Five ways to have a sustainable Lunar New Year

The Lunar New Year period is a time of prosperity and abundance. The celebration of new beginnings means spring cleaning, family gatherings, new clothes, snacks and goodies, and red packets. All this wealth and abundance symbolise a better year ahead – but another thing they could spell? More waste.

According to the free sharing app OLIO, 94 percent of the 500 individuals they surveyed in Singapore are concerned about waste piling up during Lunar New Year this year. Sure, waste generated in Singapore in 2020 fell for the fourth year since 2017, but the National Environment Agency attributed this fall to the Covid-19 pandemic, which halted non-essential economic activities and suppressed the demand for goods. As Covid-19 eases, the trend could just as easily reverse. 

Now, we don't want to mess with tradition. But perhaps, there are small and simple ways to green up our festivities while sticking to the intentions behind Lunar New Year practices. OLIO, a mobile app which aims to prevent waste by connecting neighbours to give things away rather than throw them away, is one such platform to give pre-loved items a new lease of life and reduce our overall waste. We speak of Tessa Clarke, CEO and Co-founder of OLIO, for her advice on how to have a sustainable Lunar New Year.

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94 percent of individuals you surveyed worry about waste piling up during the Lunar New Year. Over the years, have you noticed if people have actually been acting on this concern?

Yes, there’s definitely been a noticeable shift in terms of attitudes to waste, particularly in the past 18 months or so as concerns about the climate crisis have increased significantly.

We’ve seen this first hand in Singapore! More than 240,000 items have been freely shared between neighbours on our app. OLIOers in Singapore are also two times more likely to add a listing compared to those in the UK – and that’s our most mature market.

The first five items listed on OLIO in Singapore were snacks, but since then we’ve seen activity expand beyond food to include everything from working electronics, cooking equipment and festive outfits, to stationery, baby items and more.

We’ve also seen some interesting variances by neighbourhood. For example, we’ve found that Serangoon Garden is one of the friendliest areas as around 16 percent of OLIO’s free listings are offered from that residential area. Whilst Tanjong Pagar is the best at making exchanges happen as that’s where OLIOers are the most successful at requesting and picking up items.

If yes, what do you think is driving this 'awakening'?

I think there are two main drivers – the first is concern about the climate crisis which has rapidly accelerated in the last couple of years as we’re starting to see its real-life effects unfolding all over the world.

And the second has been Covid, as the ‘great pause’ enforced by Covid has made people reflect on the sort of world they want to live in; and for many, they’re realising that it’s crazy to be throwing something away when someone living nearby would love it. 

What are common misgivings that people have about giving or receiving secondhand items?

Perhaps the biggest misconception is people thinking about giving items away worry that “no-one will want my things”. But that couldn’t be further from the truth! Half of all the food added to the app is requested in less than 30 minutes and half of all non-food items are requested within 5 hours. 

What would you want to say to them?

Our message to everyone is to just give it a go – you’ll be surprised by the demand and in giving something away you will more than likely make a neighbour’s day!

Any advice for turning sustainable actions into long-term habits? 

The most important thing to building a new habit is to just start with taking a small step today. We find that once people start living a less wasteful life they can’t stop – that’s because it feels so great to declutter, make friends and know you’re doing your little bit for the planet.