Oil to soap movement

Ending of Project GREASE

oiltosoapmovement — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:51:18 +0000

Hi everyone! Project GREASE will unfortunately be ending. However, the oil-to-soap movement will be adopted under RGS’s Science and Environment Club. We thank you for your continued support and although this may be the end of our Project, we hope that we have influenced you positively and introduced to you that liquid waste like oil can be recycled into soap. A big THANK YOU also goes out to our seniors, who started this wonderful movement and changed the way people think about recycling.

Please continue to reuse, reduce, and recycle actively!

No more sale of sodium hydroxide available!

oiltosoapmovement — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:43:25 +0000

We are really, really sorry to announce that we are no longer allowed to sell sodium hydroxide to the public. Sodium hydroxide is a caustic and dangerous chemical, and thus, it is controlled and we cannot sell it to the public. We know that with this, you guys will not be able to make soap at home anymore, which we are really regretful for, but please do continue to dispose of your used cooking oil properly (ie, tied in plastic bags and thrown in the rubbish), and support our cause by recycling actively! Thank you!

27 August-Outreach at Boon Lay with Code GREEN

oiltosoapmovement — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:47:37 +0000

On the 27th August, Saturday, four of us proceeded to Boon Lay Place for an outreach. We set up a small booth and gave out flyers, soap-making instruction booklets, bookmarks and magnets. It was really heartwarming how majority of the people found soap-making so interesting and wanted to take the soap-making instruction booklets back home to peruse.

Here’s Anabelle explaining the booth to an interested lady:

We also went up to stage to explain more about our project and also to do a live demonstration of how to make soap, which was a first for us.

One of the challenges we faced was that most of the residents did not understand English, so we had to translate everything into Mandarin, which was rather difficult for us because our Mandarin is not very good. Thankfully, Chun Hui’s Mandarin was really good, so she saved the day!

Overall, although the turnout was not as many as we expected, we still had loads of fun, and we learnt how to explain our project in Mandarin!

We would really like to thank our seniors in RI(JC) for giving us this wonderful opportunity to promote our project and cheering for us as we gave our presentation! Thanks!

Soap-making Workshop for NEA!

oiltosoapmovement — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:24:34 +0000

17th June was a special day for Project GREASE as the workshop was pretty massive (over 30 people)! It was held at RGS lab 7. It was also the first time Melissa presented alone on the project and procedures. The participants, from the National Environment Agency, were bubbling with questions and enthusiasm, and it was heartening to see that they really wanted to make beautiful soap and learn as much as they can about the movement. Unfortunately, Moira, Rachel Tan HP and Anabelle could not make it that day.

Melissa and Rachelle preparing for the presentation/workshop

Melissa and our teacher mentor, Mr De Souza, filtering oil

Dirty hands!

A participant pouring the mixture into the mould –– almost done!

Happy participants at their soaps’ completion

More happy participants(:

This exciting experience and exposure enabled us to become more confident in communicating and interacting with people, sharing with them our knowledge, clarifying their doubts and ascertaining that their soap-making process was proceeding correctly (that the different stages were achieved). Also, we were very glad that the participants enjoyed themselves so much and have the desire to make soap at home themselves! On a side note, we would like to thank Ms Lydia Tan for buying us lunch and the lab technicians for being so gracious to us!

● ORA Family Fest!

oiltosoapmovement — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 02:36:22 +0000

Last Saturday, the 17th of April, the Old Rafflesian Association Family Fest and Funfair(ORA) was held in RGS. Project GREASE held a booth in the hall. We sold pretty soaps that we had made ourselves!

It was a tiring day, as we tried to market our soaps to all the people that came to ORA and promote our project. The award for the person being able to sell the most soaps goes to Sophia, who managed to persuade lots of people to buy our soap!

It was a really fun experience, and we managed to sell nearly all of our soaps! Hurray!

This is our booth! Here’s Rachelle selling soap to a lovely customer! (:

And here’s a board giving people a really brief introduction of our cause.

These are the soaps packaged in pretty plastic bags. Some people even thought they were food!

All in all, ORA was a great experience for us because not only were we able to raise funds to run our project and create more awareness, we also got to enjoy ourselves!

● Assembly Talk at MGS Primary

oiltosoapmovement — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:10:30 +0000

At 915am, the six of us (Melissa, Chun Hui, Rachelle, Rachel 1, Moira and Rachel 2) rushed out of school to take a bus (actually it was two and a long walk) to MGS Primary School in Blackmore Drive. Here is MGS Primary in all its glory:

When the students streamed in, we felt really nervous, because it was the first tme any of us had actually done this kind of thing. But when we stood on stage, looking in the sea of eager little faces, and started introducing our project, we felt less nervous and more at ease. Here is a picture of Rachel 2 talking:
I think the students loved the quiz section best, maybe because the prizes were good? There was a pretty piece of soap hand-made by us, and corporate gifts provided by Ms Emily Tan. However, the video we showed them received a not-very-enthusiastic response, maybe because there was some problems with the audio.

We have learned a lot from this experience and hopefully next time, if we do these kinds of talks again, we will have more confidence and give a better talk!
MGS Primary will be our first school on board GREASE-ycle, so we will be collaborating with them in the future!

● Earth Hour at Bukit Panjang Plaza on 27 March

oiltosoapmovement — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:45:04 +0000

On the 27th of March, Saturday, I arrived with Moira at Bukit Panjang Plaza for the Earth Hour event, organized by NorthWest CDC. We walked around the Garden Plaza, which had several large boards up, educating the public on how to be green. I was really surprised, when I saw the What You Can And Cannot Recycle board, I saw our project at the bottom of it!

Yeah! As sucessors to this project, I hadn’t known that Grease-ycle was so popular and well-known! We were really pleased! Also, as our project concerns the 3Rs (Reuse, Reduce, Recycle), I thought to share with you this board:

Anyways, we ate a quick dinner in these really cool biodegrable containers, made of yam and corn husks (I think). Sorry we didn’t get a picture of it, we were too hungry! Then, as we waited for the GOH, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, to come, the emcee played some games with the audience. After Dr Balakrishnan arrived, he proceeded to deliver a quick speech, and prizes were presented to the residents in NorthWest CDC for being environmentally-conscious and saving lots of electricity.

When 8.30 came, the atmosphere became perceptibly more excited. We counted down from 5-1, and on the count of 1, all the lights were switched off and we waved our solar-laser-torchlight around estatically! It was really pretty cool, like disco lights.

Then, the various performance groups from Assumption English School, which had been specially invited to perform at this event. First up was the Dance Ensemble. They performed a lovely, moving piece called “Memory”. Up next was the Choir. They sang some nice pieces like “Somewhere over the Rainbow”, but unfortunately I cannot remember the names of the other songs. Then the Band played for us! They were really good, and managed to get the crowd into a “high” mood!

At 9.30pm, the event ended, and Moira and I went home! It was such a fun event! Thank you Ms Emily Tan for inviting us!

● 22 March 2010 – Networking Sessions for Green Clubs

oiltosoapmovement — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 07:30:25 +0000

NorthWest CDC organized a networking session for green club teachers and training for green club students on the 22 March. Nope, we’re not exactly a green club, but we still went because it happens to be in line with our cause, that is to promote active recycling (:

When we reached Woodlands Library, where the session was held, many other schools were already there. We also Ms Ng, the green club teacher from Marsling Secondary.

That’s Moira, Anabelle and Melissa bubbling with excitement.

We attended a workshop on the 3Rs of recycling, and we even made posters! The following are some photos of us working on our 3R posters. (Some of the pictures might be very blur, because the camera was not really good. Apologies!)

Look at everyone busy making their 3R posters!

Here’s Anabelle writing “Be Green”. Yes, heed what she says!

Sophia and Moira are busy designing the poster.

Hooray to our completed posters! From left to right are Anabelle, Melissa, Rachel Tan H.P., Chun Hui, Moira and Sophia. Unfortunately, Rachel Tan X.E. (yes, there are 2 Rachels) and Rachelle were unable to make it.

Those pretty posters displayed on the stage are done by the green clubs and us.

Following the making of the posters, we went for a reception. We were all starving by then, so off we went to get the food. They were noodles, vermicelli, kuehs, eclairs, bread, and fruit punch. We’re sorry to tell you that there are no pictures of the food because we were all busy eating

And that was the end of the networking session. Thus, I shall end this post with a group photo:

● 27 February 2010 – Yet another oil collection with Marsiling

oiltosoapmovement — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:28:12 +0000

I’m finding it a little difficult to write on behalf of Project GREASE (seeing as I am only 1 of 8 people) so I’ll be making this entry a little more personal, hope you don’t mind. =)

Only 2 of us were able to make it for the 2nd oil collection due to clashing schedules with House Practice which many of our members were involved in.

We ran low on manpower that day so most groups had only two people instead of three.

Of course, during the course of the oil collection we learnt to communicate better and I daresay my oral Mandarin has improved by a very minimal margin due to communication with Chinese speaking residents!

We knocked on less than half the doors of the last collection, and filled up our bottles to the brim, which satisfied us tremendously. I remember one unit where we collected a chunk of frozen oil!

It looked rather like cheesecake and I probably would have eaten it if not for the oily smell. I think that was the best part of the whole collection, other than getting to know the lifestyle of students in Marsiling better (most of my ‘knowledge’ was inferred from their conversations, though).

‘Inspired’ by this situation, I’d like to say this to everyone who is reading this entry: Oil does not have to be frozen. Under no circumstances are you required to freeze the oil before handing it over to us.

Now that it’s all said and done, I’d like to wish everyone an early March Holiday blessing, don’t worry too much if you have a mountain of homework waiting for you to do! I’m sure there will be things for you to do to de-stress, like reading our blog!

Oh, the author still doesn’t have any photographs from any of the oil collections, but she will put them up if she gets hold of any. =)

Edit: Here are some photos for you to enjoy!

After oil collection

And that was the end of another day at Woodlands (:

● 30 Jan 2010 – Oil Collection with Marsiling Secondary

oiltosoapmovement — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:23:48 +0000

The 2nd generation of Project GREASE members had their first taste of oil collection on Saturday, 30th Jan 2010.

Marsiling Secondary is a school that has volunteered to help in our movement to convert oil into soap. Their Green Club will be collecting oil in their area and also make soaps in their school.

We were all taken aback by the sheer number of people mobilised to help in the oil collection as we didn’t know what to expect. Of course, coming from an all girls school we weren’t exactly the most comfortable around the guys from Marsiling’s Green Club…

Needless to say, being completely green (no pun intended) to oil collection, we left the first few door-to-door visitations to the Marsiling students who were more than happy to guide us (we hope!). We learnt the ropes as quickly as we could and then began to actively participate in the oil collection.

We went from unit to unit to advocate our purpose and project, and though we were turned down more often than not, we were not discouraged. We even collected a few large bottles full of used oil!

It was a wonderful experience to be learning from others instead of teaching (like we would do during workshops)! Also, although we had to wake up ‘bright’ and early we were glad we came! It is nice to know how far Project GREASE has spread.

Sadly, the author currently does not have any photos of the event but she’ll be sure to upload them the minute she receives them!

Edit: Photos!

Project GREASE and Marsling Secondary School

Students from Marsling Secondary eagerly collecting info

We truly enjoyed ourselves then! Many thanks goes to Marsling Secondary for their invaluable help and support (: