3.5 tonnes of trash after new year party: 40% reduction over past

Less littering and rubbish collected at party spots
Tessa Wong, Straits Times 2 Jan 08;

REVELLERS at end-of-year countdowns are littering less and generating less rubbish, thanks to stricter enforcement and gradually changing attitudes.

The amount of rubbish collected after New Year's Eve countdown festivities at Marina Bay and Orchard Road has gone down by 40 per cent in the past three years, according to waste management company FME Onyx.

The statistics are telling.

Street cleaners collected an estimated 3.5 tonnes of trash from bins and on the ground yesterday, down from five tonnes on New Year's Day last year and six tonnes in 2006.

There was a similar decrease in rubbish for Christmas Eve countdowns too. Last year's festivities generated four tonnes, compared to five tonnes at 2006's Christmas Eve celebrations.

One reason for the reduction could be the differing crowd sizes. Another reason could be the increased efforts by the National Environment Agency (NEA) during the countdowns to catch illegal street vendors peddling food and party products, said Mr Tan Chen Wai, FME Onyx's assistant division manager of street cleaning.

NEA officers caught 90 illegal hawkers at 2006's Christmas and New Year's Eves countdown celebrations. Figures for last year were unavailable at press time.

Street peddling has fed a littering problem at such events.

Foam or confetti spray cans and their plastic caps, plastic bags, party poppers, drink bottles and cups are the most common items littered by party-goers.

This is according to informal surveys done by environmentalist group ECO Singapore for the past two Christmas Eves.

Party-goers' attitudes seem to be changing for the better.

ECO Singapore volunteers stood at four spots along Orchard Road to observe party-goers' littering habits from midnight to 2am.

They found that the frequency of littering is going down.

During the last Christmas Eve, volunteers observed that one to two people littered per minute at each spot. This was 'significantly less' compared to the year before, said Mr Wilson Ang, head of ECO Singapore.

He thinks the decrease is down to Singaporeans becoming slightly more responsible for their rubbish.

Said Mr Ang: 'There's been a change in attitude compared to last year, but more needs to be done. People shouldn't just throw rubbish at the bins, they should throw it into the bins.'