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SINGAPORE: Valen Ng is having the time of his life in his own backyard.
It’s more of a 2m by 1m balcony, but it’s where the 12-year-old can spend hours every day, chopping up dry leaves and leftover broccoli, carefully placing seeds in dimpled layers of soil, pruning his chili, bitter gourd , kangkong and tomato. plants.
“I try to grow plants that I can eat because I don’t need to go shopping,” said the shy but excited boy. It’s one of the ways you try to help your family save money and reduce packaging waste.
He’s also the first to grab the toilet paper roll and put it in the recycling bag. He reminds his parents to bring their own containers when they go grocery shopping, and he even keeps his parents’ receipts in a box so he can use them as bookmarks.
“He’s like a karang guni man,” joked Valen’s mother, Madame Kuan Suan Shi.
Rather than letting his parents throw away the receipts, Valen keeps these small pieces of paper so he can use them as markers. (Photo: Rachel Phua)
Valen’s interest in nature began five years ago when Mdm Kuan, a teacher, transferred to Lianhua Elementary School. The school’s citizenship and character education department often hosted environmentally focused activities such as food compost, gardening, and marine conservation workshops. He carried Valen, dirtying his hands by dipping them in the dirt or picking up trash on the beach.
They would take home the ideas they learned from these sessions. Valen started a recycling corner in the kitchen and turned used Yakult bottles and cardboard boxes into race tracks for his marbles.
When he was 4th grade, a teacher gave him and his classmates a green bean plant to grow, as a science experiment. Valen took good care of him and his family had a mini crop. I was hooked.
“I want to be a gardener,” he cheerfully declared when asked what he wants to be when he grows up. Her mother is encouraged, even if the frequent appearances of lizards and cockroaches sometimes get under her skin. He knows that urban agriculture is a promising field. Gardening has also helped the boy, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, to calm down.
“(With) more uncertainties and changes in our environment … they are our future and they hope to create a clean and green environment,” said Mdm Kuan, explaining why he fosters his son’s new passion.
The corn and Valen chili peppers grew, which Mdm Kuan happily said are “in our stomach (s).” (Photos: Kuan Suan Shi)
Although young people are believed to be more concerned with environmental issues, it appears that adults are leading the push towards adopting a greener lifestyle, at least at home.
A YouGov Omnibus poll found that 56 percent of respondents said they were the main person promoting a green lifestyle at home. Another 22 percent said it was their partner.
Only 8 percent said it was their son who took care of things, according to the results, which were based on 254 Singaporeans in a household with children between the ages of five and 17.
But the numbers don’t diminish the influence children have over adults, said environmentalist Dr. Shawn Lum.
“Children can be very direct (and) don’t cover things up,” said the senior professor at the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University.
“It’s not just in terms of numbers. But it only takes one or two for your kids to convert.”
As president of the Nature Society Singapore, Dr. Lum has seen members who took up birding and hiking because their children needed someone to join them in their new hobby.
“And some of them have eventually become leaders, experts within our nature or birding community,” he said.
The YouGov results also showed that most young people care about the environment. When asked to think about the oldest child in the household who is under 18 years old and how important a green lifestyle was to him, 89% said it was extremely or somewhat important.
Valen’s schoolmate Thae Su Shyonlei Nway, or Eda as her family and friends know her, said she grew up in an environmentally conscious family. They plant fruits and vegetables, make rags out of old clothes, and have saved animals caught in traps and garbage during the holidays.
But these days, the 12-year-old is the one who reminds her parents to turn off the lights, turn up the air conditioner, recycle their magazines and plastic bottles, as well as take a reusable bag before leaving. go out. .
“If we don’t do our part to save the earth, we will die. And also due to climate change, many animals will not be able to survive. I love animals. I don’t want that to happen, ”he said.
Not that they mind a little nagging.
“In fact, we also encouraged Eda to understand in this area (of sustainability) as well,” said her father, Mr. Aung Myo Htun. He’s glad the school has incorporated sustainability lessons into their curriculum and taught them habits like composting. The family has started using vegetable peels and using tea leaves as fertilizer.
Another parent, Dr. Mythili Pandi, said that she had always been aware of recycling or using sustainable products, but it was her children who pushed her to improve.
“Every time we go out, it’s like, ‘Do you have a recycling bag?’, ‘Did you bring the Tupperware?’” Said the mother of three. “And then it’s the bubble tea cups and the straws. They refuse to buy bubble tea unless you bring the bag. ”
When his youngest son, Shyam, 5, came home from school one day saying he wanted to bury the scraps of food in his garden, as he had just attended a class in kindergarten that taught him about waste. of food, Dr. Mythili decided to buy two compost bins to support his idea. Their juices produced “very, very sweet” bananas and papayas a few months ago.
Two of Mythili Pandi’s children, Shyam, 5 (left) and Nikhita, 8 (right), showing the reusable bags and straws they use to buy bubble tea. (Photo: Rachel Phua)
Your children also like to go to nurseries, so they can choose seeds to plant.
“I would have just bought my vegetables, but now they decided they want to grow their own,” said GP Dr Mythili.
Tatiana Siufi and her family collect garbage in their neighborhood in their spare time. Once his youngest daughter, Natalie, age four, walked up to a man who had thrown his cigarette on the ground.
“Could you stop throwing cigarette butts on the ground and start throwing them away?” Ms. Siufi recalls her daughter saying. “He was very brave.”
Tatiana Siufi’s family collects garbage in their neighborhood during their free time. His son, Raphael, says he has fun using his plastic claw tool. (Photo: Tatiana Siufi)
It was a proud moment for Ms. Siufi, Events Executive at City Sprouts. She is still the eco-czar at home, but it was the fact of having children that led her to review her routines.
Her seven-year-old son, Raphael, went to a preschool that emphasized love of nature and saving the planet. The school had them garden, compost and understand the concept of the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle, and Ms. Siufi felt she had to do the same.
“I would be contradicting what the school taught if I didn’t change,” he said, adding that examples of how his family has gone green include shopping at zero waste stores, holding birthday parties and playing games using only reusable items and batteries. rechargeable.
Mdm Kuan agreed. “As adults, we are easily drawn to comfort,” he said.
“When we teach children one way, but as adults we act in another way, without putting our knowledge into practice, that is not correct,” he added. “I don’t want to kill your enthusiasm for the environment. We have to lead by example. ”
