ONE way to breathe new life into an old concept is by getting well-known personalities to champion it.

This was the strategy adopted by three final year NTU students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information who launched ‘(minus)plastic’, a public awareness campaign targeting 10,000 youth in Singapore to pledge towards reducing plastic usage in 2008.

Together with Environmental Challenge Organization (Singapore), the campaign was launched on 12th January at the Atrium@Orchard. Nominated Member of Parliament, Miss Eunice Olsen, was the guest of honour for the event.

Apart from urging those present to use alternatives for plastic during her speech, she led by example, showing them a foldable canvas bag she had bought for her own shopping needs.

Also lending their presence to the launch were celebrities such as IPOP artiste Paul Twohill, and MediaCorp Radio 98FM DJ Rosalyn Lee. They had been approached by the final-year project group to blog about their experiences in reducing plastic usage over a seven-day challenge on the campaign website, hosted by youth.SG.

Prior to the event, both celebrities had competed in two challenges, which involved reducing their usage of plastic takeaway containers and plastic bottles. At the launch, they mingled with game participants and completed their final challenge, which was to purchase a beverage with their own mug from a coffee joint in Plaza Singapura.

Mr Kephren Ayanari, 18, was one of the 400 people who attended the launch after learning about it online from websites such as facebook.com and youth.sg.

Describing it as “pretty cool, unique and innovative”, Mr Ayanari felt that having celebrities promote plastic reduction was an effective approach.

Team leader Elaine Lim felt that star appeal helped generate initial interest but finally, it was the message itself that would sustain interest in the campaign.

“We are bringing the message closer to the heart, that you can make an impact by just incorporating simple and easy habits into your daily lives,” she said.

To date, the team has garnered over 800 pledges, which is still distant from their target of 10,000 pledges by the end of February. However, Lim is optimistic that they can reach their target by appealing to more youths through email.