Richard Hartung Today Online 5 Dec 13;
Nearly 40 years ago, technology brought real benefits to the streets of Singapore as daily waste collection became the norm and cleanliness improved tremendously. Today, however, daily rubbish collection results in higher costs and more congestion on the streets.
Residents in three Public Waste Collection (PWC) sectors — Jurong, Clementi and City — saw their waste collection fees rise in October, and residents in other sectors will soon feel the pinch.
Changing how often rubbish is collected could not only help to reduce costs, but also bring other advantages.
The story began in the ’60s, when lorries plied the streets and workers picked up garbage bins manually to dump the contents into the back.
In the early ’70s, however, companies started bringing in automated trucks that helped pick up bins and dump the rubbish into the back. The greater efficiency of those trucks and the need for fewer staff meant that rubbish could be picked up daily.
At a time when open garbage bins meant that odours from decaying waste might waft through the neighbourhoods and pests could get into them, daily pick-up offered major benefits.
Over the years, rubbish collection has evolved even further. New versions of bins have better lids that keep both rubbish and odours inside, for example, and larger bins can hold more waste.
Despite those advances, and even as the nation has grown cleaner, long-standing practices still endure and rubbish is picked up every day. Yet, in other places that can be equally hot and humid, rubbish is picked up weekly or sometimes even less often.
RISING COSTS
The consequences of daily pick-up include higher costs, streets that are more crowded with garbage trucks, as well as the need to hire more workers.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) recently announced that the fee for waste collection for residents in Jurong would increase from S$6.08 to S$7.49 each month, and the rates in the Clementi and City sectors would go up too. Landed property households pay even more, with the cost rising from S$20.33 to S$24.81 in Jurong.
The NEA said costs have risen due to higher fuel prices and manpower costs. While it said consolidation from the nine PWC sectors to six would achieve gains in efficiency and mitigate rising costs, the agency did not say anything about changing the fundamental practice of daily waste collection.
Some observers believe a change in collection frequency could yield real benefits, including lower costs to consumers, a reduction in workers needed for these low-skill, low-pay positions and less road congestion. Using existing bins (or providing larger ones if needed) could enable less frequent collection, with no significant drop in hygiene or cleanliness.
FROM AFRICA TO AUSTRALIA
A look at what happens in other places offers insights that could be useful for Singapore if changes are considered.
In South Africa, for example, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has a clear rationale for suggesting weekly collection — linking that frequency to the life cycle of a common house fly and ensuring rubbish does not stay in the bins long enough for flies to breed. The exception is daily removal for putrescible waste from restaurants, which decays faster.
In Western Australia, which has high humidity and high temperatures in the summer, a recent survey by the Department of Environment and Conservation found that 94 per cent of municipalities have fortnightly waste collection.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has studied collection frequency in a multitude of climates throughout the US, said tradition and public health concerns are the main reason for more frequent — twice-weekly — collection in some cities.
In reality, the EPA found, there are no significant problems with weekly collection year-round and health hazards can be reduced by using bins with lids. Less frequent collection, it said, also reduces labour and vehicles as well as pollution and even the amount of rubbish.
If congested urban areas with hot and humid climates required different practices than everywhere else, cities such as New York or Tokyo would need to change their practices in summers that can be hotter than Singapore. Year-round, however, collections average two to three times each week in New York and twice-weekly in Tokyo.
Although policymakers here have discussed changes in waste collection practices, they have primarily focused on waste reduction and recycling.
While Parliament has discussed collection frequency — as when then-Minister of Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said in 2007 that “we are looking into the number of bins, the frequency of collection” — little has actually changed.
Perhaps it is time to look more at the long-standing practices of waste collection frequency and take a new approach towards less frequent collection in order to achieve a multitude of benefits.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Richard Hartung is a consultant who has lived in Singapore since 1992.
