Learning 30 Oct 2017

Green Machine's E-Waste project: CIS Students Take Action to Tackle Electronic Waste Problem

By Leonor Mengoli Lopes, Green Machine student member
Photograph by CIS Communications

Did you know that Singapore throws away 6 million kg of electronic waste every year and only a  fraction of it is recycled properly?

Last year during Earth Week, CIS students watched a video on electronic waste (e-waste) which had a great impact. Meenakshi Sundaram Sakthikumar got interested in the topic and decided to do something about it so he asked secondary Language and Literature teacher Ms Hallam if they could help with this cause and then came up with the idea to collect e-waste at school.

Through a student led project, our school has teamed up with Starhub, DHL and TES-AMM (a global expert in IT lifecycle services) to put a RENEW bin (RENEW stands for REcycling Nation’s Electronic Waste) in the Lakeside atrium near the cafe. What happens with the collected electronics? Secondary Science teacher Mr Broadhead explains, “they are disassembled and the different parts are then sold so they can be recycled for use in new products”. The reason why we don't want to throw away electronics is because the materials used to make the electronics can be poisonous. The electronics might leak or emit into the environment, damaging plant and animal life and generally contributing to pollution in Singapore.

If you would like to help our planet, instead of throwing your electronics away, put them in the RENEW Bin on the first floor. The renew bin will recycle the electronics such as computers, CDs, phones, wires, and chargers. Please only put electronics inside the bins and nothing else. You can also help outside of school. You can start by raising awareness about throwing your electronics in the renew bins on your social media pages.


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