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RAS launches LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Campaign @ Coffeeshops

Guest-of-Honour (GOH) Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment Mr Baey Yam Keng launched the LOO Campaign @ Coffeeshops, together with RAS President Mr Ho after giving his speech at the 15th LOO Awards on 16th November. The campaign, which will end in 2026, aims to have coffeeshops achieve at least 3-stars equivalent rating in toilet cleanliness and better hygiene. The RAS will work with coffeeshop operators on the following phases:

· Audit – Audit toilets to determine the toilet standard.

· Training – Train cleaning attendants on proper washroom cleaning including an implementable clean toilet checklist.

· Education – Educate users to show kindness to attendants and nominate them for LOO Awards as well as conducting surveys.

· Recognition – Recognise exemplary coffeeshops to encourage them to come on board the Happy Toilet Programme.

After the 3-year LOO Campaign @ Hawker Centres, which was launched in April 2021, achieved positive outcomes, the new coffeeshop campaign was then launched. The latest study results by the Singapore Management University revealed an improvement to the toilet cleanliness index of hawker centres with a score of about 66%. The results clearly showed that efforts from the hawker centre campaign have paid off. The hawker centre campaign is scheduled to end in March 2024.

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RAS gives out 57 awards at the 15th LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Awards

57 exemplary organisations and individuals were recognised at the 15th LOO Awards. Among the recipients, 30 outstanding restroom attendants individually received $150 worth of grocery vouchers. Both attendants Mdm Wong Lai Ying, from LS2 Services Pte Ltd and Mdm Lim Siew Too from PCF Sparkletots Preschool @ Nanyang Blk 934 were singled out by GOH Mr Baey for achieving the highest categorical score among the attendants. Mdm Wong has 12 years of working experience and has been maintaining 5-star restrooms at Paya Lebar Quarter Mall while Mdm Lim has 27 years of working experience and the preschool where she worked also received a Platinum award for their 3-year certification under the Happy Toilets @ Preschools Programme.

One young and five adult awardees were also commended by Mr Baey in his speech. Darell Cheng, a student leader from Chongfu School, took on key responsibilities for various activities including restroom decorations and initiating recess activities, to involve students in activities such as making flower origami and writing notes to show appreciation to the cleaning attendants. Principal Lecturer Rosie Ching from the Singapore Management University led a group of 170 undergraduates on a toilet cleanliness survey of more than 1,200 coffeeshops and hawker centres island wide. The other four adults were all from the educational sector, who had contributed significantly to either looking at the wellbeing of cleaning attendants or educating the young on good restroom etiquette.

RAS supports the Clean Public Toilets Campaign launched by the National Environment Agency (NEA)

RAS joined GOH Mr Baey, the Public Hygiene Council (PHC) and the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM), to launch the NEA’s Clean Public Toilets Campaign at One Punggol Hawker Centre on 21^st November. The theme of the campaign is “Are you nice when no one’s around? Do it right for everyone” and it aims to encourage the public users to practise the socially desirable actions of ‘Clean, Flush, Dry & Bin’. RAS President Mr Ho pasted the educational posters, with the theme and key messages, at one of the toilet entrances. In its bid to support the NEA’s campaign, RAS launched the LOO Campaign @ Coffeeshops on 16th November.

RAS also shared with the media present that day that since launching the LOO (Let’s Observe Ourselves) Campaign @ Hawker Centres in 2021, it has reached out to 80 hawker centres. Educational tissue packets on showing kindness to cleaning attendants were distributed to more than 25,000 public patrons, garnering more than 1,200 online pledges to keep hawker centre toilets clean. Dating back to 2018 during the LOO Awards, a similar public toilet cleanliness campaign was launched by NEA and RAS with Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Dr Amy Khor gracing the launch. After a hiatus of two years, the NEA’s Clean Public Toilets Campaign was launched in 2021 with community partners PHC, SKM and RAS.