Wen Shin Chia

Chia was born in Kuala Lumpur and raised in Selengor, Malaysia. She is the youngest among two siblings. Her mother died when she was 15 years old.^[6]

Chia attended SMK Kepong.^[6]

Chia earned a bachelor's degree in Environmental Science and Technology from Universiti Putra Malaysia. She decided to take it after noticing the increasing pollution in camping and hiking sites she used to frequent to.^[7][8][9] At her third year, Chia conducted a survey and found out that 90 percent of Malaysian households are oblivious on how to properly dispose cooking oil — a majority admitted to dumping it into sinks, drains and toilet bowls. Hence, Chia's university project was a community-based initiative in recycling cooking oils to soaps.^[7][10]

Chia worked as a product development executive at an agri-chemical company for a few months before establishing Green Yards.^[6][11]

Green Yards is a social enterprise that recycles cooking oil to eco-friendly products and aims to reduce water pollution in Malaysia in return. Green Yards collects used oil from households, restaurants and markets. They give free soap per 5 kg of oil.^[1][4][12] In its first year, Green Yards was able to prevent 4.7 tonnes of cooking oil from being dumped.^[12]

Green Yards also conducts recycling workshops.^[6][10][12]