Name of the School: Raffles Institution

Address: 1 Raffles Institution Lane, Singapore 575954

Group Leader: Lim Haw Jia

Story Title: Kill off killer litter

Tel.: 65670906 Email: hawjia@gmail.com

Mentor Teacher : Ms Stephanie Lee

STUDENT INFORMATION

1) Name: Lim Haw Jia

Age: 14 Grade: 8 (Secondary 2)

2) Name: Lee Yu Howe

Age: 14 Grade: 8 (Secondary 2)

3) Name: Teo Xue Heng

Age: 14 Grade: 8 (Secondary 2)

4) Name:

Age: Grade:

5) Name:

Age: Grade:

For many years, killer litter has been the cause of

deaths for many innocent Singaporeans. Reports of

people throwing flower pots, fans, glass bottles and

whatnot have been all over the news, resulting in

unwanted injuries, ranging from cuts and bruises to

concussion and severe bleeding. Toddlers, teenagers,

working adults, grandparents, nobody in Singapore are

safe from killer litter. Also, plants and trees will be

damaged; pathways will be stained, public areas such

as playgrounds will be damaged and dirtied. Thus, we

hope to eradicate this problem from our society and

improve the Singaporean community

The number of warnings served on

residents by HDB and Town Councils for placing objects

in a dangerous manner are 4,650 per month in 2008. In

the first eight months of 2009, there was a slight

increase to 4,900 warnings per month. This is an

increase of five percent over eight months.

Refer to next few pages for details of our action week.

Kill Off Killer Litter

Under the education segment of our action week,

we plan to put up posters and set up exhibitions to

remind Singaporeans of the dire consequences of

killer litter and methods that they can use to

prevent cases of killer litter from happening in the

future. This would deter them from killer litter and

equip them with preventive knowledge to combat

killer litter. Under the physical aspect, we propose

to create a ledge on HDB flats to cash and collect

any killer litter that is thrown from the apartments.

Under the deterrence section, we plan to petition

for a higher penalty for killer litter or conduct more

frequent spot-checks. This would make

Singaporeans think twice before committing such a

dangerous act as killer litter.

Details of action week:

1. Mass exhibition to raise awareness for Design for Change As part of the 7-day action week program that we have to complete throughout the course of

our “Design for Change” journey, our overall teacher-in-charge had kindly booked our school’s main

atrium to hold a mass exhibition for all the “Design for Change” project groups. This mass exhibition was

conducted to increase awareness about “Design for Change” among the staff and students of Raffles

Institution. Hopefully with the buzz and excitement created from this exhibition, we sincerely hope that

there would be more participants in the “Design for Change” project competition next year. This mass

exhibition took up 3 whole days of our action week and took a huge burden off of our shoulders.

For this mass exhibition, we were required to create a poster1 to introduce our topic and our

research to the rest of the school. We had put in a lot of effort into creating the poster and were very

proud of the end-product. Not only was it informative, it was also aesthetically appealing and the

information was systematically organized. As our base, we used a rectangular Styrofoam board with

dimensions of approximately 45cm by 30cm. We then covered half of it with black colored paper and

the other half with red colored paper. Also, we bordered the edges with a silver duct tape for a polished

and trimmed effect. On the side with black colored paper, we included a brief introduction to “Design

for Change” and killer litter. We also included the dire consequences of killer litter, possible solutions

and relevant statistics on the black side. On the red side, we included research of our own, ranging from

our survey results to our survey analysis. This method of organization is not only systematic, but is also

pleasing to read for the audience. For aesthetic effect, we included many pictures and even had an

interesting cartoon advertisement about killer litter.

1 Refer to Figure 10

Figure 10: Our poster on display during the mass exhibition

List of information included in our poster:

Brief introduction to killer litter

Statistics about the rising trend of killer litter and its previous cases – By showing the audience this piece of information, we hope to enlighten them to the increasing trend of killer litter and illustrate how real this issue is. Hopefully, when they are able to relate to the severity of the issue, they would make a conscious effort to adopt a zero-tolerance attitude towards killer litter.

Consequences of killer litter – By educating the audience about the consequences of killer litter, we hope that they are able to empathize and relate to the victims of killer litter. This would then cause them to think twice before throwing killer litter, knowing very well that they may cause harm and even death to others.

Survey analysis and results – We hope that by showing our survey results, we can share our research with other students in our school. We also hope that the results would be a wake-up call to many in the audience. Certain results reflected very badly of Singaporeans and clearly showed our ignorance, ill manners and social irresponsibility. E.g. many Singaporeans have “a false perception” of killer litter.

Conclusion – We had concluded by reiterating the main points in the poster and by emphasizing the importance of curbing killer litter.

As for work distribution, each one of us had to be present for at least one day of the exhibition.

Thus, we split the three days among ourselves, each one of us being in charge of a particular day. We

had to report to the main atrium after school for about an hour to tend to our “booths” and explain our

projects to any interested passers-by. There were also short quizzes given out to the audience in order

to test their knowledge after exploring the exhibits. The results from the quizzes were great and has

shown that many passers-by did learn a lot about “Design for Change” and community service from our

posters. However, there were also many uninterested passers-by who simply ignored our exhibition at

the main atrium. Thus, we had to persuade and entice people to explore our exhibits.

2. Putting up posters to raise awareness about killer litter

In order to raise awareness about killer litter in Singapore, our group has designed an awareness

poster to put in various HDB estates in Singapore and around our school. This poster serves to

remind Singaporeans about the dangers of killer litter. As such, we added in a picture of a falling axe

to illustrate how dangerous killer litter can be. At the high altitude that killer litter is thrown from,

even a small pencil can gain enough momentum and force to physically injure someone.

STOP KILLER LITTER,

SAVE LIVES…

Figure 11: Our awareness poster design

As you can see, our poster was designed using Adobe Photoshop. The green glass bottles represent

very common killer litters that are thrown down from high rise HDB apartments. These objects

unknowing turn into dangerous weapons, such as the axe, as it gains momentum from falling off a high

altitude. After seeing this representation of killer litter, we hope that the general public would be

reminded of its severe consequences and deter from committing this heinous act.

In order to put these posters up, we had to get permission from both the school and various town

councils around Singapore. After getting the school’s approval, we put the posters up in “hotspots”

where a lot of students and staff pass by. We put them up on the 26th of July and left them for about a

day for people to read and interpret our posters. As for the posters around the different HDB estates,

we put them up on the 27th of July and left them for one day so that people could read and interpret. It

was something that we had never done before and thus, we were unsure of how to stick the posters on

pillars and walls. Eventually, we decided that double-sided tape was the best option to use as it was

durable, strong and convenient to use (as compared to glue).

The poster was generally well-received and many of our classmates who saw it described as “a

creative way to represent killer litter” and it “reminded” them of its “severe consequences”. Thus, we

feel that the poster was generally a success and that it was effective in achieving its intended purpose,

to remind Singaporeans to deter from committing killer litter.

3. Conducting exhibitions to create awareness about killer litter in Singapore.

Although we could not get approval to conduct an exhibition in a community center, our teacher-

mentor has managed to book the junior block atrium in our school for us to create a small booth to

educate our fellow schoolmates about killer litter. It was held on 5th August from 2.30pm – 5.00pm.

However, the timing of our exhibition happened to clash with an Australian Math Competition that was

held in school and made compulsory to all students,

which was held from 2.30pm – 4.00pm and 5.00pm

to 6.00pm.

Therefore, we had to take turns in tending the

stalls. Haw Jia was in charge of the first shift (2.30pm

– 4.00pm) and was also tasked with setting up the

booth. Yu Howe and Xue Heng was in charge of the

second shift (4.00pm – 5.00pm) and had to

dismantle the booth afterwards. It was truly a

challenge for Haw Jia to set the booth up himself but

we were all quite pleased with the end result.

Our exhibition consisted of two large poster

boards that were designed to educate our fellow schoolmates about killer litter. For the base of these

posters2, we used big plastic boards of about 100cm by 74cm. On these plastic boards, we included a

2 Refer to figure 12

Figure 12: PP Hollow Plastic boards

variety of information, ranging from the consequences of killer litter to our survey results and analysis.

We also bordered the edges with colored duct tape for a more polished and trimmed effect. It was more

or less a more detailed and informative version of the poster that we did during the mass exhibition.

The content of the poster3 included:

Introduction - to give the audience a brief outline of our project

Examples of killer litter – to educate the audience about what killer litter is and clear the “false perception” of killer litter that we have discovered during our research. By doing so, we hope that the audience would learn to deter from committing killer litter

Statistics and cases about killer litter – by showing the audience this piece of information, we hope to enlighten them to the increasing trend of killer litter and illustrate how real this issue is. Hopefully, when they are able to relate to the severity of the issue, they would make a conscious effort to adopt a zero-tolerance attitude towards killer litter.

Consequences of killer litter – by educating the audience about the consequences of killer litter, we hope that they are able to empathize and relate to the victims of killer litter. This would then cause them to think twice before throwing killer litter, knowing very well that they may cause harm and even death to others.

Solutions/proposed action plan – by showing them our solutions and proposed plan to stop killer litter, we hope to garner the support of the audience and convince them of our cause. When they are convinced, not only is it easier to influence them to adopt a zero-tolerance attitude towards killer litter, it would also be easier for us to obtain signatures for our petition.

Survey analysis and results – by showing our survey results, we can share our research with our audience. We also hope that the results would be a wake-up call to many in the audience. Certain results reflected very badly of Singaporeans and clearly showed our ignorance, ill manners and social irresponsibility. E.g. many Singaporeans have “a false perception” of killer litter.

Conclusion – to highlight and reiterate the focus of our project. It is also a final appeal to our audience to avoid throwing killer litter.

Other than the two poster boards, we also brought a laptop to screen a timed PowerPoint

presentation on killer litter. This is a more interactive alternative to the poster boards and may appeal

especially to the younger generation who are more IT-savvy. These youngsters may find our poster

boards a bore and the PowerPoint slides would definitely be better in educating them about killer litter.

The information on our slides is pretty similar to that on the poster boards. However, it is definitely

more concise, vivid and contains more pictures, drawings and such.

3 Refer to Annex 1 for exact details

The content of our PowerPoint presentation include:

Overall, the exhibition was very successful. Although the crowd on that day was small, our exhibition

still attracted many passers-by to take a look. Furthermore, majority of them were impressed by the

quality of our work, taking into consideration the fact that we were “still juniors in the school”. One

teacher even said that our exhibition has “given him a new insight into killer litter” and has

“encouraged” him to “deter from committing killer litter”.

However, we are still disappointed by the fact that we could not hold a bigger-scale exhibition in a

Community Centre. Upon seeing how smoothly this exhibition went, we could have made an even larger

positive impact on our Singaporean community if we had been given the chance to utilize the premises

of a Community Centre and be able to reach out to a larger spread of Singaporeans.

4. Petitioning for HDB to step up its efforts to curb killer litter

The last component of our 7-day action plan is to petition4 for the government to be more proactive

in its campaign to stop killer litter. As we can see from our survey results, the government’s efforts to

curb killer litter have mostly gone unnoticed among the general public. This could be a reason why the

number of killer litter cases has been increasing steadily over the years. Thus, we have come up with a

proposal for HDB (Housing Development Board) to implement 3 effective solutions that will help to

drastically reduce the trend of killer litter in Singapore. After all, with so many Singaporeans living in

4 Refer to Annex 2 for full proposal

Figure 13: Our small exhibition on killer litter in the junior block of our school

high-rise HDB flats, this issue could pose serious problem to the safety and health of many citizens. The

least that the government could do is to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens.

The three main solutions that we plan to propose are increasing the penalty for killer liter, conduct

frequent spot checks around HDB estates and to install a protective ledge underneath windows to catch

and collect any litter thrown from high-rise HDB apartments.

Increase penalty for killer litter:

The first solution that we propose is to increase the penalty for cases of killer litter. Currently,

warning letters are first sent to offenders before any fine or punishment is imposed on them.

However, damage could have already been done and thus, we feel that no warnings should be given

and the offender should be fined immediately. Such stringent and unforgiving punishment would

definitely deter people from throwing killer litter. Also, the current system of punishment for repeat

offenders is a $1000 fine. We feel that this is insufficient and that the penalty for killer litter should

also include doing time in prison. Considering the fact that killer litter endangers the lives and safety

of others, it is as bad as drink-driving and thus, it is justifiable for the offenders to do time in prison.

Perhaps it would not be for a long time, but the thought of spending time in prison would be a very

strong deterrence and make people think twice before throwing killer litter.

Conduct more frequent spot-checks in HDB estates:

The second solution that we are proposing is to conduct frequent spot-checks around HDB

estates to catch any potential killer litter. There are a few town councils who organize such spot-

checks but, we feel that the frequency of these checks are not sufficient enough to deter people

from committing this heinous act. Perhaps town councils could assign volunteers from HDB estates

to perform weekly patrol duties around the HDB estates to spot for killer litter. The town council

could also consider allowing the elderly to perform these duties. There are many active aging

citizens in HDB estates and this could be a way to get them involved in their community. Through

this, not only can they maintain an active lifestyle, they can also make new friends along the way,

allowing them to spend their free time in a very positive way. Town councils could appoint a socially

responsible resident as “litter guard”, who constantly looks out for potential killer litter. Knowing

that someone is keeping an eye on them would deter those tempted to throw killer litter.

Install protective ledge on HDB flats

The final solution that we are proposing is to install an over-hanging ledge on all HDB flats under

the windows of the apartments. Although this plan is hard to implement, we feel that it is the most

effective and direct solution to killer litter. With this ledge to trap and collect any falling objects, we

can effectively protect residents from killer litter and drastically reduce the number of casualties

from it. If it is feasible, we hope that the government would not hesitate to implement this as it is a

sure way to stop more innocent lives from being taken by socially irresponsible Singaporeans.

As you can see from the diagram above, the ledge is effective in trapping and collecting any rubbish

disposed by residents living in high-rise HDB flats. It can also serve another purpose by providing shelter

for the void deck and blocking out any direct sunlight. This would help to keep the void decks cool too.

Figure 14: Illustration of “protective ledge”

We feel that for our proposal to go through smoothly, a petition is needed as we have to garner the

support of the general public. As this project directly concerns the general public, letting them know

about our project will remind them about killer litter and its effects, as well as joining the cause to stop

killer litter. Earlier in our project, we have identified Jurong and Sengkang as killer litter hotspots and

went to shopping centers and Community Centres around that district to get signatures for our petition.

Our proposal was very well received and we successfully obtained the 100 signatures that we

targeted. After reading through our proposal, many Singaporeans described our solutions as “practical

and feasible”. Others also said that it would be great if the government was able to implement the

solutions. We are very pleased with this feedback and sincerely hope that the government would take

our solutions into consideration and implement them. This would be a huge step towards eradicating

killer litter from our Singaporean community.

In conclusion, we felt that our “Design for Change” journey has been a truly unique and

meaningful experience. It has combines community service and research education, allowing you to

serve the community while learning new research and project-related skills. It also allows you to develop

your creativity and think out of the box while planning and designing our 7-day action week. Although

we met a few setbacks and obstacles, we feel that our project was still generally a success.