Students do their part for the environment
During his trip to the Cyrene Reef in 2014, he noticed that the reef flats littered with trash.
Watching the marine life found in the sea near Jurong Island, Bukom Island and Pasir Panjang Terminal could thrive despite the pollution, Mr Keith Wo, then 17, was inspired to start leading a more sustainable life.
Upon entering university, Mr Wo, 24, and his group of friends from Yale-NUS learnt about how fast fashion was the second-largest polluter in the world.
This led them to start a sustainable clothing company, Men’s Best Friend (MBF) in 2018. MBF is a B2B sustainable procurement service provider where they help individuals and firms make purchases and business decisions while being kind to the environment.
As an individual, the switch to a more sustainable lifestyle was daunting for Mr Wo at first as it was challenging to reduce plastic use.
“I simply did not realise that plastic was everywhere, in packaging, cutlery...” said Mr Wo.
Mr Wo, who became a vegetarian three years ago, is also playing his part in being sustainable by purchasing second-hand items and bringing his containers when he orders take-out.
For Ms Coco Oan, 23, and Ms Teng Chu Yu, 22, their sustainability journey started when they were introduced to recycling in their primary school days.
Despite being a strong advocate for recycling during her primary school days, she soon realised that recycling alone was not enough for one to be sustainable.
Said Ms Oan: “A lot of our resources, such as single-use plastic bags and printed paper, should not be used so frivolously in the first place.”
To combat the wastage of single-use products, Ms Oan started Project bECOme in 2016. Since then, Project bECOme has led projects such as Bread without Bags in 2019 and Circular CNY from 2019-2021.
Influenced by their vegan friends , both Ms Oan and Ms Teng embarked on the journey to become a vegetarian and eat mostly plant-based food respectively to reduce their waste and be carbon-lite.
However, their decision to go meatless was met with initial strong opposition from their parents, as their parents were worried that they were not receiving enough nutrition. Their parents have since come to be more accepting of their diets.
Ms Teng also uses her Instagram accounts @consciousmochii and @consciouscookieee to feature some of her plant-based meals and desserts, while at the same time sharing her experience with her mostly plant-based diet with a combined number of more than 3,000 followers.
Ms Teng recently represented Singapore in the International UniC seminar, from June 5 to June 8, where she shared about exemplary female youth activists in sustainability-related fields
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
