SINGAPORE - Around 50 residents in Nee Soon gathered at Block 290 Yishun Street 22 to stamp their thumbprints on a sustainability-themed mural, pledging to do their part for a sustainable society to mark Earth Day, which falls on April 22 every year.
There are nine other murals with the same theme in other void decks in Yishun. The 10 murals serve as a backdrop to two-seater MRT train seats fixed to walls. The seats were upcycled from decommissioned MRT trains in a sustainability initiative that the Nee Soon Town Council (NSTC) first piloted in 2022.
The town council came up with the idea for the murals after the seats were installed to make community spaces in the estate more prominent and inviting, a spokesman said.
Local artist Biddy Low worked on the 10 murals, one at a time, for three months starting in late November 2022. They all have a message related to sustainability.
For instance, the mural at Block 290 Yishun St 22 features the observation tower in Yishun Pond Park and NSTC’s cartoon mascots, Nanas and Squish, holding up a sign that reads “Sustainability at the heart of what we do”.
The mural at Block 450 Yishun Ring Road reminds residents that they can support sustainability by taking along their own reusable tumblers when they head to the coffee shop for their kaya toast sets for breakfast.
Apart from the 10 train double-seaters, NSTC also has a set of three-seater train seats that have been transformed into a sofa with armrests and legs in its main office lobby.
On Saturday, MP Louis Ng, who joined the residents at the mural stamping event, also launched a reverse vending machine for recycling plastic bottles and aluminium cans.
Nee Soon has five recycling hubs, with dedicated receptacles for residents to recycle paper and even textiles, which are currently not collected under the National Recycling Programme.
The first such recycling hub was launched in September 2022. Before that, there were no textile recycling bins in neighbourhoods across Singapore. The town council spokesman said it worked with Cloop, its textile recycling partner, to set up the first bins in Nee Soon.
“Since then, Cloop has also worked with other town councils to set up textile recycling bins in other neighbourhoods,” she said.
