Website launched to help people find beverage container return machines for 10-cent refund

SINGAPORE - Consumers can now visit https://returnright.sg to find the nearest machine to return their beverage containers and redeem their 10-cent deposits.

The website will also indicate the machines’ capacity status and their operating hours.

Launched ahead of the roll-out of the Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) on April 1, the website will allow people to find 1,070 machines placed at supermarkets, hawker centres and other high-footfall areas.

More than 90 per cent of HDB households will be within a five-minute walk of a machine.

Another 160 machines will be gradually deployed after April 1, and people can also get updates on their locations via the website. The aim is to have 2,000 machines deployed across Singapore in the first year of the scheme.

The website was announced by the scheme’s operator, BCRS Ltd, on March 18, which is Global Recycling Day.

Under the scheme helmed by the National Environment Agency (NEA), consumers pay a 10-cent deposit for bottled and canned drinks that range from 150ml to 3 litres.

Customers can retrieve their deposits by returning empty beverage containers that bear the scheme’s deposit mark at the Return Right machines. The refunds can be credited to their ez-link cards or DBS PayLah! wallets.

The locations of the 1,070 machines available from April 1 include more than 430 supermarkets and retail outlets, as well as more than 610 town council-managed areas such as HDB void decks, said NEA and BCRS Ltd in a joint statement.

These locations include Giant and FairPrice supermarkets, as well as HDB estates in Toa Payoh and Tampines.

Within the next few months, all hawker centres will have either an on-site machine or access to a machine nearby, up from 17 “high-footfall hawker centres” at the start of April, they added. Buangkok Hawker Centre, Amoy Street Food Centre and Kampung Admiralty Hawker Centre are among the first batch of hawker centres.

Institutes of higher learning will also get at least one machine in the coming months.

Likewise, 36 locations with high footfall in industrial areas – such as Block 36 Sin Ming Industrial Estate – will eventually be equipped with machines, with additional locations identified based on return rates and the footfall patterns of workers there.

“Plans are also under way for Return Right machines to be available at large migrant worker dormitories and all recreation centres,” said NEA and BCRS Ltd.

They said return patterns will be monitored and feedback gathered from the community to determine optimal placement for new return points, ensuring the network continues to meet consumer needs effectively.

Speaking at a media preview to demonstrate how the machines work on March 18, BCRS Ltd chief executive Stephanie Yip said she anticipates that people may try to return any beverage container at the machines and expect to receive a refund.

But only containers with the scheme’s deposit mark can be deposited, she said.

“This is not a bin, this is very much a waste ATM,” she quipped.

The containers should also not be crushed, and the barcode should remain intact.

NEA and BCRS Ltd said “Return Right ambassadors” will be deployed at selected times at Return Right machines to assist members of the public who require help with the return process.

As businesses have been given until Sept 30 to clear out their old stock, some beverage containers will not have the mark by April 1.

To further help eligible micro-producers that import a wide variety of beverage products in relatively small volumes, BCRS Ltd said it will introduce additional concessions to help them comply with the scheme.

NEA had earlier offered them a grant of up to $2,500 to offset costs such as product registration fees, producer fees and the cost of the scheme stickers.

Under the new special registration concession, micro-producers supplying fewer than 50,000 units of beverage products annually will no longer need to register individual products. This will apply to aluminium cans for a start.

Instead, eligible micro-producers can purchase up to 50,000 pre-serialised stickers each year under the BCRS as a substitute for individual product registration.

These pre-serialised stickers, which are unique to each micro-producer, include the deposit mark and a 2D matrix to ensure that consumers can successfully receive their deposit refunds.

In line with the extended transition period for producers to ensure their products carry the deposit mark, the sticker quota for micro-producers in the first BCRS year – which runs from Oct 1, 2026, to March 31, 2027 – will be pro-rated.

For example, the available quota for this six-month period will be 25,000 stickers.

Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Janil Puthucheary, who attended the preview, said the team behind the scheme is prepared to adapt it after its launch, welcoming customers’ suggestions.

He said: “We do have community groups, non-profit groups, who are excited about the opportunity to engage and refresh and energise people about recycling as a whole, that this is a starting point for another wave of education and engagement around sustainability and recycling.”

He said the Government hopes to recover a “significant proportion” of about 1.2 billion containers used annually.

Singapore’s household recycling rate in 2024 fell to a record low of 11 per cent. Overall, the country saw only 5 per cent of its plastic waste recycled.

Dr Janil added: “That will be very important (in) increasing our recycling rates, reducing our landfill and then providing a feedstock for that material to then become part of the virtuous circle going into the next generation of food and beverage containers.”

Consumers can provide their suggestions through the website, with their feedback offering valuable input for BCRS Ltd.

The machines are installed and managed by Swedish firm RVM Systems, Singapore firm SG Recycle and Norwegian firm TOMRA.

Return Right machines will be cleared daily, with regular preventive maintenance carried out to ensure reliability and minimise downtime, said NEA and BCRS Ltd.

They added that the consumer experience will remain consistent across the different machines run by the firms, which have an aligned user interface in Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and English.

As part of the Return Right F&B scheme, some restaurants and F&B establishments with dine-in services will not charge customers the 10-cent deposit for beverage containers.

These establishments, known as “Return Right F&B outlets”, have signs and decals to help customers identify them. To date, more than 500 outlets have signed up.

The concept of reverse vending machines was first tested here in 2019 by NEA and F&N Foods.

How to return your beverage containers

Step 1: Check the beverage container for the deposit mark

Step 2: Locate the nearest reverse vending machine at returnright.sg

Step 3: Insert one container at a time into the machine

Step 4: Receive 10 cents digitally for every return 

Things to know: 

SOURCES: NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, BCRS LTD

Correction note: This story has been updated for clarity.