Do you know about the "3R" for waste?
"3R" means "Reduce", "Reuse", and "Recycle" any waste.
Massive amounts of waste have been generated as the by-product of Japan's mass production and mass consumption, and all kinds of different waste, such as combustible, incombustible (i.e. plastic and glass), reusable and recyclable items, used to be disposed of in the same garbage bag.
In the past, most of this waste was incinerated or used as landfill, both of which have led to serious problems as follows:
1) Vast carbon dioxide emissions (one of the causes of global warning);
2) Creation of toxins, such as dioxin;
3) Serious soil contamination from the landfill.

In order to resolve such waste-related problems, we must review the entire production cycle that generates such waste and our own lifestyles. We will trim our use of natural resources to the minimum while ensuring all such use is as effective as possible, and minimize any waste thereof. The establishment of such a "recyclable society" is our imperative.
Accordingly, the above "3R" concept is strongly advocated.
Under this concept, Polyplastics office, Research & Development facilities and manufacturing plants are to implement the separation and sorting of waste measures as follows.

In particular, the Fuji Plant and Research & Development Division undertake rigorous separation and sorting of waste, and their active involvement in environmental issues and fastidious recycling is evident.
These examples are of the Tokyo office.

Unfortunately, tin cans are still sometimes being disposed of in the trash cans of the office.
We must strictly follow the regulations as the separation and sorting of waste are the fundamental good manners and responsibility of us all if we wish to continue to enjoy the benefits of mass production and mass consumption.

Concluded.

In PAP, recycling is taken seriously. Garbage is segregated according to the classifications which is glass, paper, plastic and aluminium. The bins are identified by the color of brown, blue and orange respectively. Recycle bins are placed at strategic locations that is easily accessible by PAP staff. At the end on the month, a contractor shall empty out the bins and its content are send to their recycling facility. In the office, staff are encouraged to fully utilize both side of papers. Papers that have been used one side are placed in a box to be reused for printing for non-official documents and other purposes. As for confidential documents, there are shredded before sending to recycler. To reduce paper consumption, some staff even include reminder in their e-mail's footer not to print the email if it's not necessary. Apart from paper and plastic wastes, printer's cartridges are also recycled to the vendor.

Even for annual event such as PAP Run, we make it a point for the participants to bring back the water bottles (given during the race) at the end of the race so that it can be recycled instead of being littered by the road side. We take proactive measure to educate our family members in the importance of recycling by giving speech and posters during the Family Day event.

By having various recycling program in the company, we hope that the staff will bring the recycle habits at home. It is important for the staff to make recycling as a habit in order to help reducing the impact of global warming and to save the landfill space for other economic activities beneficial to mankind.

With the progress of society and the increase in awareness among people of environmental issues, being environmental friendly has become a part of people's lives. With that said, environmental friendly conduct like recycling, using recyclable bag rather than plastic bags and using environmental friendly products, are not as integral in Singapore compared to countries such as Japan and Korea.

Currently, garbage in Singapore is collected from a central garbage bin of a few blocks in an estate. Residents would just dump their garbage in the rubbish chute located in their homes or at the void deck. These garbage are not separated in terms of their material but are collectively dumped in the bins. After the garbage is collected from the central bin, they are then sent to certain places to be buried or burnt in incinerator. However, due to the constraint of space in Singapore, only garbage which would release poisonous gases would be burnt. Recycling products in Singapore is relatively unheard of and not widely promoted in Singapore. Despite of these, there were efforts in the past to encourage people to separate their garbage into plastic, paper, glass and non-recyclables. Four types of dustbins were placed around strategic parts of Singapore like the Orchard Road etc. However, such efforts were not that effective with Singaporeans as it was difficult to incorporate such actions into the lifestyle of Singaporeans. This was so as it was not part of the social life of Singaporeans since early times.

Although there were failures to encourage recycling in the lifestyle of Singaporeans, there are renewed efforts for the past two years to encourage people to use their own bags to carry their groceries in order to reduce the use of plastic bags, which is difficult to be disposed of. This is done to the extent that supermarkets would charge 10 cents for each plastic bag on "Bring your own bag" day. Though such efforts may not be popular with some Singaporeans, it is a good effort to incorporate environmentalism in the lives of Singaporeans.

Hong Kong, like many developed places, has seen its waste loads grow as one of the consequence of its economy growth. Meanwhile, with immigrants from China flowing in Hong Kong, we have a large number of populations increased these days, so garbage problems follow.

Environmental friendly concepts and related activities are hot topics everywhere. Hong Kong people are trying to be part of the force to save the world.

Waste disposal at the landfills used to be the most effective way of handling daily wastes here. However, the continuous growth in waste loads causes the running out of landfill space far earlier than expected.

So what should we do in helping waste reduction? Starting from our daily living habits ~ Individuals can reduce their waste by buying items with less packaging, carry our own reusable bags for shopping, and separating waste paper, metals and plastics from our daily waste for recycling.

In our living communities, government has set up "garbage separation facilities" (Yellow, Blue & Brown recycle bin for different garbage category) which helps recycle process that follows.

At the same time, instead of throwing away the bigger disposable items, (e.g.: computer, household appliances or clothing), we donate them to charities. They would see if those could be repaired, and then giving them to the elderly or poor people in need at a lower cost or for free.

In PCL, we receive a lot of spam fax and we dump many photocopied waste paper everyday. We have a tray for collecting those waste papers for recycle. We also encourage reuse the bigger envelopes that we received. Besides, toner recycling is also one of our actions in supporting recycle activities. From time to time, we will ask some companies who handle toner recycling to come and collect the used toner. It does not seem much that we have been doing but we would love to help as much as we could.

For environment protection, what we can do is to reduce WASTE.

From June 1, we will witness a major change in the shopping experience across China.
The production, sale and use of plastic shopping bags 0.025 millimeters thick or thinner will be banned, and retailers will be prohibited from providing customers with free plastic bags, under a State Council decree released in January.
Many are doubtful about the fate of such a ban - because people are so accustomed to receiving free plastic bags to pack their purchases at check-out counters. Complaints about inconvenience and additional cost have caused some to presume the ban will be aborted or at least not enforced.
But there is no excuse for not enforcing it.

The convenience of free plastic shopping bags was at the expense of the environment.
Nobody can tell precisely how many disposable plastic bags are given, used, and discarded every day.
We all know, from personal experience that we are guaranteed free supply of such bags to meet packing needs. And we seldom reuse the bags. That is not just waste. It's also environmental pollution. We are constantly annoyed by the various sizes and colors of abandoned plastic bags flying in our face, a common eyesore in both cities and the countryside. The rest usually end up in landfills. They do not begin to rot until 100 or more years later, and their complete decomposition takes 200 years.

The idea to impose compulsory charges on the too-long free plastic bags is not a one-stroke cure. Reports of people swarming to buy disposable plastic bags for use after June 1 show it will not be easy to wean consumers off what they long took for granted. But we believe additional costs and strict enforcement will finally help them adapt. The process will be easier if more affordable and practical alternatives are offered to replace the previous convenience.
We believe that, as long as there is an unyielding political will on the executors' part, the ban will succeed. The gradual disappearance of the once ubiquitous disposable plastic meal boxes along the country's main railways gives us confidence that the same can apply for shopping bags.
Compulsory stainless or decomposable meal boxes on passenger trains, along with redoubled recycling efforts in past years, have produced substantial change.

Owing to the continual implementation of ISO14001 and 5S activities, we perform good separation of garbage inside PTW Ta Fa Plant. As for office garbage, there are different garbage bins in each office according to its function, including burnable (non-recyclable), plastics, metal, and unburnable. Besides, GA Section builds a shack for recycling corrugated casing, other large-sized paper made goods and magazines etc. While piling up for a certain amount of waste papers and other recyclable cans or plastic, GA section will send them to recycling manufacturer.

Regarding the environmental activity in our office, we have several popular ways to achieve the goal of saving paper. For example:
1) Print draft or nonofficial document with the reverse side of used paper.
2) E-mail instead of printing document.
3) If you must print the document, choose double-side printing.
Those ways have greatly reduced the amount of paper used in offices and relived the burden on garbage treatment fee.

In short, I would like to suggest following "5R" methods for minimizing garbage. I think all of you have more ideas than me. Let's do it!
1) Reduce: glass or ceramics cups instead of paper cups. More e-mail, less document. Double-side printing. Raise the temperature setting of air conditioner etc..
2) Reuse: Reverse-side printing. Save used boxes for post package. Reuse the envelopes etc.
3) Recycle: Recycle glass, cardboard, magazines, cans, batteries etc..
4) Repair: Repair office furniture, OA facilities. Periodical maintenance etc..
5) Refuse: No more plastics dinner set and multi-casing.

By: Jimmy Tsai of QC Section

Recently, garbage problem is increasing. Therefore, everyone recognize to conserve environmental. There are three bins to separate garbage for keeping recyclable products and reused as long as its lifetime. There are:

Yellow bin (Wet bin), for leftovers food such as vegetables, fruits and leafs.
Green bin (Recycle bin), means reused garbage such as glass bottles, metals, plastic bottles, boxes, paper and can.
Red bin (Toxic or Harmful bin), for garbage that dangerous and must be careful. There are dry cell, spray can, battery for watch or mobile and container of chemical.

For PMT, we also separate garbage bin into Wet bin for food and Recycle bin, which separate reused paper and plastic bottles. In part of non-recyclable are taken by our maid such as magazines and shredding paper to the external garbage destroying company.

Besides, some kinds of garbage such as newspaper, magazine or metal can make new product. For example of hair ornament, it made from newspaper and magazine, which have colorful page. It is chosen to design style and color as attached picture.

In Thailand, the government or some big companies were established for project as competition to support the youth to create new things. The product should be used for daily life.

The government will impose limit the use of plastic bags starting on June 1, 2008, as part of its dual campaign to protect the environment and save energy.

The General Office of the State Council ordered a ban on the production, sale and use of ultra-thin bags(defined as less than 0.025 mm thick) as of June 1. Further, supermarkets and shops will be banned from giving free plastic bags to customers as of that date.
China thus joins many governments that have moved to limit the manufacture, sale and use of plastic bags, according to the circular.

"Our country consumes a large amount of plastic bags. While convenient for consumers, the bags also lead to a severe waste of resources and environmental pollution because of their excessive use and low rate of recycling," said the circular. "The ultra-thin bags are the main source of "white" pollution as they can easily get broken and end up as litter."

The campaign will encourage citizens to use fewer plastic bags. Supermarkets and shops have been instructed to charge separately for bags, which must be clearly priced. The circular said that the Ministry of Commerce and the country's top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, are discussing detailed regulations on the paid use of plastic bags.

Ultra-thin plastic bags are also being banned on public transport and tourist spots, and managers at such workplaces have been directed to make sure that staffs don't offer the bags.

Consumers, meanwhile, must adjust. Since stores began to offer free plastic bags more than a decade ago, shoppers have grown accustomed to using the bags. People shall become habitual gradually to using a fabric bag rather than buying a plastic one from the shop.

At the mention of PTM, two dustbins are put outside of the main building office. One is recyclables and the other is non-recyclables. One subcontractor is assigned to classify those recyclables at the refuse dump inside the plant area. Also the magazines and newspapers are collected for selling to the recycler. All staffers in PTM have the intention of protecting environment since all of us are using the reverse side of "used" paper to draft the documents. PTM joins the "Print Cartridge Return Plan" of HP and EPSON for environment protection.