You Can Now Return Don Don Donki Ice Packs In-Store to Prevent Wastage

By
Eliana Davita Lim
-

We’re no strangers to the small blue ice packs that come with refrigerated products from Don Don Donki, such as their array of ready-to-eat meals.

However, after buying 5 boxes of salmon sushi, throwing away these handy ice packs seems like such a waste.

Don Don Donki has recently rolled out a recycling initiative in order to reduce the wastage of these ice packs.

In a Facebook post, Donki has announced that in every store islandwide there will be an allocated box near the cashier counters for you to drop your ice packs in.

Customers must ensure that the ice packs are clean and in good condition before they drop them in the box.

Alternatively, you could recycle your ice packs at home.

Since Singapore is going to have some scorching 35°C days in the first half of this month, you could always put them on your forehead to beat the heat.

Just make sure they’re washed thoroughly first, because Eau de Unagi is not a pleasant scent for those around you, especially in this weather.

Domestic Recycling Rates have Decreased

This new initiative couldn’t come at a better time.

On 4 May, the National Environment Agency (NEA) released the annual waste and recycling statistics for 2022.

The numbers revealed that the domestic recycling rate had dropped to 12%, which is a 1% decrease from 2021’s numbers.

The domestic recycling rate has been steadily declining since 2018, whereby the rate was 22%.

This poses a challenge to the government’s Towards Zero Waste masterplan, which aims to increase this rate to 30% by the year 2030 in order to reduce the amount of waste sent to Semakau Landfill.

Semakau is an island located about 8km south of Singapore’s mainland. The island holds Singapore’s only landfill and is projected to run out of space to hold our garbage by 2035.

Local Recycling Initiatives

In order to assist with domestic recycling, the NEA has provided Singaporean households with a free blue home recycling box creatively named Bloobox.

The Bloobox “aims to help households recycle right and reduce the contamination rate in the blue recycling bins.”

Now, you would have thought that Singaporeans may not have interest in recycling, especially since we’re so used to tossing everything down the rubbish chutes.

However, the lure of free things enticed Singaporeans to flock to the vending machines dispensing Blooboxes, and they ran out of stock on the first collection day.

While the collection of these boxes ended on 30 April, there are other ongoing recycling efforts that you can partake in.

For example, during Chinese New Year season, many red packets often get thrown away.

Angpaos can’t be recycled in the normal blue recycling bins with other paper products as they use a large quantity of red ink.

Furthermore, because angpaos are typically made of foil and plastic, in addition to paper, it is harder for paper-recycling plants to process them as proper paper products.

There are over 140 locations across the island where these red packets can be recycled throughout the year, including all DBS/POSB and some UOB branches. Your angpaos can even be repurposed and turned into coasters.

Sure, the cash inside is undoubtedly the most important part of the red packet, but now let’s allow being sustainable to give you the same rush as seeing Mr Yusof Ishak in all colours.

Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:

Read Also:

Advertisements
 
Eliana Davita Lim
Email: [email protected]