NEA raises efforts to achieve recycling target of 70% by 2030

Hasnita A Majid/Gladys Ow, Channel NewsAsia 11 Aug 09;

SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) is multiplying its efforts to ensure the recycling rate in Singapore reaches its target of 70 per cent by 2030. It is working with industry partners and households to achieve this.

The recycling rate in Singapore currently stands at about 56 per cent, up from just 40 per cent in 2000. But with land scarcity, Singapore needs to achieve its target of 70 per cent in 21 years' time.

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, said: "If we continue at this rate, we cannot improve our recycling rate, we will have a big problem. So we can be very diligent in the amount of waste that we collect, burn it every day, but we will still need a landfill.

"Semakau will only last us another 30, maybe, 40 years. After that, what do we do? So I think this is a serious problem that will require a lot of Singaporeans to play their part."

Dr Yaacob was speaking at a ceremony to close the 30-year-old Ulu Pandan incineration plant on Tuesday.

Opened in 1979, the S$170 million incineration plant was a pioneering project in Singapore's search for new ways to cut down the amount of waste produced here every year. At the time, it was the first in the region to use the process of waste-to-energy incineration and the second in Asia, after Japan.

Dr Yaacob said: "It was of course a leap of faith, because there was no incineration experience across the region. But the then environment ministry took the bold step of learning from the experiences of others especially the Germans, convincing Cabinet that we had to do this.

"I think looking back, this was the right decision. And if we did not have incineration plants, we would not have been able to reduce the volume of waste that goes into our landfill. Given land is scarce in Singapore, we have no other choice."

Incineration reduces the volume of waste in Singapore's landfill by 90 per cent by converting solid wastes into carbon dioxide, water vapour and inert ash in the process.

The Ulu Pandan plant handles on average 1,100 tonnes of waste per day. This forms about 15.3% of the total waste disposed off per day last year. The amount of heat energy produced each month is enough to generate electricity for some 16,000 4-room HDB flats every month.

Staff have mixed feelings about the plant's closure.

Chong Kuek On, general manager of the Ulu Pandan incineration plant, said: "Yes, sure, I have mixed feeling. I have been working here for 15 years, so emotionally of course I have something attached to this plant."

Lee Boon Seng, an employee at the Ulu Pandan incineration plant, said: "In a way, we feel sad because we are leaving all our good friends. But after this plant shuts down, we will start a new life (as some of us will go to the new plant and some will go to new industries), so we face a new challenge ahead."

A new more efficient waste-to-energy incineration plant, operated by Keppel Seghers and located in Tuas, will take over the incineration load by year's end. Until then, the three other incineration plants will handle the old plant's incineration load.

The first public-private-partnership project, the new plant is part of the move to open up the waste-to-energy incineration industry to the private sector. It comes under the government's Design, Build, Own and Operate Scheme.

It can treat 800 tonnes of waste per day and produce energy of more than 20 MegaWatt hours per hour or 14,400 MegaWatt hours per month.

The NEA will continue to operate the other three waste-to-energy plants at Senoko, Tuas and Tuas South. The Ulu Pandan incineration plant will be demolished by 2011, and the land returned to the Singapore Land Authority.

- CNA/ir

Ulu Pandan Plant closes
Burning bright one last time
Incineration plant was key to coping with city's rising refuse volume
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 12 Aug 09;

FOR three decades, a familiar stench has risen from Ulu Pandan Industrial estate. But on Monday, the refuse plant that burnt rubbish such as food waste was lit up for the final time.

Opened in 1979, the $170 million incineration plant along Toh Tuck Road was a pioneering project in Singapore's search for new ways to cut down the amount of waste produced every year.

It was then the first in the region to use the process of waste-to-energy incineration and the second in Asia, after Japan, said Mr Low Fong Hon, director of National Environment Agency's (NEA's) waste management department.

Through a process of combustion, this method cuts the volume of waste by 90per cent, while the heat energy produced is used to generate electricity.

The ash residue produced is disposed of at the Pulau Semakau landfill, while ferrous metals, such as iron and steel, are recycled. The gas that leaves the boiler is then sent through an electrostatic precipitator, removing 99.5 per cent of the dust particles as well as pollutants before being released into the atmosphere.

But the Ulu Pandan Incineration Plant has reached the end of its economical life, said its general manager Chong Kuek On.

Most of its 135 technicians and engineers, many of whom have been working there for more than a decade, will be redeployed within the NEA, while the rest will either retire or be helped to find new jobs, said a spokesman.

At the closing ceremony yesterday, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim paid tribute to the staff, adding that the plant's closure was a 'historic' moment for Singapore.

'If we did not have the incineration plants, we would not be able to reduce the volume of waste that goes into our landfill,' he said.

Before its opening, refuse disposal here involved sanitary landfills, but an explosion in population, coupled with Singapore's rising affluence, meant that there was more trash but less land for use as dumping grounds, explained Mr Low.

The Ulu Pandan plant, together with three others - Senoko, Tuas and Tuas South - generated 1,048,072 MW per hour of electricity last year. That was enough to power all the street lights in Singapore three times over, said Mr Low.

But environmentalists argue that the burning of waste is a complex, costly and highly polluting method of disposal.

The release of harmful dioxins, for example, is associated with health problems such as cancer.

But Dr Yaacob said that Singapore has taken pains to ensure that the burning is done in a responsible manner.

'The flue gas is treated before being released into the atmosphere. We have done this in a responsible manner and gained the public's confidence we can do this well so as to maintain the environment,' he said.

He added: 'But if we cannot improve the recycling rate, we will have a big problem...Semakau will last about 30-40 years but after that where do we go?'

He said Singaporeans had to play their part in achieving a 70 per cent recycling rate by 2030.

The Ulu Pandan plant will be replaced by a privately run facility in Tuas that will open later this year. It is the first facility built under the Government's Design Build, Own and Operate scheme, which aims to privatise the sector.

The Ulu Pandan plant will be demolished by the end of 2011 and the 7.9-ha site returned to the Singapore Land Authority.

Incineration plant in Ulu Pandan shuts down, new plant in Tuas to open
Today Online 12 Aug 09;

SINGAPORE'S first waste-to-energy incineration plant at Ulu Pandan ceased operations yesterday, after 30 years in service.

It will be replaced by a new plant in Tuas operated by Keppel Seghers.

The Tuas plant is the National Environment Agency's (NEA) first public-private-partnership project, and it is part of a move to open up the waste-to-energy incineration industry to the private sector.

NEA's director of waste management Low Fong Hon said: "Our Government will pay just the monthly service fees to the operators.

"The businesses taken over by the private sector will be mainly the construction, operation and maintenance of the plant."

Prior to the opening of the $170-million old Ulu Pandan plant in 1979, all general waste in Singapore was disposed of in landfills on the mainland.

But growing affluence and rapid population growth led to a significant rise in waste generation.

The Ulu Pandan Plant helped to alleviate this garbage problem.

"Incineration was found to be the most cost effective method for land-scarce Singapore," said Mr Low, noting that it reduced the volume of trash by more than 90 per cent.

The Ulu Pandan Plant handled on average 1,100 tonnes of waste per day - about 15 per cent of the total waste disposed of each day in Singapore last year.

The plant also generated, on average, about 5,800 megawatt hour of energy each month, enough to power some 16,000 four-room HDB flats for a month.

The plant will be torn down by 2011. 938LIVE