Date: 10th – 11th February 2015
Time: 10:00am to 4:00pm
Venue: Pavilion @ TCT
Earthlink NTU held Keep Them E-Live on 10th and 11th of February 2015.
Keep Them E-Live was an event organized by Earthlink s Recycling Division, with the theme being the recycling of e-waste. The overall objective was to raise awareness regarding the recycling of e-waste and its various benefits. Also, the event was held to encourage the NTU community to become supporters of the recycling of e-waste and to practice it in their daily lives.
For Keep Them E-Live, Earthlink set up a few booths at the Pavilion, near TCT Lecture Theatre, in NTU. To attract people passing by to participate, Earthlink held a lucky draw. To take part, participants were required to visit the booths and meet specific targets to get at least 5 stamps on their stamp cards (obtained on registration at registration counter), which they could then redeem for a place in the draw. Participants of the lucky draw stood to win many attractive prizes, including Starbucks cards and tumblers as well as CapitaVouchers worth $50, $100 and $200 in total.
The E-Zoom booth featured informative posters about the benefits of recycling e-waste and other relevant facts, as well as an exhibit showing the process of how components of some electronic devices are recycled. The exhibit featured materials provided by Tes-AMM, a company which provides e-waste management solutions. After the posters and exhibit had been shown to participants and explained to them, the participants were quizzed to test their learning.
At the E-Print booth, participants were shown how much resources could be saved by recycling different types of e-waste, and had the concept of their carbon footprint explained to them. They were given suggestions regarding habit changes they could make in their daily lives to reduce their carbon footprints, and asked if they wished to fill up a pledge card with one habit they intended to change.
There were two game booths, E-Tour and E-Toss. At E-Toss, participants were made aware of the 4 RENEW e-waste bins located on the NTU campus, with one on-site for display purposes. They were also asked to separate items into two different bins , one for e-waste and the other not. Some info on what e-waste was recyclable was given. E-Tour involved matching countries with statistics and policies fitting the event theme.
E-Live showcased the lifecycle of e-waste, with the booth helpers also sharing how recycling e-waste can close the loop and reduce net e-waste. Models made using various recycled materials were used, including high-rise building models made with used milk cartons.
At the E-Snap booth, participants were encouraged to take a photo with their pledge cards from E-Print and share it on Facebook and Instagram with the public appending the hashtag #keepthemElive, in order to promote e-waste recycling.
One booth was dedicated to Powerz, a mobile application supported by collaboration between Earthlink, NTU and French utility company GDF SUEZ, which undertook app development. The app aims to utilize the power of gamification and a significant community of users to promote energy efficiency in NTU. It is scheduled for release on the App Store and Google Play Store between late February and early March.
Considering the relative obscurity of e-waste recycling, Keep Them E-Live would definitely have proven to be an eye-opener for all participants. Hopefully, those who have participated in the event will remember and keep in mind what they have learnt and become, if not ardent, then steady supporters and advocates of the recycling of e-waste. Then, the efforts of the Recycling division in organizing this event will have proven fruitful and Mother Earth will likely benefit as well.
