Land pollution (Tabitha, Kimberly, Evangel)

Hypothesis

East Coast Beach is polluted due to human activities such as picnicking and camping.

2) What I need to find out:

· Is it really people whom are the culprits of littering?

· Take photographs of people littering, of litter(big and small)

· Interview shopkeepers and cleaners (below are sample questions we came up in advance)

§ Have you ever seen anyone litter in this area? How often?

§ What kind of litter?

§ What time of the day does this usually occur?

§ Does this affect your business?

§ Do you see birds eating the litter?

§ Have you ever seen animals die from eating the litter?

· Find evidence – Rubbish : glass, bottles, cans, matches, condoms, chicken bones, food waste

3) Methodology

1. Search for people littering and take photographs of them littering.

2. Take photos of litter found

3. Interview shopkeepers and cleaners there.

4) Results

1. Piles of ashes on tree roots

· People leave charcoal behind probably because they are either lazy to clear it or because charcoal is biodegradable.

· However, if it rains, the chemicals from the charcoal will pollute the underground water.

2. The tides affect the amount of rubbish collected on shores (high tide – more rubbish, low tide – less rubbish)

5. There is a lot of leftover food from the barbeque pits.

6. Rubbish is also present around the benches.

(Peanut shells and other litter under benches)

7. There were also no littering signs which shows that people littered in the area.

8. Types of trees may also affect the amount of pollution in an area. If a tree has many branches, birds are able to perch on it and may litter. If it doesn’t have any branches such as the coconut tree, birds will not be able to perch on it and litter.

8. Land may become barren due to camping activities as it is burnt to start a fire.

5) Statistics

1. There were 4 garbage bins every barbeque pit, and 2 barbeque pits every 100m, each 4-5m apart.

2. We interviewed the cleaner picking rubbish by the coast

· Qn How much bags of rubbish do you collect a day?

Ans: If there is little rubbish, 100 bags a day. If there is a lot of rubbish, 600-100 bags are collected a day.

· Qn When is a lot of rubbish is collected?

Ans: In the later part of the year. (June to December)

(size of bag)

3. We also interviewed a cleaner who was picking rubbish around the barbeque pits, shelters and jogging/walking paths.

Qn: How many bags of rubbish do you collect everyday?

Ans: About 60-70 bags a day. If it is more crowded, such as on weekends or public holidays, about 100 bags are collected.

Reflection

I felt that this trip was quite beneficial and pretty fun tooJ. This project opened my eyes to the present state of Singapore. I did not realise that Singapore was so dirty and polluted. It makes me quite embarrassed to say that Singapore is ‘clean and green’; it seems that we can no longer uphold that slogan we were once proud of. Besides that, there were a few obstacles the group faced. For example, the first cleaner interviewed was a Chinese national. Therefore, we struggled to translate our questions, which was not an easy feat. However, Evangel and Kimberly did a good job of translation, thus solving the problem. Another one was the questions which Miss Lim asked us. In my opinion, it was not really that easy to come up with an answer easily. According to the evidence we collected, our hypothesis is proved correct. All in all, this trip was enjoyable and educational, an eye-opener for me (seriously!). ^_^

Tabitha Chiam ;)

I felt this trip was quite fun and educational. It made know more about how the beach is polluted based on evidence we found. I did not know East Coast Beach was so polluted as I have never really taken the time to observe the things found on the beach or even take notice of what is on the sand and in the water. Next, our group also faced difficulties communicating with people who spoke different languages. However, we overcame the language barrier and got the answers we needed to our questions. (: It was also a rather interesting experience when we had to infer how a certain area is polluted based on evidence.

Kimberly Kiong

I think this trip was very fun and enjoyable and I also learnt many things. I also saw that the beach was actually much polluted and there was a lot of litter. And even though Singapore is known as the ‘clean and green city’ worldwide, there is still quite a lot of litter at the beach and in Singapore. I feel that the biggest obstacle was asking the cleaners who were picking rubbish questions because one of them only spoke Chinese, so we had to roughly translate our questions to Chinese. We also had difficulty when they did not understand our question. I think that even though littering is illegal in Singapore, some people still litter and I hope that most Singaporeans will develop the habit of not littering even if there isn’t a rubbish bin nearby so that Singapore can live up to its name of being a clean and green city.

Evangel Teo