On Saturday, January 12, 2019, the minister for environment and water resources, Masagos Zulklifi, declared 2019 as a year for Singapore to work towards becoming a zero-waste nation.

While that might be an ambitious goal, he has good reason to be optimistic, especially with support from the people and various organisations.

New green initiatives

This year's OCBC Cycle will be held on May. 11 and 12, with a marketplace that starts a day earlier on May. 10.

At its launch on Jan. 11, the Group CEO of OCBC Bank, Mr Samuel Tsien, announced that there will be seven environmentally-friendly initiatives planned for this year's OCBC Cycle.

"Cycling is a green sport. I am especially glad that, this year, we have planned seven new initiatives associated with OCBC Cycle for the environment. Some are modest in scope, but it is our belief that every small thing we do matters."

Tweaks to the event such as not using physical confetti at the launch may seem small, but is actually a much-needed change.

Reduce single-use plastic packaging

One of these initiatives is to reduce single-use plastic items and packaging at different stages of the event.

Single-use plastic items will not be used in the goodie bags and the medals will be wrapped in tracing paper instead of plastic packaging.

The tracing papers are not going to waste either, as they will be collected and repurposed for other uses.

Participants will be given musette bags to contain their purchase at the marketplace.

Recycle and repurpose

And for other items at the event, the team will also recycle or repurpose them afterwards.

Besides having recycling bins at the event, fruit peels will be collected and sent to community gardens to be composted.

The event banners will be repurposed into useful items such as tote bags.

There will also be workshops conducted to teach participants how to create ecobricks and wood crafts from recyclables.

Winning teams will be given Hydro Flask bottles made from recyclable material instead of acrylic plaques.

The bank will also plant a tree for every 50 sign-ups.

For a huge sports event like this, these efforts are pretty commendable.

Top photo by OCBC Cycle