Forum: Coffee shop toilet grants part of holistic approach to improve toilet cleanliness

We thank Mr John Tan Yue Han for his letter “Keeping coffee shops clean a challenge – no economies of scale or aid” (March 17). Making our public toilets cleaner requires a multi-faceted approach involving many stakeholders, and we recognise that various parties may face different challenges.

This is the reason for establishing the Public Toilets Taskforce (PTTF) in March 2024 to study ways to improve the cleanliness of our public toilets, especially those in coffee shops. In March 2025, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment endorsed the PTTF’s 10 recommendations which include providing grants to encourage coffee shops to undertake renovation and deep cleaning.

Beyond the PTTF’s recommendations, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Singapore Food Agency (SFA) have stepped up inspections and enforcement actions to improve the cleanliness of public toilets.

In 2024, the Year of Public Hygiene, SFA took around 960 enforcement actions against over 500 coffee shop operators for toilet-related offences. However, relying on enforcement alone is not enough. 

We agree that some operators of smaller or independent coffee shops may face challenges and require support as they often face higher per-unit costs in maintaining their facilities while managing other operational expenses. As such, we introduced the Coffeeshop Toilet Renovation Grant and the Coffeeshop Toilet Deep-Cleaning Grant to support improvements in coffee shop toilet cleanliness. 

The Coffeeshop Toilet Renovation Grant aims to support operators in upgrading their toilets for ease of cleaning and maintenance. The Coffeeshop Toilet Deep-Cleaning Grant supports regular deep cleaning to remove persistent stains and odour.  

Both grants will require cleaners engaged by the operators to be trained on-site to conduct proper cleaning and maintenance of toilets, among other conditions set out in the grants. NEA will release details of the grants later in 2025.

The $10 million budget is expected to support 100 to 200 coffee shops in improving their toilet cleanliness. We hope that these improved coffee shop toilets will be positive examples of how good designs, trained cleaners and regular deep cleaning can significantly enhance toilet cleanliness. With cleaner toilets, users will also be more inclined to keep the toilets clean.

The Government will continue to take a holistic and balanced approach to promote cleaner public toilets through grants, enforcement and educating the public to play their part and keep our public toilets clean.

Koh Min Ee
Divisional Director, Environmental Policy
Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment

Fong Peng Keong
Group Director, Public Health Services and Capabilities
National Environment Agency

Siti Suriani Abdul Majid
Senior Director, Joint Operations Division
Singapore Food Agency