How to make a plastic bag eco-friendly

I picked up a jute bag from a pile that was being thrown out near a friend’s place, and it had pretty leaf designs on it. Very much in the vein of the “I’m not a plastic bag” fashion statement. Unfortunately, though its eco credentials were impeccable, it still had its tag attached, a strong indication that it had never been used before being thrown away.

I retrieved the bag, gave it a little wash, and plan to use it. I’m pleased with it, along with another shopping bag, lined with foil, meant for frozen meats, which I found in that same pile.

However, I’m even more pleased to report that I’ve never bought myself a re-usable, eco-friendly shopping bag. The way I see it, every bag that currently exists is reusable, and will be an eco-friendly bag, if only you’ll use and re-use it. Its manufacture has already taken up resources. Why take up more resources by clamouring for an “I’m not a plastic bag”?

Some of the stouter plastic bags they give you can be re-used very easily and conveniently. Just fold it up (plastic bags fold pretty small) and put them in your handbag. I don’t carry a huge handbag, but it accommodates two or three plastic bags quite well. I try to use these bags whenever I buy anything. They are generally sufficient for any sudden shopping bouts. If I plan to go grocery shopping, I bring more bags specially, which don’t have to fit into a handbag.

This saves on the the obligatory ten cents a bag if I happen to pop into a supermarket on Wednesdays, or if I get something from Ikea. NTUC Fairprice has a good attitude in going green, as it offers a ten-cent rebate on every purchase over $10 if you bring your own bag – it gives me a kick to think of my plastic bags earning their way. I hope that as the recession bites, more people take advantage of this green scheme.

The only exception is Mustafa’s, where it’s a company rule that they pack your stuff in their bags – the only thing I find negative in an otherwise admirable institution.

How to make a much-maligned but often unavoidable plastic bag eco-friendly? Re-use it so you won’t need to get more plastic bags, and when it finally comes to the end of its usefulness to you, either by breaking or getting dirty, give it a proper send-off – throw it in the recycling bin.

A penny for your thoughts?

Slumdog Millionaire was a bit of wishful entertainment – how nice to be asked questions whose answers I actually know in a big–money game show.

However, I left thinking not about the slumdog hero, but about the guy on the US$100 bill. Yep, Benjamin Franklin, who signed both the US Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but who never became President. Nevertheless the chap is on the big note, and deservedly.

That’s the man who flew a kite in a storm, and proved that lightning was electricity. He also invented bifocals, which I expect to become very grateful for as I edge towards long-sightedness.

However, what I find most admirable about Mr Franklin is his values. He never patented his many inventions, explaining in his autobiography, “... as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”

It is not as if the man didn’t know the value of money. He did say “Time is money”, and industry was among the 13 virtues he worked on. However, unlike modern man, who has pursued money to the point of exhaustion, inventing the 12 to 14-hour workday, Mr Franklin balanced this with the virtue of frugality: “Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.”

And if we thought that the film Pay It Forward - where Haley Joel Osment starts a movement of not returning favours but doing good to others instead – was a Hollywood innovation, sorry, Ben Franklin came up with the idea in the 18th century.

What I really like about the man is this bit of wisdom: “A penny saved is a penny earned”.

This points to another option to the ever-faster treadmill of work. Instead of working harder and harder, and longer and longer, you can just spend less.
In fact, in view of CPF deductions and taxes, a penny saved is worth more than a penny earned.

I once worked on a booklet about retirement, and came to the conclusion that Mr Franklin’s idea is excellent when it comes to working out how to retire. Basically, everyone is supposed to calculate how much they will need for retirement, and then crack their heads on how to lay aside the amount, or grow it from investments or insurance or whatever.

Having a frugal stance is useful, since you’ll come up with a smaller Number to aim for, and, as far as the savings part of the getting to the Number equation goes, it’s less torturous.

In this economic climate, with minibonds and Hi-Notes going bye-byes, I daren’t speculate on the investment part of the riddle. Maybe we should try to get onto a big-money game show and hope they ask soft questions.

Making the best of your ringgit

I set up a Malaysian bank account in the aftermath of the Asian crisis, when Dr Mahathir’s currency controls made it impossible to deposit ringgit checks into my Singapore account. The dividends from Clob shares have been building up for more than a decade, and I discovered, to my joy, that I had more than RM10,000 in the account.

Yippee! Those shares that I was stuck with because their values plunged, actually paid out decent dividends.

Unfortunately, after converting the cash back into Singapore dollars, I was a little disappointed to find it came up to about $4,000. Not much, especially when set against what I’d paid for the Clob shares all those years ago.

Solution? Keep it in Malaysia, and spend it in Malaysia.

I figure that since most food and common groceries are cheaper across the Causeway, my RM 10,000 will be able to buy about $6,000 worth of things if I spent it there, rather than the $4,000 if I changed it and brought it back.

I’ve tried it a few times, and I think I’ve worked out a safe, economical and enjoyable routine.

First, go across the Causeway, and head towards town. Buy cheap petrol at a station near the Causeway – the huge Caltex station has closed, but there are other alternatives. Then swing up Jalan Wong Ah Fook and turn into City Square. (I like its car park because it’s bright, and security guards do rounds every now and again, so my Proton with Singapore plates feels safer – unlike the somewhat dingy, forbidding car park at Holiday Plaza, say.)

City Square also has a Maybank, where I can withdraw the day’s spending money, and go upstairs to the Watsons to buy personal care products, vitamin supplements and general medications like cough mixture. I believe in taking cod liver oil and vitamins to stave off the upper respiratory tract infections that are endemic here, and these things are cheaper in JB than in Singapore. A bottle of cod liver oil, $6-$7 at home, costs RM 11 in JB.

And if I do catch something, stuff like Prospan, a German cough syrup made from dried ivy leaf extract, costs under RM 14, as opposed to $8 to $10 in a Singapore clinic, assuming you can find a doctor who will sell it to you without making you undergo a diagnosis first. My brother, who recommended it, got the syrup from his physician, who gave him Prospan and some other medicines for flu - and charged $130. I say dump the doctor and buy the stuff from Johor Baru.

There’s an Apex pharmacy in the basement (run by the same management as Watsons) which can dispense anti-histamines like Zyrtec (no sleepy side effect) and Atarax (might feel sleepy) and other “real” medicines if you need them.

Also in the basement are food outlets like Secret Recipe. I rather like their lamb stew and their fusion soups, but I baulk at their prices in Singapore. However, the prices in ringgit are the same as in Sing dollars, so it actually becomes very decent. So much so that I don’t care if they charge me for my glass of water – a practice that outraged me in their Singapore outlets.

There are also other shops seeling clothes, footwear, and even some groceries in the rather limited minimart in the basement.

Then go home.

Or, if the minimart was a disappointment, drive up the road again to Taman Sentosa and park in The Store (outdoor carpark, surrounded by The Store and other shops, with a security guard or two to keep an eye on things). Taman Sentosa also has the virtue of being full of food outlets, from restaurants to coffee shops and a hawker centre. I have a soft spot for the Bamboo place that sells beggars chicken.

Yeah, there are lots of other places that are probably more fun than this route, but with even locals talking about petty and not-so-petty crimes, this route is fun enough for me.

Why wait until retirement?

Was doing an assignment on retirement, and had been trotting out all the advice that financial advisers hand out to 40- and 50-somethings who are beginning to worry about their golden years.

I can't say I was totally convinced that you need 70 to 80 percent of your last-drawn salary per month in order to retire successfully. After all, many of us are not earning 70 to 80 percent of what we expect to bring in with our final paycheck, and we're not only surviving, but bring up kids in some instances, and salting away some cash as it is, right?

Research brought me to the National Library, where I came across a really inspiring book, Get A Life: You Don't Need A Million To Retire Well by Ralph Warner. It not only confirmed my suspicions that I don't need millions to retire well, but it also made me want to get cracking on my retirement.

Unlike all the other literature, which painted bleak futures for those of us who do not sacrifice everything now in order to have comfy nest eggs when we get old and grey, Warner argues that money is not the most important ingredient in a successful retirement - we are.

Without ignoring the need to have a certain amount of money, he argues that we should invest in our ourselves to prepare for retirement - to develop interests outside of work, to make friends outside of work, and to keep up our health.

Too many people, he says, have their identity tied up in their jobs, and once their job stops, often they lose their sense of self. "People who count on developing new interests, activities and involvement after 65 often don't", he writes.

As for those of us whp claim to be too busy earning money for for living and our retirement, Warner suggests "it makes sense to put more energy into maintaining or improving your health than into growing your investment portfolio." Affluence will not make up for poor health later in life, but maintaining good health is particularly important for those single mothers and others who need every penny just to survive their middle years, and have saved little. Good health also makes it easier to produce extra income by continuing to work past age 65.

It would also help to spend a little time thinking about what we want to do in our retirement - volunteer work, perhaps a part-time job, or maybe follow our interests? Some of these may need investments of a little time, energy and money to develop the necessary skills to get into a different field.

What I though was great about the book was that the money stuff only came in at chapter 7. The earlier chapters were all about personal development.

The book also has lots of interviews with golden oldies to ask them their advice about how to retire well. While these people, who lead very interesting and fulfilling lives, do acknowledge the need for money, it's a lot less than what financial advisers tell us we need.

One of his interviewees, Ernest Callenbach, who has written a best-selling novel about ecological sustainability, notes that ÿou'll need some money, "but if you are willing to change your attitudes about consumption, probably less than you think." And while he did save for retirement, part of his plan was to learn how and where he could save further if he needed to. And yet Ernest has a nice house, decent cars, travels a lot and goes out to dinner fairly often (he and his wife being "careful connoisseurs of cheap restaurants.")

Another retiree, Gretchen, observes: "Especially as you approach 80 it becomes increasingly obvious that it's foolish to keep buying lots of things you'll never need. But if you have spent your whole life getting a large part of your pleasure from shopping, you have a problem - it is probably too late to discover that there are far more fulfilling ways to spend your free time." Gretchen gets her fulfillment participating in a project that builds houses for poor people, and can still drive in nails with just two hammer strokes.

One bit of advice in Warner's book is to make some younger friends along with those in your age group - as you age, and those in your generation die out, you may have to tap into the younger set for company. And if you're half of a couple, get one or two close friends who are yours alone. Somehow, the if couples are friends with couples, the dynamic makes it difficult to maintain the strong relationship if someone gets widowed or divorced - jealousy will creep into the picture.

Perhaps because Warner included real-life stories of really happy, fulfilled retirees in his book, with varying levels of physical and economic health, Get A Life becomes that rarity among books on retirement. Far from leaving you feeling guilty about not saving enough, and uneasy about the future, it inspires you to socialise, discover your interests and pursue them, as well as to make time for a little exercise.

Old books for old!

Perhaps not as good a deal as Aladdin got, but I came aross this scheme at www.pl.sg

This allows us to get rid of books we've read (or not) and no longer want, and get books that other people no longer want. Sort of like going to the second-hand bookshop, but cutting out the middleman.

Just remember to bring your own bags to collect your books on Apr 25.
Here is their notice:

Recycle Your Reading - Used books become new reads at the Book Exchange!



Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2009
Time: 10.30am to 6pm
Venue: The Plaza, National Library Building,100 Victoria Street

3 easy steps to exchange your used books for new reads:


Bring your used books to any Public Library from 11 to 24 April, 11am to 8pm. On 25 April, used books are accepted only at the National Library Building.
Drop off your used books and get a book exchange coupon indicating one-for-one exchange for the books accepted.
Bring your coupon to The Plaza, National Library Building, on 25 April to redeem for used books dropped off by other book lovers.
Terms and Conditions:

Each person can exchange up to a maximum of 30 used books. There is no age limit for participation.
We accept children's and adults' fiction and non-fiction books (eg. cookbooks, travel guides and romance novels) in any of the four official languages. We also accept used library books bought from previous Library Book Sales. Textbooks, magazines and audio-visual materials will not be accepted.
Used books for exchange should be in relatively good physical condition.
Only coupons issued with a Book Exchange stamp are valid. Please check your coupons carefully after they are issued to you.
Coupons issued are transferable. You may pass them on to your family members or friends to help you redeem.
Lost coupons are not replaceable. You are advised to keep your coupons properly till the event on 25 April.
Plastic/carrier bags and delivery service will not be provided on Sat, 25 April. You are advised to bring your own carrier bags and/or arrange for transportation of books redeemed.
For enquiries, please call NLB Helpdesk at 6332 3255 or email: helpdesk@nlb.gov.sg

Find an expired date? Eat it!

My cousin told me she was on the point of throwing away a bottle of cider vinegar which had expired 2 years ago, when it occurred to her that vinegar can't expire. So she drank it with honey in a home remedy for a cold, and was quite pleased with the results.

Yes, she was right not to throw it - because it's such an acidic substance, vinegar is unsuitable for bacteria to breed in.

If the date on her bottle of honey had expired, I would have told her to hang on to it too - liquid honey has so much sugar that it kills almost all bacteria, and the moisture content is too low to allow fungus to grow.

A moment of thought should bring to mind that the ancients used to put things in honey to preserve them. I recall a rather gruesome tale of how a human head was preserved in honey so that it could be delievered to some emperor who lived a way off. The stuff that crystalises out of honey that has been left alone for a bit is sugar crystals. If you don't like crystals in your honey, just apply very gentle heat.

And of course vinegar is used in pickling.

I appreciate the intentions of our health departments in wanting to protect us from unscrupulous people who would sell us old and harmful foods, but their scattershot method of requiring EVERYTHING be labelled with an expiry date can lead to lots of wastage.

I know of people whose knee-jerk reaction is to throw away anything that's past its expiry date, including that grandaddy of preservatives, salt.

When asked they want to throw out salt, they say, 'maybe it can still be used, but it's cheap, so who cares?' Well, it is cheap, thank goodness, but it has been processed and packed and transported. What a waste of resources, just because some idiot thinks that old salt might... what could they be thinking? It might grow fungus? Germs might get into it? Obviously they think that the salt might harm them in some way, and they're not thinking of their blood pressure.

What next? Are they going to scrutinise their bottled water to make sure it doesn't get too old?

The fact is that we can often tell when lots of different foods go bad. You can see the mould on bread, and you don't have to depend on a rocket scientist to calculate when it goes bad. As for worrying about buying a loaf near the end of its shelf life, relax - the same van that delivers the next day's supply will take away the old ones. That's what happens with unsold newspapers.

You don't need to consult the bottom of a tin to know if it can still be eaten - if it's swollen, throw it away. If it looks fine, and you open it and the food smells funny, throw it away.

Surely we can apply our common sense, or are we so bereft of sense that we leave our brains in the freezer, and depend on the 'experts'? Watch out for 'experts' - the current credit crunch is the work of 'experts', as was Long Term Capital Management, which was cited in a talk I attended the other night (it was free, with a buffet dinner thrown in). The speaker was an entrepreneur, who said that passion was much more important than knowledge, and illustrated his point with LTCM. It was a hedge fund that recruited two Nobel prize winners (economics) and brilliant mathematical minds (the sort AIG just gave millions in moolah to, not for bringing the whole system down, but just because their brains are still so desirable). Bottom line: LTCM lost US$4.6 billion.

Speaking of 'experts', here is an interesting article I found on how expired medicines are perfectly usable:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/460159 (if you don't get the page, google medicine expire and look for the url) or you can check up the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide for something similar.

Now then, not all the experts say the same thing. We'll just have to use our own common sense, then.

A program of action was concerted...

I wanted go to see the St Thomas Boys Choir, from Leipzig - the choir that JS Bach directed when he was working in at the St Thomas Church.

Thing is, I make it a point to only pay for one or two concerts or plays a year.

It's a habit I developed to save money that goes towards wells in Afghanistan: someone came to church once, and asked for money to dig wells there. I felt it was a good cause, but where to get the money? Answer: cut down on the entertainment. Movies are relatively cheap, but concerts and plays, especially concerts, can set you back a bit. I figured that a year or two of just going to my absolutely must-go show, and cutting back on buying tickets for the "would like to go" or the "wow, sounds good, let's go" show, there'd be enough for a well.

Last year, I coughed up $70-something, and saw Murray Perahia from the giddy heights of the third circle. The rest of the time, I just mentioned that I would be interested, and waited for a stroke of luck. Occasionally, someone who got tickets would be unable to go, or someone might get two tickets and only need one, so I, as someone who was interested, would get a magic call.

That's my little trick to get free entertainment. Not much of a trick, really. That's because people generally don't like to waste things - better that you fill the seat than it stays empty, right?

To move further up the calling list, I generally try not to be too fussy about tickets offered to me. Nothing is more annoying than phoning someone and them saying "oh no, I don't feel like it" or "I'm only interested if it's The Rolling Stones or the Berlin Phil" - let's face it, if they have such desirable tickets, they'd call other people first.

This attitude got me into concerts by Bryn Terfel (world-famous baritone), Santana, oh yes, and The Rolling Stones. I've been to dance performances, drama and stand-up comedy, in concert halls, pubs and theatres small and large.

Some of the shows I never even thought I wanted to see when I read about them. Often, I enjoyed myself immensely. And if I didn't, well, at least I didn't have to pay for it.

Back to the St Thomas Boys Choir. Nobody called, and I really wanted to go. With tickets from $41 to $121, I could avoid the nose-bleed altitude of the third circle, but I'd probably not make it to ground level.

So I called a friend who works in the papers and mentioned how I wanted to see the concert. I was in luck - she took the hint, and found us tickets.

Good concert.

What I found interesting was meeting a friend the next day, and she saying her sister-in-law had gone for the same concert, having won tickets on a radio show. "She wins something almost every week," said my friend, noting that she thinks you only need to be a bit anal in order to win. I'm sure it didn't reflect her opinion of her sis-in-law.

This was something - I'm always alert to new ways to score free tickets if no one calls. We don't all have lobangs who can source complimentary tickets, and I don't like to bother my friends much anyway (it's a bit like sponging off the stocks of goodwill they have with other people). But I can be anal.

I think I'll start listening to the radio, with the telephone handy...