Singapore wants year of zero waste. But it’s rubbish at recycling
- Recycling bins around the city are a great idea, but people don’t know what they can put in them … or are they just too lazy to go downstairs and do it?
- As Asian nations call an end to importing other countries’ trash, Singapore has some thinking to do
They multiplied from one in every five blocks to one a block in public housing estates, and spread from landed homes to condominiums.
But after all that time, many have remained practically empty or contaminated with food scraps, organic waste like soiled diapers, or other non-recyclable items that often render an entire bin useless.
Once thought to be the key to boosting household recycling, those blue bins have ironically become the symbol of the Lion City’s lacklustre recycling rates. In 2016, just 2 per cent of all household waste was recycled in the bins. The country’s household recycling rate has hovered around just 20 per cent since at least 2005.
Recent surveys by the Singapore environment ministry and the National Environment Agency also found that about six in 10 residents recycled weekly. One of the surveys also found that out of 2,003 households only 33 per cent knew that soiled paper food packaging was not recyclable. And 49 per cent mistakenly believed tissue paper can be recycled.
Singapore, lauded as the best place to do business, praised for its lush greenery in spite of rapid urbanisation, and envied for its clean streets, is curiously struggling to curb wastage. But as the government here declares 2019 the Year of Zero Waste, there is belief that authorities are finally getting serious about rubbish.
