Used coke cans, green grass, and the smell of compost don’t quite equate to the Youth Olympic Games (YOG).

Photo by Jeremy Tan: Bring home your very own plant in a recycled drink can

It were these very ingredients however, that contributed to the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) receipe for environmental awareness.

CAN! Green, in conjunction with the South West district of Singapore’s Clean and Green event, drew families, students, and various members of the public to HortPark for a day of fresh air and warm sunshine.

For an event flying in representatives from 205 countries the world over, YOG definitely needs green measures to cushion the environmental impact of hosting 5,000 athletes and officials.

There was plenty going on - dancing, drumming, recycling, giving away plants potted into used drink cans, and even an eco-fair where crazily enough, you could’ve bought environmentally-friendly refrigerators, laptops and washing machines.

Photo by Jeremy Tan: These people got down and dirty on slabs of mud, a symbolic representation of their carbon footprint.

Apart from the sale of (green) electronic appliances, the rest of the activities were carried out by members of the community- Schools were brought in to set up booths, dance school students were invited to entertain the crowd, and young volunteers with the YOG were also there to facilitate the activities.

Photo by Jeremy Tan: The Raffles Girls' School team received a prize for their environmentally friendly game created for the Singapore Games Creation Competition 2009.

Ms Han Liang Yuan, the Director of Communications and Public Relations at SYOGOC, spoke about the YOG reaching out and involving the community in its activities.

“To reach out to more people, the YOG holds the CAN! Festivals, each with its different themes. This will help people to learn about and identify the YOG with these different themes”, she said.

They certainly do sound educational, but Singaporeans don’t exactly need to be educated on the environment, do they? After all, the great national pastime is completely clean and very green– Joining a queue for free stuff.

Photo by Jeremy Tan: These potted plants were a hit among Singaporeans. Or were they just queueing up for a green freebie?

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