Taking up the highest job on the Singapore-based anti-waste non-profit is Lionel Dorai, who strikes up from his place as partnerships affiliate director, a job he has held since becoming a member of Zero Waste SG in Could 2023.
Chatting with Eco-Enterprise, he mentioned he’s taking on the management function with an ambition to spice up waste consciousness and conscious consumption amongst residents and corporates in Singapore. The town-state has one in all Asia’s highest waste-per-capita charges.
“In my new function, I plan to utilise my experience in communications and the partnerships I’ve solid over time to shut gaps that our society has in the case of waste, be it on the company or group stage,” mentioned the previous communications advisor. “This could imply tackling two necessary but cussed components: waste-consciousness, and additional upstream, conscious consumption.”
Zero Waste SG started as an internet site in 2008, and was established as a non-profit in 2015. In April final 12 months, it grew to become an Establishment of Public Character (IPC), which provides the organisation licence to obtain tax-deductible donations.
Notable campaigns Zero Waste SG has run over time embrace Convey Your Personal (BYO) container, which inspires residents to convey their very own containers to meals and beverage shops. The 2017 marketing campaign was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which noticed BYO schemes suspended over contamination fears.
Zero Waste SG’s most up-to-date marketing campaign, Type It Out, goals to encourage residents to type their trash and scale back waste despatched to the city-state’s solely landfill on purpose-built trash island Pulau Semakau. Singapore has notoriously low home recycling charges, partly as a result of the city-states “blue bin” system permits residents to deposit their recyclables into blue bins unsegregated, which heightens the dangers of waste contamination.
Dorai had beforehand additionally held management roles in different organisations. He was previously chief govt of youth growth organisation Futureready Asia and, earlier than that, led communications and fundraising for wildlife safety charity Animal Considerations Analysis & Educations Society (ACRES). He has additionally labored for psychological well being and aged help organisations.
He takes on the function six months after Singapore introduced that the recycling charge for its greatest waste stream – plastic – dropped to only 5 per cent – properly under the worldwide common of 9 per cent – in 2023. Singapore’s home recycling charge remained flat year-on-year – at 12 per cent, its lowest level in over a decade.
“We’re within the enterprise to make sure we ultimately run out of enterprise – if everybody practices conscious habits that promote circularity, then the environment could be the most important beneficiary and there is not going to be a necessity for a Zero Waste SG,” mentioned Dorai.
Tan, who strikes on after greater than three years with the organisation NGO, mentioned in a LinkedIn publish that she plans to proceed working within the sustainability and local weather house after a profession break.
In 2021, she had succeeded earlier govt director Pek Hai Lin, becoming a member of Zero Waste SG from the general public sector. Tan was previously senior assistant director on the Ministry of Training, and likewise labored on the Ministry of Social and Household Growth and Ministry of Nationwide Growth.
