After 40 years of operating out of a "good class bungalow", multi-material recycling and waste management company Wah & Hua will move into a "condominium unit" at high-rise industrial facility Kranji Green when it is completed next year.
Its current premises - a single-storey factory building - is about 80,000 sq ft, of which 50,000 sq ft is the production area, with the remaining area for a carpark, walkways and common areas.
The new premises will be about 40,000 sq ft.
Kranji Green, which will house waste management and recycling firms, will feature shared facilities to promote greater interaction among the community and facilitate reuse of industrial waste and by-products.
It is part of rejuvenation plans unveiled yesterday for the Sungei Kadut industrial estate, which is home to the likes of timber and furniture companies.
Ms Melissa Tan, general manager of Wah & Hua, said companies moving to the Kranji Green facility will benefit from the co-location of synergistic companies.
For example, a load of recyclables that comes to Kranji Green can be efficiently sorted out with different materials such as plastics and paper sent to companies specialising in handling them, while wood waste can be sent to companies that use it in their products, she said.
"With all this easy accessibility between companies within the industry, it reduces the carbon footprint and time, and is more efficient and productive for the workers as well," said Ms Tan, who is chairman of the Waste Management & Recycling Association of Singapore.
Wah & Hua is also looking at robotic forklifts and automated maintenance of its equipment for its new facility at Kranji Green, she added.
Ms May Yap, chief executive of wooden pallet manufacturer LHT Holdings, said her company is building a five-storey factory that will have more than 480,000 sq ft of floor space.
Construction on the facility started earlier this month and is slated for completion around the end of next year or the start of 2022.
LHT Holdings also offers services such as logistics support, waste disposal and industrial packaging.
"It is very hard to get Singaporeans to work in our industry, so we have been trying to make our recycling business more automated and environmentally sustainable to attract them," Ms Yap said in Mandarin.
JTC is also crowd-sourcing ideas for the rejuvenation of two other industrial estates - Yishun Industrial Estate, which houses general manufacturing and electronics firms, as well as motor workshops, and Kallang-Kolam Ayer Industrial Estate, which has a mix of general manufacturing, semiconductor and warehousing companies.
The two sites were selected for their potential for rejuvenation, given their proximity to residential areas and major transport nodes, JTC said.
Other notable industrial rejuvenation projects mooted in recent years include the redevelopment of Paya Lebar Air Base and Pasir Panjang Power District.
Development of Jurong Innovation District, the first phase of which is expected to be completed around 2022, and Punggol Digital District, slated for completion from 2023, are under way.
