More frequent waste collection and more bins
Grace Chua Straits Times 24 Oct 10;
The government will be stepping up the frequency of recyclable waste collection, a move which will hopefully improve the rate of recycling in Singapore.
From next July, landed homes in the Pasir Ris-Tampines area will have their recyclables collected weekly while Housing Board flats will have theirs collected daily, instead of fortnightly.
HDB blocks will also get a recycling bin each, putting to rest the concerns of residents worried about infrequent collection or not having enough bins.
These requirements were part of a National Environment Agency (NEA) tender exercise for waste collection in the Pasir Ris-Tampines sector, which opened in July and closed in August.
The seven-year contract, which industry players believe could set a precedent for future public waste collection contracts here, is expected to be awarded later this year or next year.
An NEA spokesman said in an e-mail message: 'NEA, in consultation with the Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore, and taking public feedback into consideration, will be introducing improvements in the new contract, such as enhancing the National Recycling Programme and increasing the penalties for service lapses.'
The new requirements mean collection costs are likely to go up, but the NEA said tender submissions are being carefully assessed for affordability, quality and efficiency.
Singapore is getting serious on recycling in a bid to stop the offshore Semakau landfill, now about an eighth full, from filling up too fast.
Last year, the country generated more than six million tonnes of waste and recycled just 57 per cent of it.
By 2012, it aims to push the recycling rate to 60 per cent and by 2030, to 70 per cent.
Earlier this year, the NEA also asked for experts to study whether measures such as levies for waste disposal, container-refund schemes or mandating certain premises to separate recyclables like food waste and glass, can work to get people to change their habits.
Waste and recycling collection for households here is divided into nine geographical sectors and currently shared by four players - Veolia, Colex, SembWaste and 800 Super Waste Management.
Under the current requirements, household recyclables are collected only once a fortnight. Also, there are only two large, 660 litre bins for every five HDB blocks.
What's more, the current contracts do not stipulate exactly what is to be done with the recyclables.
In the new contract, the mixed recyclables must be sent to a material recovery facility, which is a stepping stone to more specialised recycling plants.
For example, Veolia Environmental Services collects up to 15 tonnes of mixed recyclables a day. Machines, magnets and workers separate these into paper, metals, plastics and glass, to be sent to plants like a glass recycling factory in Malaysia.
Veolia country manager Jerome Baco explained that collecting mixed recyclables does away with the need for residents to painstakingly separate the different types of recyclables from one another, though they still need to separate them from food or organic waste.
Such a system, Mr Baco said, could raise the recycling rate by making recycling more convenient, although he acknowledged that the biggest problem for recycling was contamination by food waste.
But even though more recycling bins are added and less separation of waste needs to be done, residents must also get into the recycling habit, commented National University of Singapore geography professor Victor Savage.
'Change will not come about just by physically or technically putting things in place,' he said.
And if not enough material is picked up, he added, refuse companies will find it hard to turn a profit by selling what they collect.
NUS sustainability researcher Kua Harn Wei agreed, adding that one way to cut food-waste contamination would be to encourage households to recycle their food waste as well, separating it from 'clean' or dry materials like paper and plastic containers.
Residents who will be affected by the new refuse-collection contract had mixed reactions.
Tanah Merah resident Law Xiangqing, 27, welcomed it, but doubted if residents would bother to separate waste from recyclables.
Others, such as Pasir Ris resident John Chua, 35, said more bins would not change their habits. Nor would a slightly higher waste-collection cost, 'as long as it doesn't rise too much'. The cost currently ranges from $4.31 to $7.35 a month for HDB residents and $17.12 to $24.08 for landed-home owners.
