Community engagement is also an important component in community stewardship – to encourage the public to make a difference through their daily living.
Image Credit: BYO Singapore
A community engagement programme named “Bring Your Own” (BYO) was initiated by Zero Waste Singapore. Its goal was to reduce the use of plastic disposables by campaigning for retailers to offer incentives for customers who bring their own reusable containers, bags or bottles.
Image Credit: BYO Singapore
Retailers who have signed up for the BYO Singapore Campaign have the responsibility of creating awareness to the public about the available incentives. This could be done through posters, stickers and wobblers about the ongoing campaign. Additionally, retailers have to educate their staff and personnels about BYO, and to track and report the amount of disposables reduced over a period of time.
Some of these retailers include:
Image Credit: Google Images
- Cold Storage
- Joe & Dough
- NTUC FairPrice
- PAUL Boulangerie Patisserie
In my opinion, I feel that the “Bring Your Own” (BYO) programme is a great way to empower individuals and communities to make a difference in their own ways. It is a stepping stone at inculcating the habit of reducing consumption of resources. Which would ultimately lead to less waste generated through one’s individual efforts. I feel that BYO will only be successful if the individuals in the community responds positively to the initiative, and be responsible for their behaviours and actions.
As mentioned in the Reinforcement Contingencies segment in this blog – the value of incentives have to be properly managed so that it does not devalue the purpose of the pro-environmental behavior.
Hence, BYO allows consumers to enjoy incentives, while they realize that the slight inconvenience is a small price to pay for the sake of the environment.