ION Orchard, GrabFood among over 140 NEA partners reducing waste this year

The National Environment Agency (NEA) is encouraging Singaporeans to make environmentally friendly choices in their daily lives such as reducing food wastage and the use of disposables with its newly launched "Say YES to Waste Less" (SYTWL) campaign. 

According to NEA, the Semakau Landfill is projected to be full by 2035 due to food wastage and the use of disposables. It added that a family of four could spend close to SG$2,200 on takeaway containers a year, and unfinished side dishes could cost more than SG$1,000 a year. 

In the coming weeks, the SYTWL campaign messages will be shared through multiple touchpoints in and around homes, as well as on digital and social media platforms. This will be complemented by on-ground engagements with the community, schools and partners. 

Don't miss: Singapore's National Environment Agency picks social media agency 

So far, more than 140 partners across various sectors in Singapore have pledged to support this year's SYTWL campaign.

Some of these partners include D2L.sg, ION Orchard, Decathlon Singapore, Pan Pacific Hotel Group and GrabFood amongst many others. 

As part of their solutions, D2L.sg collected all types of food surplus and food waste to achieve zero food waste. Using proprietary AI smart matching technology, the social enterprise diverted more than 600 tonnes of surplus food, helped partners save SG$7.1 million, and prevented 3,114 tonnes of carbon emissions since it was founded in 2021.

Meanwhile, ION Orchard has become the first shopping mall in Singapore to introduce a pilot programme aiming to reduce single-use waste through a closed-loop reusable system called 'sustainable takeaway'. 'Sustainable takeaway' will run from 1 April to 30 September 2024 in partnership with Muuse. Brands on the pilot programme include Common Man Coffee Roasters, Food Opera, Plain Vanilla, Starbucks, Toast Box and The 1872 Clipper Tea Co.

Decathlon Singapore, on the other hand, aims to become a zero-waste company by 2026. To achieve that goal, Decathlon Singapore has removed all usage of single-use plastic bags in stores and replaced them with 100% eco-friendly blue bags. This year, Decathlon also launched the 'Buy Back Programme' aimed to start the transition to a circular economy. 

In tandem, Pan Pacific Hotel Group has creatively repurposed excess food ingredients into new dishes. All its hotels in Singapore have food waste digesters which convert food waste into greywater and used coffee grounds into compost. In-room filtered water dispensers also reduce the use of single-use plastic bottles.

Lastly, GrabFood has taken active steps to reduce single-use plastics on the platform. This includes introducing a cutlery toggle for all GrabFood orders, which is set to ‘opt-out’ by default. Since its inception, a majority of GrabFood orders have been placed with the ‘no cutlery’ option and this number continues to see a steady increase.

Grab is currently also partnering with Muuse to provide consumers with the option of using reusable containers instead. In 2020, Grab signed the WWF-Singapore’s PACT (Plastic ACTion) Food Delivery Service pledge with the vision of ‘No Plastic in Nature by 2030’. Under this initiative, Grab is committed to introducing more ways to help their consumers and partners go green and communicating their sustainability progress to stakeholders.

According to NEA, these initiatives illustrated how organisations of any size, from any industry and sector, can contribute to a sustainable Singapore. 

Earlier this year, NEA picked Metia as its new social media agency as it looks to create a stronger online presence and brand identity. This is according to GeBiz documents seen by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

The remit will be for a period of 12 months, commencing tentatively from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, with the option to extend for four terms of 12 months each.

Metia will also help enhance the understanding of NEA’s initiatives and efforts and deepen engagement with the public by growing the following for NEA’s social media channels and creating engaging, trending and relatable content.

It will also have to build positive relationships with meaningful engagements and encourage the public to adopt positive behaviours, motivating every individual to care for the environment as a way of life, it said.

Photo courtesy ION Orchard

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