YCS Reads!

Singapore’s homegrown farming dream is beginning to fade Bloomberg Updated Wed, 24 July 2024 at 10:06 am SGT · 6-min read A worker walks between hydroponics growing panels at the Livfresh farm in Singapore. (Photographer: Ore Huiying/Bloomberg) By Audrey Wan and Low De Wei (Bloomberg) – By most measures, Karthik Rajan’s farm in Singapore is a success story. Run from a two-hectare plot of land in the island’s north, LivFresh has been supplying major supermarkets with spinach, lettuce and other Asian green vegetables since 2022. The firm turned profitable in March. It may still close down by the end of the year. Rajan is one of a small number of entrepreneurs attempting to farm in a country smaller than New York City. Like most of his peers, he’s facing an uncertain future as funding runs dry, with investments in homegrown agricultural startups cratering over the past few years. Since the start of 2023, at least half a dozen large farms have shut down or scaled back operations...

  Why is Singapore’s recycling rate falling? Ariel Yu The overall recycling rate in Singapore had declined over the past decade, from 62 per cent in 2013 to 52 per cent in 2023. PHOTO: ST FILE Updated Jul 22, 2024, 05:07 PM     SINGAPORE – Recyclables “spoilt” with food or liquid waste may be a common and regrettable sight at many recycling bins around Singapore, but poor recycling habits are not likely to be the main driver behind Singapore’s falling recycling rates, said an expert. Instead, syst...

  Fashion Revolution Week aims to raise awareness of overconsumption, exploitation of natural resources Style Theory organises pop-up store events for customers to view and shop their rental and resale apparel physically. PHOTO: COURTESY OF STYLE THEORY     Poet Natalie Wang, 28, wears mostly pre-loved clothes that she buys from online marketplace Carousell and thrift shops, and borrows from her mother's wardrobe. She said: "Making a habit of trying to fix things, even if it means going to a tailor to replace a zip, rather than throwing items out, is a good way to reduce your footprint. Learn to sew basic things to mend tears and fix buttons." Ms Woo Qiyun, 25, a sustainability consultant, said she became ...

  Sparkly and shiny, but is your natural make-up free of forced labor? By Kieran Guilbert June 22, 2018   8:05 AM GMT+8   Updated 6 years ago   LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Soaring global demand for natural beauty products could be fuelling modern-day slavery as ingredients such as cocoa, vanilla and the mineral mica are linked to child labor while cosmetic supply chains lack oversight, analysts said on Friday.   Many key components - from shea nuts to wax used as a base for mascara - are produced by smallholder farmers where the risk of labor abuse is high as governments and businesses struggle to monitor conditions, said risk analysts Verisk Maplecroft. Cosmetics companies are benefiting from strong appetite for skincare products, after riding a make-up boom in recent years spurred by young consumers seeking to look good on social media. While buyers clamor for make-up made with various fruit, nuts, grains and minerals, companies that inc...

  France proposes EU ban on exports of used clothes A dog lies atop a pile of used plastic bottles at a dumpsite where second-hand clothes are discarded in Accra, Ghana, on Dec 21, 2022. (Photo: REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko) 14 Mar 2024 09:58PM (Updated: 14 Mar 2024 10:38PM) LONDON: France is proposing a European Union ban on exports of used clothes, the environment ministry told Reuters on Thursday (Mar 14), as governments look for new ways to tackle the worsening proble...

  Commentary: We’re drowning in a fast fashion ocean of clothes Resale platforms must contend with stigma, superstition and lack of trust to change the tides of sustainable fashion in Singapore, says Retykle founder Sarah Garner. Are you spring-cleaning and emptying closets full of old clothing? 28 Jan 2022 06:04AM SINGAPORE: The secondhand fashion space has seen a meteoric rise, with the market expected to grow more than 10 times faster than traditional retail by 2025. The world has seen the growth of secondhand platforms. Thredu...

  Commentary: Do you want your clothes to shrink our forests? Popular fabrics such as viscose, lyocell and modal were once trees. More fashion brands need to make that connection, says Lara Williams for Bloomberg Opinion.   File photo. Clothing companies need to do more to educate their consumers about what their clothes are made of. (Photo: iStock/megaflopp) Lara Williams 05 Nov 2023 06:06AM (Updated: 05 Nov 2023 01:50PM) ...

  Why fashion's 'recycling' is not saving the planet PARIS: In H&M's flagship Paris store it is hard to find clothes that don't claim to be made from "recycled materials". Last year, 79 per cent of the polyester in its collections came from recycled materials, and next year it wants it all to be recycled. The Swedish fast fashion giant told AFP that recycled material allows the "industry to reduce its dependence on virgin polyester made from fossil fuels". The problem is that "93 per cent of all recycled textiles today comes from plastic bottles, not from old clothes", said Urska Trunk of campaign group Changing Markets. In other words, from fossil fuels. And while a plastic bottle can be recycled five or six times, a T-shirt in recycled polyester "can never be recycled again", said Trunk. Almost all recycled polyester is made from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) from plastic bottles, according to the non-profit Textile E...