SINGAPORE — Property agent Rose Tan throws her domestic waste in the designated blue recycling bins below her flat two to three times a day.
“Things like metal cans can be remade into something else, and they’re very useful for us. Why waste it?” said the 75-year-old.Speaking to TODAY after his grocery shopping in Bishan, the 43-year-old said he recycles almost every day.
According to a 2021 National Environment Agency survey, three in five households reported practising recycling. The survey also found an increased awareness that recyclables collected from the blue bins in housing estates and recycling chutes were sorted at central sorting facilities. In response to TODAY’s queries, NEA said that the amount of paper and cardboard recycled has been lower since 2018 due to weaker demand from export markets and high freight costs.E-commerce and online shopping has also led to an increase in paper and cardboard being disposed of, further reducing the recycling rate for these materials, said an NEA spokesperson.
Among other measures to boost recycling rates, the Government has strengthened local recycling capabilities and launched a campaign on how to reduce contamination of recyclable waste. China, once the world’s largest importer of recyclable waste, banned the import of certain recyclable materials in 2018, including mixed paper and mixed plastics, through its “National Sword” policy.
According to Resource Recycling, a news website dedicated to recycling, recovered fiber exports from the United States dipped by more than 13 per cent from 2018 to 2019, its largest year-on-year decline since 2000.Besides China, other countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia have also tightened their requirements for recycling waste imports.between 2015 and 2019 had also dropped steadily.
In September 2021, it cost US$20,600 to ship a 40-foot container from China to America’s west coast, although this figure dropped to US$1,400 earlier this year, similar to pre-pandemic levels. In Singapore, recyclable waste is collected, sorted and sold to recyclers either locally or overseas, who will then convert the recycled items into new materials or products that they can sell.
“If there’s nobody who wants recycled materials, then clearly, nothing is going to justify a freight cost that is high for you to bring it to somewhere that nobody wants,” she said. She said that Singapore is committed to strengthening its local recycling capabilities, and is making “good progress”. However, experts cautioned that given the high land and labour costs in Singapore, there would be limits to how much it could expand its recycling capacity.
“The correct sorting and disposal of recyclable materials may become more difficult as a result of the increased waste creation,” said Ms Teo. The authorities have justified this single-stream, or commingling approach, as one that helps to improve the recycling rate as it is more convenient for residents to recycle without having to sort their recyclables by material type.
Ms Robin Rheaume, the founder of Recyclopedia.sg, a ground-up initiative educating people on recycling, said that while plastic from industries may be easier to recycle because the material is homogenous and in large quantities, recyclable plastic from households is harder to sort, and therefore more prone to contamination.
Ms Rheaume said material recovery facilities in Singapore may not have the technology required to sort and process recyclables to match the purity levels required by importers. Ms Rheaume said that the logistics of having separate bins might be challenging in a place so densely populated like Singapore.
For example, the inaugural Recycle Right campaign was started in 2019. A new mascot, community and school outreach, and a search engine to identify recyclable items were also launched in January 2022.As 2030 beckons, Singapore continues to grapple between the twin needs of improving the effectiveness of its recycling process and keeping it convenient for residents to recycle their domestic waste.
Following other countries’ models might also be another way to work around the structural limitations that Singapore has, such as the density and already pre-existing infrastructure that makes building a recycling chute in every block challenging. Other environmental experts noted that Singapore is moving some way towards introducing single-stream recycling processes.
An automatic segregation system will allow the sorting of materials in a central facility to be done in a cost and energy-efficient manner. “Items containing food or liquid waste are sometimes disposed of in recycling bins. Non-recyclable items such as soft toys and clothing are also sometimes found in recycling bins,” she said.
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