NEA launches the new Anti-Littering Campaign
NEA organised the launch of the new anti-littering campaign on Sunday, 6 June 2010, at Plaza Singapura’s Open Plaza. The campaign was launched by the Guest-of-Honour, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR). Accompanying Minister were Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, MEWR, and Mr Andrew Tan, CEO, NEA. About 150 guests from schools, grassroots, corporate organisations, NGOs and various government agencies attended the launch ceremony.
The GOH, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, delivering the opening speech at the launch ceremony of the new anti-littering campaign.
In his opening speech, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim highlighted that Singapore’s clean environment is a result of continuous efforts over the last forty years putting in place measures such as stiff penalties, strict enforcement against littering, a robust cleaning regime, and public education and community engagement on littering issues. While these efforts have borne fruit, NEA’s surveillance and a sociological study on the ground show that the littering situation in pockets of areas, such as town centres and around letter boxes in public housing estates, can be further improved. Common litter items include cigarette butts, used tissue, food and drink containers, and packaging.
Dr Yaacob Ibrahim commended the majority of the population who sees it as their personal responsibility to bin their litter. He explained that in order to further improve the littering problem today, NEA has adopted an integrated approach of stepping up enforcement, improving infrastructure and enhancing public education to tackle littering issues and challenges. These include increasing composition fine for littering from $200 to $300, reviewing the tasks under Corrective Work Order (CWO) to increase their difficulty and exposure, reviewing the placement of litter bins at areas with high pedestrian traffic and improving bin design for smokers, and also leveraging on a new Litter-Free Ambassador programme that involves pro-active students, youth and grassroots volunteers to convey the message to the community that it is everyone’s personal responsibility to always bin their litter.
The GOH, accompanied by Dr Amy Khor and Mr Andrew Tan, unveiling the “Do The Right Thing. Let’s Bin It!” campaign logo and tagline.
At the launch ceremony, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim unveiled the new anti-littering campaign logo and tagline “Do The Right Thing. Let’s Bin It!” The new campaign seeks to instill a sense of responsibility in individuals to keep Singapore clean and beautiful and to encourage them to take action to bin their litter.
At a count of 3, the GOH sounded the air horn to flag off the Litter-Free Ambassadors
Over 150 youths from Woodgrove Secondary, Institute of Technical Education (ITE), Ngee Ann Secondary, Nan Hua High School, Ci Yuan Youth Executive Committee comprising Northlight and Anderson Secondary Schools, were trained by NEA as the first batch of Litter-Free Ambassadors to spearhead litter-free initiatives in their community and communicate to the public on the importance of keeping the environment clean and binning their waste properly. The youth Ambassadors spent the Sunday engaging the public in the Plaza Singapura vicinity to sign pledge cards and make a personal commitment to keep Singapore clean and litter-free. They will continue to engage the community in more follow-up activities.
Litter-Free Ambassadors from the schools attending a briefing by NEA on how to engage the community.
Litter-Free Ambassadors engaging the public to sign Clean Singapore pledge cards.