Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, they drink their own piss too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEWater
Just like astronauts.
Or perverts!
The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
101–110 of 138 posts
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had one metallic straw in a fancy cocktail bar. The rest were plastic. Not to say, that I get a plastic cup full of ice with a plastic straw when I order a green tea, which comes in a can and is already ice cold. For the litter I see the most: part of plastic bags and Dasani water bottles. I hope the change in trash management, recycling and maybe trash separation does not only start with the rich people here, but…
Metallic straw? Like, reusable? Fairly sure that wouldn't fly anywhere else, I mean, even plastic straws are individually packaged right now due to hygiene considerations. Disposable plastic > poorly cleaned reusables.
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Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had one metallic straw in a fancy cocktail bar. The rest were plastic. Not to say, that I get a plastic cup full of ice with a plastic straw when I order a green tea, which comes in a can and is already ice cold. For the litter I see the most: part of plastic bags and Dasani water bottles. I hope the change in trash management, recycling and maybe trash separation does not only start with the rich people here, but…
Metallic straw? Like, reusable? Fairly sure that wouldn't fly anywhere else, I mean, even plastic straws are individually packaged right now due to hygiene considerations. Disposable plastic > poorly cleaned reusables.
Do you eat with plastic utensils when you go anywhere but a food truck festival?
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
The bin removal was actually prompted by a period when the IRA would put bombs into bins in train stations etc., see eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrington_bomb_attacks So not a completely idiotic policy.
For a while there was a solution involving “hoop” bins with clear plastic bags so you could see what was inside them. But recent terror attacks (which used knives and vehicles, not bins) prompted their removal again.
Wait, that doesn't make any sense. If the see-through bins solved a problem, why would they be removed when a different problem appears? They're independent problems, removing the bins when they're not involved in the new kind of attacks seems just random.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're confusing what ought to be with what is . Yes, maids are supposed to be given one day off a week on paper, but who enforces that? Maids and other foreign workers are also not supposed to pay huge sums to agents to score jobs in Singapore, but they do, often ending up in debt, with loan sharks threatening their families if they don't complete their terms. It's not a question of "bad apples", but the system bein…
> You're confusing what ought to be with what is. Yes, maids are supposed to be given one day off a week on paper, but who enforces that? You been to lucky plaza on a Sunday? Chaos. Mustafa? Botanic Guardens? Gardens by the Bay? These places are littered with maids every weekend. Some maids choose not to go out. 2 friends of mine have maids, and both their maids go out for 1 hour on Sunday to send money back, then co…
Of course there are people in Lucky Plaza and Mustafa on Sundays: there are on the order of 250,000 maids in Singapore, and around 1.6 million foreign workers total.
My argument is not that all Singaporeans are monsters, or that all foreign workers are oppressed, but that simply that the system as it is today has very few protections against the abuse of its most vulnerable, and the OP's claim that "all Singaporeans love it" is pretty darn starry-eyed.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just googled and see Japan tape water is safe to drink. I've been by hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Mt Fuji all told me not to drink the tap water. Hence I thought it wasn't drinkable. Good to know it is! I've never been to South Korea, yet.
> I've been by hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Mt Fuji all told me not to drink the tap water. And perhaps suggested you buy some bottled instead?
Bottled water is free in hotels in Japan, so no...
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#107One part not mentioned in the article is the cleaning up of nature areas. There are calls for volunteers to periodically go for coastal clean-up at nature and other less 'touristy' beach areas [1] which usually yields a lot of rubbish, but does show that some people are enough concerns for the environment to volunteer to do it.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had one metallic straw in a fancy cocktail bar. The rest were plastic. Not to say, that I get a plastic cup full of ice with a plastic straw when I order a green tea, which comes in a can and is already ice cold. For the litter I see the most: part of plastic bags and Dasani water bottles. I hope the change in trash management, recycling and maybe trash separation does not only start with the rich people here, but…
Metallic straw? Like, reusable? Fairly sure that wouldn't fly anywhere else, I mean, even plastic straws are individually packaged right now due to hygiene considerations. Disposable plastic > poorly cleaned reusables.
I have yet to see evidence that individually packaged plastic forks and knives are more hygienic, or that any poorly-cleaned utensil ever made anyone sick.
> Disposable plastic > poorly cleaned reusables.
FUD from germophobes, IMHO.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#109The area of Singapore is 278 sq miles, approximately the size of 17 miles square. Whatever policies that work in such small high density places won't work in larger countries. However, one can try to decentralize as much as possible; such decentralization may not work in large countries either.
Both Japan and Switzerland are know to be very clean and much larger. But they seem to approach it very differently. I seem to remember Spain being quite clean too. People mopped the pavements in one of the towns I visited every morning.
Was i sounthern Switzerland (Lugano) this spring and was chocked at the difference in cleanliness between Switzerland and Italy. Crossing the border by car, it was like somebody had turn a knob and enabled litter in the background graphics when entering Italy. It was that surreal a difference.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Japan and South Korea tap water is safe...and I think it's commonly consumed in Japan. Koreans approach it like Singaporeans..some do, some boil.
I just googled and see Japan tape water is safe to drink. I've been by hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Mt Fuji all told me not to drink the tap water. Hence I thought it wasn't drinkable. Good to know it is! I've never been to South Korea, yet.
> I've been by hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Mt Fuji all told me not to drink the tap water.
I've traveled all over Japan including those places and others far more rural and never seen that, it sounds really strange. Are you sure it didn't say you can drink the tap water? Maybe in broken Engrish?
Only places I've seen in Japan with warnings against drinking tap water is on trains and porta-potties.