You Won't Believe It's Trash 2022 | People. Places. Planet.

Mr Simon Tan, a former shipyard mechanic and self-taught artist, gives discarded items such as cardboard boxes, broom heads and other materials a new lease of life in the form of movie props and models. He uses his creativity and craftsmanship to fashion detailed models – including a 1.2m tall Ovomorph from Alien vs Predators – out of recycled materials collected from his housing estate. These art pieces were showcased at his first-ever public exhibition at Y.W.B.I.T 2022 – Trash to Art to promote sustainable and zero-waste habits among shoppers, tenants, and general public.

The exhibition featured illustrations designed by Ms Woo Qiyun, a local environmentalist and self-taught doodler, on how malls can be reimagined to enable low-waste shopping and encourage circularity. 

​Y.W.B.I.T 2022 - Trash to Art featured an onsite vending machine to collect empty and clean aluminium drink cans, plastic drink bottles and papers for recycling. The roving exhibition was held at Paya Lebar Quarter, Jem, Parkway Parade and 313@somerset from 25 March to 18 May 2022.​​

Lendlease Plus members were encouraged to deposit their qualifying recyclables in exchange for Lendlease Plus$. Each aluminium drink can and plastic drink bottle was exchanged for 100 Plus$. Each kilogram of recyclable paper was exchanged for 1,000 Plus$, and every subsequent 100gram earning 100 Plus$.

At the end of the exhibition, approximately 48,000 units of plastic bottles, 48,000 units of aluminium cans and 18,800 kilogram of papers were collected across 313@somerset, Jem, Parkway Parade and Paya Lebar Quarter collectively.​