What would it take for S’pore to shed the dirty image of its blue recycling bins?

SINGAPORE – These days, Singapore is armed with more recycling bins than it has ever had. Yet, households here are recycling less of their waste than they did over a decade ago.

Domestic recycling rates were at an

all-time low of 12 per cent

in 2022 and 2023, a far cry from the target of 30 per cent set by the Government for 2030. The waste statistics for 2024 have yet to be released.

The low recycling rate is not because people here are not recycling. A 2023 survey by the National Environment Agency (NEA) found that 72 per cent of households here recycled, up from 64 per cent in 2021.

Instead, recycling efforts have been stymied by those who treat the commingled blue bins under the national recycling programme as rubbish bins, sullying batches of recyclables.

For example, a survey of the overflowing recycling bins near my home revealed contaminants like soiled tissue, a disposable plastic packet with traces of milk tea and an oil stained wrapper in the big blue bins.

The contamination means that about 40 per cent of what goes into these blue bins cannot be recycled.

Against this gloomy backdrop, some organisations are taking matters into their own hands.

The Straits Times

reported last week

that a public waste collector and an environmental group here have initiated segregated recycling points that aim to counter the ills of commingled blue bins.

These efforts lowered contamination rates to as low as less than 5 per cent, according to early findings by non-governmental organisation Zero Waste SG.

Segregated recycling infrastructure is also a tried-and-tested solution practised by places famed for their recycling etiquette, like Taiwan, Germany and South Korea. But will this be suitable for an island that is already saturated with hundreds of recycling points in residential estates and public spaces?

Infrastructure aside, people here will also need a refreshed attitude towards waste management if Singapore is to meet its recycling goals.

Singapore’s Semakau Landfill is expected to run out of room by 2035, a decade earlier than estimated. This highlights the urgency in developing a culture of recycling to lighten the load on the city-state’s sole landfill.

Singapore’s recycling blues

At the heart of poor recycling habits in Singapore is a disconnect between top-down recycling policies and waste disposal habits on the ground, argued researchers from NUS’ Asia Research Institute and the French National Centre for Scientific Research in a 2024 study.

Through interviews with 114 residents here, the researchers found that most of them were reluctant to recycle because these bins were so badly contaminated with non-recyclables and organic waste.

The lack of a system that rewards good recycling practices and punishes bad ones has resulted in people recycling based on their convenience, the researchers noted.

Singapore has for decades struggled with apathy from its people towards recycling, and parliamentary discussions on the issue go back to the 1990s.

Multiple factors could be at play, found two studies by Zero Waste SG in 2024. These include the greater convenience brought about by rubbish chutes, the extra effort needed to clean recyclables, and a lack of confidence in the efficacy of the recycling process.

The ease of disposing of waste means that rubbish could be chucked without much thought or effort.

Once out of sight, the waste is seamlessly processed by Singapore’s three public waste collectors. Most end up incinerated and dumped on offshore island Semakau.

Efforts to make it more convenient for people to recycle have not shown noticeable success.

The Government has mandated recycling chutes at new Housing Board blocks since 2014, followed by certain private residential developments. But the yearly recycling statistics have shown that domestic recycling rates did not improve.

Waste management experts have long recommended that Singapore learn from the policies implemented by economies with sophisticated recycling cultures such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

Users there are charged based on how much waste they throw away, while recycling is generally free.

Taiwan is notable for shedding its image as a “garbage island” in less than two decades through a concerted combination of strict policies, incentives and public education programmes.

Taiwanese residents, manufacturers and importers are made to pay for waste disposal. Those who do not comply face fines, while whistle-blowers receive financial rewards.

To prevent residents from dumping their household waste in public bins, the Taiwanese government took away most of these bins.

Through these efforts, recycling has become a routine that starts with a dedicated truck that alerts residents to bring down their sorted waste by broadcasting classical music.

While there is no solution that fits every country, the example of Taiwan shows that a tough stance on recycling backed by political will can transform habits.

A fine nation

There are just five years left for Singapore to meet its 2030 recycling targets.

Moreover, the drop in overall recycling rate from 62 per cent in 2013 to 52 per cent in 2023, as well as consistently poor domestic recycling rates, should prompt soul-searching about whether the Republic’s current approach to recycling waste is working.

It would certainly be ideal if residents can simply make the practice part of their lives, like the Japanese do with the concept of “mottainai”, which translates as not wasting anything worthy.

But efforts to encourage Singapore residents to recycle have been ongoing since 2001.

Ultimately, the fate of Singapore’s recycling habits and infrastructure will rest on how seriously the authorities think recycling is for the nation’s future.

In Singapore, imposing fines has shown more success in changing behaviours compared with public outreach campaigns.

In 2021, after years of reminding people to return their trays at hawker centres and coffee shops, NEA made not doing so a fineable offence.

Since then, it has been rare to find a tray lingering on a hawker centre table.