We thank Ms Francine Chu for her letter and recycling efforts (Charge people for amount of non-recyclable waste discarded; March 24).

The National Environment Agency conducts regular surveys and studies to find out what motivates people to recycle.

Based on surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016, about 83 per cent of households practised recycling. Of these, 91 per cent indicated that they did so via the recycling bins provided by public waste collectors.

In addition, more than half of the residents in private developments surveyed indicated that they preferred to have a recycling bin at their block rather than one common bin for the whole estate. Hence, we are making it a requirement for condominium managements to provide one recycling bin per block from Aug 1 this year.

The surveys also indicated that inconvenience was a barrier to recycling. To encourage more residents to recycle, new public housing developments that have been launched since 2014 are fitted with dual chutes for refuse and recyclables.

The measure will also apply to all new non-landed private residential developments higher than four storeys, and will come into effect for new development applications submitted to the Urban Redevelopment Authority from April 1.

Information on how and what to recycle, as well as the location of the nearest recycling bins and collection points for recyclables, is available on our website and the myENV mobile app.

Ultimately, active participation in recycling by all residents is key to improving our domestic recycling rate. We will continue to explore new measures to improve our domestic recycling rate as we work towards our vision of Singapore as a zero-waste nation.

Ong Soo San

Director, Waste and Resource Management Department

National Environment Agency