But since a chute just for such refuse was installed on every level of her block of flats in Choa Chu Kang Avenue 2, her green trip is now a mere five steps away. The separate chutes for recyclable refuse such as bottles, cans and papers was part of a pilot project to make being environmentally friendly convenient for households in the heartlands.

Block 297C in Choa Chu Kang Ave 2 where she lives was the testbed.

Called the Recyclable Intermediate Chute Holding (RICH) system, it was developed by SembEnviro and installed next to the existing waste hopper at every floor of the apartment block in December 2006.

Stickers on the environmentally-friendly hopper shows which of the two is for recyclable refuse.

Unlike the current centralised refuse chutes, which collect rubbish at ground level, RICH allows recyclable materials to be stored on intermediate floors.

A spokesman for SembEnviro told The Straits Times that these are collected every week.

Within the first seven months, the participation rate of households in recycling increased to 93 per cent in Jul last year - from 67 per cent at the start of the programme.

The scheme also resulted in an average of 850 kg of recyclables collected a month - eight times the amount collected from any other HDB block.

The impressive increase in recyclable waste collected at the Choa Chu Kang block was brought up by Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim in Parliament during the question and answer session on Wednesday.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.