Singapore a clean and green city?

[Bukitimah]

My last trip to Bangkok was some 25 years ago and visit them again last week. Many Thais I met there share that they heard that Singapore was a clean and green city. Are we?

As a matter of fact, my recent trip include Cheng Mai and Cheng Rai. So how do we compare to Thailand?

1) LTA – we won
Our roads and highway are better designed and constructed. You don’t find so much dust and worn roads. Traffic controls are also better and more orderly. You can cross the road quite safely if the light turns green.

2) NEA – we lost
Although our drains (we don’t have rivers) are cleaner, our hawker centres are terrible when compared to theirs. Even they have push carts and road side stalls, the surrounding are well swept. If you want to compare food courts, then we are even further behind. Somehow we just don’t have enough people to sweep the floors or we litter more than them?

They have tissues for each table and no fans blowing directly down onto the tables!

You will find plastic bags, cups, tissue papers along road side or around traffic junctions and drains in Singapore. Is it because we use more here?

3) Public toilets – we lost
Shopping centers toilets are generally very well kept and dry. We somehow have difficulties keeping them dry.

I also don’t find papers being thrown all over the place. More civic minded?

Maybe we should start to learn from others or we have forgotten how to maintain cleanliness?

 

[Rashkae]

I think it's because people here grow up with nannies running after them cleaning everything up, and the mentality that cleaners will take care of the rest.

 

[esoeij]

So far my impression of Thailand is that it's quite clean. I also observed that their public toilets are of quite good hygiene and cleanliness standards. Even the toilets at MBK in Bangkok were clean and floors quite dry, despite the high volume of traffic.

 

[cks2k2]

I think it's because people here grow up with nannies running after them cleaning everything up, and the mentality that cleaners will take care of the rest.

I think the new Singapore Clean/Green chairman said it best: we are not the cleanest but the most cleaned city.

 

[Sion]

To be clean you have to go out to sweep.

To be green you have to dig holes and grow.

If we all do them from today you'll find:

1.The shops sell a lot of brooms.

2. There are holes everywhere in Singapore.

 

[cks2k2]

To be clean you have to go out to sweep.

To be green you have to dig holes and grow.

If we all do them from today you'll find:

1.The shops sell a lot of brooms.

2. There are holes everywhere in Singapore.

allenleonhart dug all those holes.

 

[Shizuma]

so many cats! wonderful. we are all ngeow enough to know...

anyway we are really quite cleaned. one day if all the sweepers or cleaning contractors go on strike, we will truly see the sad and sorry state of how considerate and eco-friendly Singapore - residents are .

Taiwan is even cleaner - no dustbin but no one litters, surprisingly. even in Shilin pasar malam.

 

[Rashkae]

It's all in the parent's attitude. In Singapore, school kids happily toss their rubbish everywhere. Parents say "it's OK, got cleaning Auntie anyway" or "it's OK, they're just kids, they will learn later". Other countries know it's the parent's job to teach proper behavior to kids from an early age. If a kid litters, his parents will make him pick up the litter and dispose it properly. Not like the golden eggs in singapore.

 

[kei1309]

Rashkae got it right. parents in Singapore are spoiling their kids rotten.

 

[edutilos-]

Hi,

My own personal view on such things is that there is no need to compare with others. We can learn from them (hopefully picking up the good points that are applicable in local context), but any race/progress should really be inwards-directed. TS correctly points out that there is room for improvement in some areas, and that will always be true. We all can play a little part in doing so - like it or not, every bit does count. For example, if every person using a toilet cubicle accidentally drops a piece of toilet paper on the floor and ignores it, sooner or later after 20? 30? 40? people the toilet will be full of soggy pieces of paper.

Is Singapore a cleaned city? I think it depends. Sometimes it's just your luck. Toilets in some places such as Ion Orchard seem to be perpetually cleaned (at least I always see a cleaner standing around, it seems that they are permanently stationed there).

Let's not externalize the problem by looking at another generation and saying "oh, it's them, they're spoilt rotten and it's all their fault". To me, doing so just seems to discount your part to play in general cleanliness and the environment. You and I, him or her... It doesn't matter. If we develop a culture where you can just feel the atmosphere freeze when you do something "unclean" (and it doesn't have to involve people shouting at each other to pick up litter in an holier-than-thou manner), all these problems will be unheard of. That's a fact. Just for illustration (oops, I seem to be contradicting my earlier statement about not comparing), I do recall that I hardly saw anyone eating or drinking in the Taipei trains even though I don't recall seeing any threats at fines for doing so. That is what we should be working towards (and beyond). Cheers.

 

[hanzohattori]

:nono: its because the cleaning cost has gone up.. :bsmilie:

 

[esoeij]

Not all parents spoil their kids this way. In fact most parents I know would scold their kids if they littered. And there's no evidence to suggest that the dirty toilets, littering etc are caused mainly by young people only. Those who litter, throw cigarette butts on the ground, mess up public toilets, toss rubbish out of windows or other anti-social behaviour can easily be from kids to ah peks.

 

[Octarine]

:nono: its because the cleaning cost has gone up.. :bsmilie:

The cleaning costs would be close to zero with proper attitude and behaviour. Always puzzled when I see a toilet completely wet. Did somebody mistake it for a shower..? And no, it's not the squat type..

 

[Sion]

:nono: its because the cleaning cost has gone up.. :bsmilie:

Never let our sweepers and cleaners aspire to high callings in life.

They will want to join finance or become plastic surgeons.

Who will be left to clean the public toilets then?

People like you and I in Nikon or Canon vests.

 

[Sion]

The cleaning costs would be close to zero with proper attitude and behaviour. Always puzzled when I see a toilet completely wet. Did somebody mistake it for a shower..? And no, it's not the squat type..

Whatever we discharge must be dry so that toilets can be dry cleaned. :bsmilie:

 

[Sion]

Rashkae got it right. parents in Singapore are spoiling their kids rotten.

Since when our parents teach us to carry a brush to school to clean toilet? :bsmilie:

 

[Rashkae]

Since when our parents teach us to carry a brush to school to clean toilet? :bsmilie:

They teach us how to aim properly and not pee all over the floor. For some reason a lot of guys in singapore seem to stand half a meter away from the urinal, resulting in a spilled mess all over the floor.

 

[Sion]

They teach us how to aim properly and not pee all over the floor. For some reason a lot of guys in singapore seem to stand half a meter away from the urinal, resulting in a spilled mess all over the floor.

Half a meter not possible without extension tubes. :bsmilie:

 

[Rashkae]

Half a meter not possible without extension tubes. :bsmilie:

Well then that explains why half of it lands all over the floor.

 

[esoeij]

Half a meter not possible without extension tubes. :bsmilie:

Cannot use prime, must use zoom.