SINGAPORE - New environmentally friendly and high-tech waste collection trucks are rolling out on April 1 to serve about 151,000 households in the western part of Singapore.
This comes after the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Monday (March 16) awarded a new seven-year waste collection contract for the Jurong sector to Alba W&H, a joint venture between European environmental solutions company Alba and home-grown waste management firm Wah & Hua.
The trucks have solar mats installed on their roofs to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.
Alba W&H's fleet will comprise 29 new trucks, of which three will be fully electric. The rest run on diesel engines.
NEA was not able to say if the trucks are the first with solar mats to be deployed here.
Alba W&H's trucks with rear-end loaders will also be equipped with load cells that can measure the weight of the waste collected in real time, which will help NEA to better formulate its waste reduction programmes.
Additionally, Alba W&H will deploy side-loader recycling bins at 591 HDB blocks for its four recycling trucks, which will be painted the same shade of blue as recycling bins.
The side-loader will help the truck driver collect the recyclables by himself without the assistance of additional crew, saving manpower and boosting productivity, NEA said.
The Jurong sector covers the West Coast, Chua Chu Kang, Jurong and Holland-Bukit Timah GRCs (group representation constituencies), and the Hong Kah North, Pioneer, Yuhua and Bukit Batok SMCs (single-member constituencies).
Alba W&H 's trucks will service 151,000 households and 5,000 trade premises, including hawker stalls, shops, places of worship and government buildings.
The company's contract with NEA runs from April 1 to March 31, 2027.
Residents will also be able to make use of a new mobile app called Step Up Recycling, which awards points to users who make an effort to recycle and segregate their waste properly.
Users collect the points by scanning QR codes found on the blue recycling bins around their neighbourhood and can be used to redeem rewards, NEA said.
The app will also show the user the location of the nearest recycling bin, and provide information and dates of upcoming educational and recyclable collection events.
There will be no changes to domestic refuse collection fees for households in HDB flats, condominiums and landed premises.
The fees will remain at $8.25 and $27.47 a month respectively.
