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World Cities Summit Issue, Jun 2008
Waste Management and
Economic Growth
Lee Yuen Hee
The waste recycling industry in Singapore now includes companies with the capability to recycle and process electronic waste, food waste, wood waste, horticultural waste, used copper slag, construction and demolition waste, ferrous waste and plastic waste.
The major types of non-incinerable waste sent directly to the landfill are construction waste, stabilised industrial sludge, residues and ashes, much of which has been diverted, over the years, for reprocessing into useful materials such as aggregates for reuse. At the same time, industry best practices and "less-waste" design and construction methods have also minimised the generation of such waste sent to the Semakau Landfill.
In 2007, some 91% of ferrous metal waste, 98% of construction and demolition waste, 41% of horticultural waste and some 51% of paper waste were recycled
(Figure 3).
Changing mindsets and influencing behaviour is important for sustainability, but this takes time. To do so, NEA has been engaging residents, grassroots organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and schools to impress upon the community the need to practise the 3Rs—reduce, reuse, recycle—for resource conservation and to achieve a sustainable waste management system. One such awareness campaign is the annual Recycling Day, which aims to reinforce the need to recycle waste by involving schools, community, NGOs and recycling companies.
NEA launched the National Recycling Programme (NRP) in April 2001 to provide a convenient means for residents living in public and private housing estates to recycle their waste. Under the NRP, public waste collectors are required contractually to provide recycling bags or bins to every household for storing their recyclables and to collect the recyclables door-to-door and fortnightly on scheduled days.
In addition 1,600 sets of centralised recycling depositories have been placed in the common areas of all public Housing and Development Board (HDB)1 housing estates to complement the door-to-door collections. This covers about 85% of the population centres of the country. With approximately one set to every five blocks of flats, most residents would be able to access these centralised recycling depositories within 150 metres from their flats to deposit their recyclables at any time of the day.
This network is supplemented by another 2,200 recycling bins placed in public places with high human traffic. Such places include locations outside train stations, food courts and food centres, bus interchanges, the airport, and pedestrian malls.
Environmental awareness has to be inculcated from young. As such, Singapore’s waste management story is incorporated into the school syllabus, including visits to NEA’s incineration plants and the Semakau Landfill.
NEA launched the Recycling Corner Programme (RCP) for schools in September 2002 to inculcate the habit of the 3Rs in students. Recycling bins for paper, drink cans and plastic bottles are placed at Recycling Corners located within school premises. As of 2007, 95% of all schools have recycling facilities.
Under the RCP, students take charge of the Recycling Corners and put up interesting information about the 3Rs. These activities help to generate interest and foster a keener sense of ownership. Activities with recycling themes are held regularly to sustain interest, including competitions, environmental camps, field trips, workshops, and speech writing contests on different aspects of the environment, including waste minimisation and recycling.
To instil a sense of environmental ownership of the recycling programme, students are identified and separately trained to be Environment Champions. These Champions are responsible for various environmental programmes in school such as conducting talks on the environment, and assisting in the planning, organisation and running of recycling and other environmental activities.
Strategy 3: Waste Minimisation
While incineration and recycling are end-of-pipe solutions, the third strategy of waste minimisation or reduction is aimed specifically at cutting waste at source, that is, even before it is produced. This helps close the waste loop by providing us with the means to move closer to our ideal of a zero waste society.
An initiative under this strategy is the Voluntary Packaging Agreement. The Agreement is aimed at reducing packaging waste from the producers’ end. With packaging waste making up almost a third of Singapore’s household waste, this initiative offers great potential for waste reduction. The Agreement is based on the principle of product stewardship, in contrast to the legislative approach which imposes a high compliance cost on industry. This approach directly engages industry players to assume greater corporate responsibility for their packaging waste in a non-prescriptive and cost-effective way.
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