Singapore’s domestic recycling rate drops to all-time low of 11%
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In 2024, Singapore’s overall recycling rate was 50 per cent, down from the 52 per cent overall recycling rate in 2023.
ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN
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SINGAPORE –The household recycling rate in 2024 fell to a record low of 11 per cent, down from the previous low of 12 per cent in 2023 and 2022.
This comes despite initiatives to encourage more household recycling, such as the distribution of recycling boxes
The National Environment Agency (NEA) told The Straits Times that the dip in 2024 was largely due to less paper and cardboard waste being recycled, although less domestic waste was generated that year.
The domestic recycling rate for 2024 was released by NEA on July 23 as part of its waste statistics for the year, which also showed a decline in Singapore’s overall recycling rate.
In 2024, Singapore’s overall recycling rate stood at 50 per cent, down from the 52 per cent in 2023
The overall rate includes waste from both domestic and non-domestic sectors.
Domestic waste refers to waste from households, shophouses, petrol stations, hawker centres, educational institutions and places of worship.
The non-domestic sector includes commercial and industrial premises.
What’s behind the drop in recycling rate
NEA said one reason for the drop in the overall recycling rate over the past decade was the reduction of waste from demolition projects, as well as the lower amount of used slag – waste generated during steel smelting activities – due to fewer such activities here.
These types of waste are almost completely recycled.
The decline in the overall recycling rate for 2024 was also partly due to less wood waste being processed, following a short-term reduction in wood processing capacity that year, NEA said.
The sharp drop in paper and cardboard being recycled also contributed to lower recycling rates in 2024. The paper recycling rate fell from 52 per cent in 2018 to 32 per cent in 2024.
Several factors led to this decline, including the growing amounts of paper and cardboard waste generated. In 2024, Singapore generated 1.27 million tonnes of such waste – the highest in the past decade.
While the total volume of such waste had initially decreased from 2014 to 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise of e-commerce reversed this progress.
Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Janil Puthucheary said more paper and cardboard had to be thrown away because the business incentives for recycling these materials have weakened. He cited higher collection costs due to manpower shortage and rising transport costs, higher freighting cost and fluctuating offtake prices.
Recyclables are traded as commodities in the global market, which affects business viability, he added, during a visit to a food waste research and development facility on July 23.
For Singapore’s paper to be recycled, it has to be baled and exported overseas, as there are no local paper pulping facilities.
Contamination also remains a major challenge for domestic recycling in Singapore. When non-recyclables such as food are thrown into the commingled recycling bins, they contaminate the lot, which then has to be thrown out. The contamination rate at such bins is estimated to be about 40 per cent.
Focus on boosting paper recycling
Dr Janil announced that the Government plans to step up efforts to boost paper recycling.
“We are working with industry to see how we can better support them, given the weakening economics of paper recycling,” he said.
“At the same time, we are also looking at how to make paper recycling – especially cardboard – easier, as it tends to be bulky.”
Mottainai Food Tech co-founder Daryl Pek, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Janil Puthucheary, MP Rachel Ong and Tai Hua Food Industries director Thomas Pek at the opening of Mottainai Food Tech’s manufacturing facility and laboratory in Jurong on July 23.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
An NEA spokesperson said the agency has noticed more cardboard packaging waste in recent years.
In March, the NEA released a set of guidelines
One solution being studied is the use of metal cages to collect used cardboard boxes, which the agency has observed in some residential estates.
If implemented, these cages would mark another type of infrastructure to segregate Singapore’s recyclables, which have typically been commingled in blue recycling bins.
Speaking to the media, Dr Janil said the Government will continue pursuing its target of a 70 per cent recycling rate by 2030, focusing on waste streams – such as cardboard – where the total amount has gone up and recycling rates have fallen.
Ground-up efforts to increase paper recycling by reducing their contamination in commingled bins have been piloted before.
In 2021, recycling machines for paper
NEA data also shows that while the overall waste being generated in Singapore is trending downwards in both domestic and non-domestic sectors, the declining recycling rates mean more waste is being disposed of.
The daily domestic waste produced per capita fell from 0.88kg in 2023 to 0.85kg in 2024. Likewise, the daily non-domestic waste produced per billion dollars of gross domestic product dropped from about 25 tonnes in 2023 to around 23 tonnes in 2024.
But the total amount of waste disposed of rose from 3.04 million tonnes in 2014 to 3.33 million tonnes in 2024. The waste thrown out in 2023 was 3.3 million tonnes.
Food waste recycling bears results
Food waste recycled in 2024 showed a sustained increase from a decade ago, according to NEA statistics. This follows the introduction of new reporting requirements for large food waste generators in March 2024.
About 18 per cent of food waste was recycled in 2024 – the same as in 2023 and 2022. The rate was 13 per cent in 2014.
Since March 2024, large food waste generators at new buildings such as hotels, restaurants and food manufacturers have been required to segregate, treat and report their food waste. NEA said these requirements will be progressively expanded from 2027 to existing large commercial and industrial food waste generators, in line with the completion of a food waste treatment facility at Tuas Nexus.
The food waste collected will be co-digested with used water sludge from the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant, which can produce biogas for energy generation.
The 2024 waste statistics were released alongside the opening of a manufacturing facility and laboratory in Jurong by upcycling firm Mottainai Food Tech.
The Singapore-based start-up – named after the Japanese word “for not being wasteful” – turns food waste into novel products. These include a protein made from okara, the pulp left behind from making soya-based items such as soya milk and tofu.
In a statement, Mottainai Food Tech said its facility is capable of upcycling about 100 tonnes of food manufacturing by-products annually. This is the equivalent to dealing with around 1 per cent of Singapore’s annual okara waste.
For every 300kg of okara waste, the firm can produce 250kg of protein, the firm’s lead scientist Chua Jian Yong told ST. The protein was added to pizza, steamed dumplings and other dishes for Dr Janil and industry partners to sample at the facility’s launch.
Commending the company’s efforts, Dr Janil said: “In an increasing resource-constrained world, closing the resource loop is crucial... It means nothing goes to waste, the output of one process becomes the input to another process.”
Most of Singapore’s non-recyclable waste are incinerated, and the ash placed in a landfill. Singapore’s only landfill in offshore island Semakau is expected to be fully filled by 2035.
Dr Janil called on Singaporeans and businesses to take further action to reduce waste. “Individuals can do our part by carrying out simple actions such as being careful about how much food we buy and cook, avoiding single-use disposables and treating our blue bins well by recycling properly,” he said.
