmer of hope as Ikea said that some customers wanted the campaign to be made more frequent, if not permanent.
.
Meanwhile, other retailing giants are treading carefully. According to NTUC FairPrice chairman Chandra Das, while some Singaporeans are warming up to recyclable and reusable bags, "it would take a long time" before any tangible result could be seen from this lifestyle change.
.
Earlier this week, FairPrice launched a reusable Green Bag at its stores, after importing 40,000 of them from China. They are currently being sold to shoppers at 99 cents each.
.
"We know that we have to start somewhere and a small step is better than not doing anything at all," he added.
.
Cold Storage and Carrefour, meanwhile, also feel they have done their bit to encourage customers to buy reusable shopping bags and to listen to those who ask for fewer bags.
.
But so far, no major chain has dared to start charging openly for plastic bags. In Today's survey, only 21 per cent of the respondents said they would be willing to pay a nominal fee of 5 cents for every bag they received while shopping.
.
Of course, the National Environment Agency has tried to minimise the fallout from the use of so much plastic by collecting used bags and disposing of them at its four incineration plants. The heat from the incineration process is used to generate electricity.
.
But it is not simply a matter of collecting the bags and getting rid of them. Apart from the cost — each plastic bag costs more than 2 cents — there is also the related problem of scooping up the bags that do not find their way into rubbish bins.
.
Last September, 2,000 volunteers combed Singapore's beaches and mangroves and picked up 88,000 discarded items. Plastic bags and containers accounted for three-quarters of the rubbish.
.
The Singapore Environment Council has long advocated the use of biodegradable bags but no one is especially hopeful this will work, as consumers will be expected to pay for them. By consensus, the preferred solution is a bit more direct.
.
That familiar feeling
.
Singaporeans have long complained that it is always the Government that is expected to come up with solutions to even the most basic problems.
.
But, when pressed for ways to reduce the plastic mist, their answer was: Let the Government step in and pass a law, just as it did to curb littering and smoking in public areas.
.
Support for a law to ban or charge for plastic bags came even from Mr Grant Pereira, head of the Green Volunteers Network, the volunteer arm of the SEC.
.
But wait. Before slamming the Singaporean penchant for passing laws to solve every problem, naysayers should know that this is exactly what developed countries are doing.
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Switzerland, Denmark and South Africa charge for bags. Three years ago, Ireland imposed a 15-cent tax on plastic bags, resulting in a 90 per cent decrease in usage. In the first year and a half, the levy there raised 13.5 million euros ($27.6 million), which has been funnelled into recycling facilities around the country.
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Closer to home, Bangladesh and parts of India have banned plastic bags all together. Bangladesh learned its lesson the hard way as 9.3 million bags were dumped in Dhaka every day and there were major floods in 1989 and 1998 as the plastic choked drains.
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Said Mr Pereira, who is in his 50s: "Charging for bags won't take off here unless it's an island-wide initiative. We need to be regulated, the Government must say that stores have to start charging.
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"Otherwise, retailers are asking what if they lose their customers to others. But have they thought: What if something good comes of it?"
.
Survey Results (100 respondents) – conducted by Dawn Quek, Joyce Lin, Patricia Yap. Jasmine Zhao and Mervin Tay
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Did you know that Singaporeans, on average, use about 27 plastic bags per person each day?
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Yes – 9% No – 91%
.
Did you know that one million plastic bags are given out free in Singapore each day?
.
Yes – 18% No – 82%
.
Are you aware of any alternatives to using plastic bags?
.
Yes – 74% No – 26%
.
Would you be willing to pay five cents for every plastic bag you get when you go shopping?
.
Yes – 21% No – 79%
.
Do you feel that, in general, Singaporeans are concerned about saving the environment?
.
Yes – 12% No – 88%

13th Feb (Week 7) Meeting follow-up

Present:
Ganesh
Marjorie
Margaret
Cheryl
Sandra
Zong He

Absent:
Timothy

Time: 2.30pm- 4pm
Date: 13th February 2006
Venue: V14

1. Proposal
- Proposal already tweaked and sent to Joe from SEC
- Awaiting his reply
- Ganesh to update the rest when Joe replies
2. Surveys
- Survey questions already crafted
- Photocopy 50 copies by tomorrow 14th February 12pm (Marjorie) and hand to Sandra to hand to her uncle’s clinic.
- Sandra to hand Timothy results for him to collate by Saturday 18th February (as shown on timeline)
3. Seeking manufacturers and getting quotation
- Managed to find contact of several manufacturers, Zong He and Cheryl will contact them and get quotation.
- Got to find out current price at which Clinic is ordering plastic bags (Sandra)
4. Reflections
- Reminder to amend reflections (too short, not enough….) by tomorrow night, 14th February.
5. Timeline
- Checklist of things to be done with deadline to ensure that team is on task (Cheryl)