ENVIRONMENT: Play your part

CARING for the environment should be made part and parcel of our daily lives.

Mr Sidek Saniff, Senior Minister of State for the Environment, made this statement at Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Millennium Composter Exhibition yesterday.

1 ""By minimising the waste we throw and by keeping our neighbourhoods and parks clean, we would have contributed to the national effort to sustain a clean and green environment,'' he said.

The composter competition to turn kitchen and garden waste into fertiliser for plants attracted students from 13 secondary schools.

Besides the polytechnic, other organisations also held activities for Clean and Green Week.

From the private sector, three organisations -- Arcasia Land, Novo Environmental Technological Services and Transnational Recycling Industries teamed up to start a recycling programme.

The programme involves about 240 companies at Science Park 1 and 2.

Every two weeks, the companies will place recyclable items such as used papers, newspapers, computer printouts, shredded papers, empty drink cans and food cans, old clothing, shoes and bags in boxes provided by Transnational, which will then collect them for recycling.

The proceeds from the recycling effort will be donated to the Singapore Children's Society.

The Singapore Environment Council will hold a conference next week entitled Beyond ISO 14001 -- Environmental Economy.

Keynote speakers will talk about environmental reporting and the ISO 14001 process, which emphasises eco-friendly processes in business systems.