03 Household Waste Generation: Understanding Family Practices and Challenges in Singapore

Economic development and population growth have led to rapid escalation in household waste generation, giving rise to major challenges for many small nations such as Singapore. The intensity of the problem is clearly recognised and echoed in numerous initiatives directed at different segments of the population, including young children and their families. While it is unanimously agreed upon that families play a critical role in promoting environmentally sustainable practices at home, less is empirically known about the nature of support parents provide to facilitate children’s meaning-making on matters related to household waste generation, intergenerational learning, and the everyday challenges they experience. Set against this backdrop and guided by the socio-constructivist framework, this paper presents data gathered from semi-structured interviews with parents of six-year-old children from a local kindergarten that implemented a ten-week programme on saving earth, with a specific focus on Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle (3Rs) in Singapore. Findings indicated a clear recognition of household waste generation as an environmental issue and ways in which they facilitated their children’s meaning-making. However, knowledge gap and time poverty were major hindrances to family engagement. Findings of the study highlight the need for a more nuanced understanding of factors that impede parental engagement, with implications for home-school collaborative practices and parent education.