Recently, many netizens raised concerns over a video that showed birds feasting off returned plates at a hawker centre.

The threat of a fine has certainly been successful in getting diners to return their used plates and trays, but it seems that this is not the end of the story. Food scraps, when not cleared, still pose sanitation concerns.

We can raise public cleanliness standards if each of us plays a part. One way could be to place a large step-bin next to each tray-return station, and have a year-long public awareness campaign with televised outreach to encourage people to wipe their tables clean, and empty their food waste into the bins before stacking up their plates.

This would put our food waste out of easy reach of the birds and also rats. We could even recycle the food waste.

Candice Yeo Chay Hoon