Following my previous post on a tabulation of what Cycliclapse recycled in the last couple of months of 2013, we are even more motivated and decided to do up another tabulation for the 1st trimester of 2014.

WARNING: Rather long post ahead, but with many images to enjoy too.

This year, Team @ Cycliclapse is still diligently collecting and sending recyclable stuff to “Cash For Trash” on alternate, if not every, Sundays.
For the recent couple of weeks, we were caught up with work stuff and other commitments, so we weren’t able to drop the items off but yet still collecting them.
Hence they have since accumulated to a REALLY HUGE pile as compared to all our previous ones, consisting of countless aluminium cans / plastic bottles / newspapers, plus some other random pieces of old clothes and metal. Looking at the huge pile, an idea suddenly struck us.
“Let’s make a statement piece that can go viral, before sending them all for recycling.”
And so we started on our planning + execution process…….
(We hope one day this cover of TIME can become real!) After sketching some designs for the dress which we planned on making, it’s down to doing up the real thing in a week’s time. An old bra was found in the pile of old clothes, so we decided to modify it to be the top part of the dress. Every single can tab was being hand-sewn onto the bra. This pile of newspapers (and more) made up the bulk of the lower part of the dress. Big bag of aluminium cans to make up the train of the dress! Weaving using magazine papers (to cover a HP laptop box) for… …my Bottega-cum-Chanel inspired oversized clutch! We made a headpiece for each of us, including the model! After putting everything together………
TADAH!!! All the hard work has been paid off!
We are more than happy with the final result of the whole outfit!!
Thanks lots to our dear model too for wearing our creation!!!

And now to the 2nd half of the post, a tabulation of how much we’ve recycled for this 1st trimester of the year, as well as how much of our own carbon footprints we’ve reduced.

Week 1 (5th Jan):
Aluminium — 1kg
Papers — 48kg
Plastics — 4kg
Money ‘earned’ — S$5.50
Week 3 (19th Jan):
Aluminium — 1kg
Metal — 2kg
Old Clothes — 5kg
Papers — 55kg
Plastics — 10kg
Money ‘earned’ — S$7.60
Week 6 (9th Feb):
Aluminium — 3kg
Papers — 17kg
Plastics — 2kg
Money ‘earned’ — S$3.30
Week 8 (23rd Feb):
Aluminium — 2.5kg
Papers — 30kg
Plastics — 2kg
Money ‘earned’ — S$4.50
Week 10 (9th Mar):
Aluminium — 1.5kg
Plastics — 0.5kg
Money ‘earned’ — S$0.70
Week 12 (23rd Mar):
Aluminium — 2kg
Metal — 2kg
Old Clothes — 6kg
Papers — 55kg
Plastics — 4kg
Money ‘earned’ — S$8.00
Week 17 (27th Apr):
Aluminium — 5kg
Metal — 1kg
Papers — 83kg
Plastics — 4kg
Money ‘earned’ — S$11.05
*GRAND TOTAL*

Aluminium: 16kg (about 300 cans)
We saved 128kg of bauxite, 64kg of chemical products, 0.08 cubic metres of landfill space (when cans are crushed), and 234.21kWh of electrical energy.
(Sources: http://environment.about.com/od/recycling/a/The-Benefits-Of-Aluminum-Recycling-Why-Recycle-Aluminum.htm / http://www.sustainableworld.org.uk/recyc_al.htm)

Metal (all others apart from Aluminium): 5kg
We saved 7.5kg of iron ore, 25kg of coal, 0.27kg of limestone, 0.2% of water used in production, 0.38% of energy needed to make such metals from raw material, 6.4kg of solid waste, reduction in air emission by 0.43%, and reduction of water pollution by 0.38%.
(Source: http://www.benefits-of-recycling.com/recyclingmetals/)

Old Clothes: 11kg
We reduced 39.6kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, 66,000 litres of water consumption, 3.3kg of the use of fertilisers, and 2.2kg of the use of pesticides.
(Source: http://www.onkaparingacity.com/onka/living_here/waste_recycling/recycling_revolution/dont_waste_your_clothes_give_them_a_second_life.jsp)

Papers: 288kg
We saved 4.91 trees, 2,016 gallons of water, 109.44 gallons of oil, 0.95 cubic yards of landfill space, and 1,152kWh of electrical energy.
(Source: http://environment.about.com/od/recycling/a/The-Benefits-Of-Paper-Recycling-Why-Recycle-Paper.htm)

Plastics: 26.5kg
We saved 18.15 gallons of oil, 53kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, 0.2 cubic yards of landfill space, and 153.02kWh of electrical energy.
(Sources: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/benefits-savings-recycling-plastic-79284.html / http://environment.about.com/od/recycling/a/benefits-of-plastics-recycling.htm)

Money ‘earned’: S$40.65

Everybody!! Let’s all start/continue doing our part today!!! *juggles bottles and cans*