Singapore launches S$15m fund for waste management research

Tan Yew Guan, Channel NewsAsia 5 Jun 09;

SINGAPORE: Singapore has launched a multi-million dollar fund for waste management research to mark the World Environment Day.

In just over 30 years, the amount of trash Singapore produces went up six-fold. Last year, the tiny island generated enough rubbish to fill over 300 soccer fields up to standing height.

Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said: "If you look at the waste management business, we have not departed from the old model - you produce and we collect. We basically burn and put it away.

"We want to take a totally different look as to whether or not the waste you generate can be seen as a resource. What it means is, therefore, the ability to recycle, and ability to extract whatever value that it (the waste) may have."

To do that, Singapore is relying on brain power. For the first time, the government is awarding 16 national environment and water undergraduate scholarships. It is also providing a S$15 million fund to encourage research in waste management.

Dr Yaacob said: "Let's find the creative solutions here. Then we can go overseas to tap on the global market."

Already, thanks to Standard Chartered Bank, a simple idea from Singapore is spreading globally.

The bank is promoting the National Environment Agency's 10 per cent energy challenge to its staff worldwide, with prizes for those achieving the largest reduction in their energy bills.

Singapore's leading media company MediaCorp is also doing its part and going green across all platforms. It is flexing its media muscle to raise awareness with its month-long Saving Gaia campaign.

To mark the World Environment Day, MediaCorp encouraged its staff to wear green as a show of support.

You too can do your part by taking the Gaia pledge and living by the green mantra - reduce, reuse and recycle. At last count, nearly 1,500 people have taken the Gaia pledge.

- CNA/yt

$15m for new ideas in waste management
Zeinab Yusuf, Business Times 6 Jun 09;

WITH a view to treating 'waste' as a resource rather than rubbish, Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim launched a $15 million grant programme yesterday.

The Environment Technology Research Programme (ETRP) aims to to boost Singapore's technological competency in waste management by building a clean environment research and development eco-system.

Administered by the Environment and Water Industry Development Council (EWI) and National Environment Agency (NEA), the research fund will be deployed over three years. Grants will be awarded to research and development (R&D) projects on a competitive basis.

On the size of the fund, Dr Yaacob said: 'We'd rather take a cautious approach and see what is available out there. If there are good ideas, after the three years we can see if more funding is needed, and then seek it.'

The grants will go to Singapore-based companies, research institutes and institutes of higher learning to develop and commercialise advanced waste management technologies.

'We aim to help close the waste loop with technology, just like how Singapore closed the water loop with NEWater,' Dr Yaacob said.

Potential research areas include waste-to-energy processes, recovery of high-value material from used plastics and electronics, and recycling ash to divert it from the Semakau Landfill.

To help bridge the gap between R&D and commercialisation, NEA will open facilities such as waste-to-energy plants and landfills to test and validate new technologies.

Companies such as Chemilink Technologies Group, Ecospec Global Technology and Keppel Integrated Engineering have expressed interest in applying for the research grants.

EWI will call for the first Request-For-Proposal (RFP) in July and the second in January 2010. The RFP will take place twice a year, in January and July.

With the waste management market worldwide projected to grow from US$230 billion in 2005 to about US$320 billion by 2015, Singapore hopes to catalyse and incubate sustainable and cost-efficient waste management solutions that can be applied locally and overseas.

Besides launching the ETRP yesterday, Dr Yaacob awarded 16 National Environment and Water (NEW) scholarships to students who 'want to take on the challenge of ensuring environmental sustainability'.

'The ETRP and the NEW scholarships are efforts to build Singapore's capabilities in environment and water, so as to overcome our resource limitations, enhance the quality of our living environment and strengthen our position as a provider of sustainable urban solutions,' Dr Yaacob said.

NEA to fund waste tech research
Agency to offer $15m in grants to groups interested in waste management; first batch of scholarships given to students with passion for the environment
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 6 Jun 09;

COMPANIES, research bodies and institutes of higher learning here will be able to apply for government grants aimed at fuelling research into waste management technologies.

The grants, capped at $2 million per project, will come from a fund of $15 million announced by the National Environment Agency (NEA) yesterday.

To be spread over three years, the money for the Environment Technology Research Programme will be administered by the Environment & Water Industry Development Council and NEA.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday that, rather than have the money spread thin over many projects, the funds are likely to be be allocated to 'two or three' larger ones.

He noted that the waste-management business as it stood now had not departed from the world model - that of 'you produce, we collect, we basically burn and put away'.

To move forward, he explained, mindsets must be changed from viewing waste as rubbish to be discarded to viewing it as a resource to be managed and recycled.

Calls for research proposals will go out next month, and subsequently every January and July.

The Ministry for the Environment and Water Resources hopes the funding will spur research into recovering more energy from burnt waste, the recycling of ash and the recovery of high-value materials from used plastics and electronic products.

Know-how in efficient waste management will be useful not just here, but can be exported overseas, the NEA said.

The global waste-management market is set to grow by US$90 billion (S$130 billion) to US$320 billion by 2015, with waste generated in developing countries such as China and India set to rise sharply as their economies grow apace.

Singapore will also face ever-growing piles of waste as it gears up to be home to 6.5 million people.

Last year, 2.63 million tonnes were disposed - enough to fill 310 football fields up to an average man's height of 1.7m.

Dr Yaacob said: 'The key for Singapore will be to find ways to improve the collection and segregation of waste so that food waste, for example, can be put to good use.'

Of the 570,000 tonnes of food waste generated here last year, only 12 per cent was recycled.

In conjunction with World Environment Day yesterday, the minister gave out the first batch of 16 scholarships under the National Environment and Water Scholarship programme.

Jointly offered by the national water agency PUB and NEA, these are tenable for undergraduate studies by those with sterling academic grades and a passion for the environment.

There were 839 applicants.

Holders of this scholarship, worth $80,000 a year, will serve a bond of up to six years at either the PUB or NEA upon graduation.

Ms Pan Ju Khuan, formerly of Raffles Junior College, is looking forward to reading environmental engineering at Cornell University this year on the scholarship.

She said: 'The environment is something that effects everybody. I want to make a contribution by helping to improve living conditions for communities here.'

$15m grant won’t go to waste
Lin Yan Qin, Today Online 6 Jun 09;

COULD clean and green Singapore get even cleaner air? Yes - if the gases emitted from the burning of our rubbish could be made cleaner.

This and other examples such as paving roads with material otherwise headed for landfills are the kind of technological innovations that are in the works. And if realised, it could give the waste management industry here more inroads into a global market estimated to be worth US$320 billion ($463 billion) by 2015 - and help local players pull level with those in Europe and Japan.

The spark for this is a new $15-million grant that aims to help Singapore-based companies and researchers develop and commercialise advanced technologies for making better use of waste.

It is a modest sum compared to the $50-million Clean Energy Research Programme. But Keppel Integrated Engineering chief executive Chua Chee Wui is confident it is enough to help companies recruit the manpower and develop the infrastructure needed to be less reliant on solutions from overseas.

“Also, when you have too much money, a lot of it will go to waste,” he said. “It’s better to have a tight budget and then have it expanded when there is a need.”

But what is catching the eye of companies more than the offer of cash grants is the National Environment Agency’s decision to open its key facilities, such as incineration plants and landfills, for them to test their solutions in a real-life setting.

Mr Chew Hwee Hong, managing director of water and oil treatment company Ecospec Global Technology, described such access as “rare”.

“If you want field results, you have to test it in the actual site and not everyone will open up these facilities for you,” said Mr Chew, whose company plans to apply for the grant. “This is a great opportunty for SMEs to grow.”

Each project will be capped at $2 million and disbursed on an reimbursement basis under the three-year Environment Technology Research Programme, which was launched on Friday by Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim at the award ceremony for the inaugural National Environment and Water Scholarship.

Sixteen students were selected from more than 800 candidates to be groomed for leadership roles in the environment and water sectors.