Even Singapore's youngest can boost clean and green efforts by becoming "eco-knights".
A scheme was launched yesterday to encourage pre-schoolers in the Central Singapore District to help protect the environment.
Those taking part in "I'm an Eco-Knight!" will each get an educational package with three booklets and five activity cards to guide them during the three years from nursery to Kindergarten 2.
They will learn, for example, what good hygiene practices are, how to encourage others not to litter, and what causes dengue fever and how to prevent it.
Each activity card will include tasks of varying difficulty, and pre-schoolers who complete the required tasks and score enough credits may be awarded a badge by their teachers.
The Central Singapore Community Development Council and National Environment Agency (NEA), which organised the programme, will work with principals and teachers to roll it out.
They plan to reach out to 30 kindergartens in the Central Singapore District within the next year, and all 122 kindergartens there within three years.
The programme was launched by Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing, Mayor for Central Singapore District Denise Phua and NEA deputy chief Khoo Seow Poh during the Central Clean and Green Singapore Carnival at the HDB Hub mall in Toa Payoh.
Ms Phua said everyone can do his part.
"Follow not just the 3Rs of reduce, reuse, recycle," she said, "but also the fourth R of refusing things you don't need."
Civil servant Kwek Si Yong, 37, and his wife teach their two children, who are in Primary 2 and Kindergarten 1, not to waste and to recycle whenever possible.
"It's easier to inculcate good habits when they are young, rather than when they are older and used to their comforts," he said.
