Consumers can send strong signals to motivate more companies to look into their production processes and become more environmentally-friendly, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said on July 12.

Fu was speaking at the Partners for the Environment Forum on July 12, as part of the Climate Action Week.

Consumers can send strong signal to motivate change

During a fireside chat, Fu took questions about from viewers and one of them was in relation to waste reduction and responsible consumption in Singapore.

Fu said that even though a large part of advocacy focuses on "Recycling", one of the 3Rs of waste management, "Reduce" is also important.

The government has been working with companies at the upstream to look into their waste management strategies.

With the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework, many companies are now held accountable for the waste they produce and have to look into ways to recover resources from waste such as electronic waste, food waste and packaging waste.

Consumers can play an important role as well, Fu said.

If consumers, including the public sector, send a strong signal that they are looking at how sustainable the production process is and companies reduce waste, it will be a "very strong motivation" for companies to become more sustainable.

This is why green procurement will be an important aspect of GreenGov.SG, a broad policy direction for public sector to take the lead in sustainability.

"Green sustainability reporting from prospective tenders and suppliers to the government is going to be an important part," she said.

However, she added that there will be some flexibility in how much weightage that sustainability will have in procuring required goods and services. For now, they will be looking into a framework that includes sustainability as a non-price factor.

Better and more recycling facilities

Beside greening production and procurement processes, Fu acknowledged the need for more recycling facilities and services, and better ones, in Singapore.

This means finding solutions to extract the most resources out of recyclables and ensuring that it is commercial viable for businesses in this industry.

Fu used e-waste recycling as an example, and said the ministry is looking at similar solutions for packaging waste (not just plastic) and food waste.

She added that greater responsibility will be placed on producers, but this is not intended to be punitive.

She cited carbon emissions as an example of a negative externality that is not taken into account when goods and services are being produced.

Recognising this cost of production will make producers to find ways to mitigate it and there is a financial incentive for them to do so, Fu said.

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Top image via The Green Collective SG/Facebook