Today Online 24 Dec 13;
ONG SOO SAN, DIRECTOR, WASTE AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT, NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
We refer to the commentary by Mr Richard Hartung, “Daily rubbish pick-up is out of sync with times” (Dec 5).
In Singapore, refuse from domestic and trade premises contains a high percentage of food waste which putrefies rapidly in our hot and humid climate. If left uncollected for more than a day, the refuse would give rise to public health issues including odour nuisance and pest infestation. Daily removal of waste from these premises therefore helps to maintain high standards of public health, especially in the context of Singapore’s highly-compact living environment.
The National Environment Agency has been exploring ways in partnership with other agencies to improve our waste collection system as better technologies and cost-effective solutions become available. One such example is a project by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to test-bed the Pneumatic Refuse Collection Systems (PRCS) in Yuhua under the HDB’s Greenprint project. The PRCS is designed to convey waste by air suction from a cluster of apartment blocks via piping networks to a central storage station. Apart from being a totally enclosed system which would mitigate the above-mentioned public health issues, the collection truck also need only collect waste from a single point rather than from individual apartment blocks, thereby reducing transportation and manpower needs.
We will continue to explore the use of better technologies and solutions to store and collect refuse in an efficient and effective manner, while maintaining our high standards of public health. We thank Mr Hartung for his interest.
