Anti-Littering Campaign

NEA organised the launch of the new anti-littering campaign on Sunday, 6 June 2010, at Plaza Singapura’s Open Plaza. The campaign was launched by the Guest-of-Honour, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR). Accompanying Minister were Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, MEWR, and Mr Andrew Tan, CEO, NEA. About 150 guests from schools, grassroots, corporate organisations, NGOs and various government agencies attended the launch ceremony.

In his opening speech, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim highlighted that Singapore’s clean environment is a result of continuous efforts over the last forty years of emplacing measures such as stiff penalties, strict enforcement against littering, a robust cleaning regime, and public education and community engagement on littering issues. While these efforts have borne fruit, NEA’s surveillance and a sociological study on the ground shows that the littering situation in pockets of areas, such as town centres and around letter boxes in public housing estates, can be further improved. Common litter items include cigarette butts, used tissue, food and drink containers, and other assorted packaging.

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim commended the majority of the population who sees it as their personal responsibility to bin their litter. He explained that in order to roundly resolve the littering problem today, NEA has adopted an integrated approach of stepping up enforcement, improving infrastructure and enhancing public education to tackle littering issues and challenges. These include increasing the composition fine for littering from $200 to $300, reviewing the tasks under Corrective Work Order (CWO) to increase their difficulty and exposure, reviewing the placement of litter bins at areas with high pedestrian traffic,improving bin design for smokers, and also leveraging on a new Litter-Free Ambassador programme that involves pro-active students, youth and grassroots volunteers to convey the message to the community that it is everyone’s personal responsibility to always bin their litter.

At the launch ceremony, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim unveiled the new anti-littering campaign logo, as well as the tagline “Do The Right Thing. Let’s Bin It!” The new campaign seeks to instill a sense of responsibility in individuals to keep Singapore clean and beautiful, and to encourage them to take action to bin their litter.

Over 150 youths from Woodgrove Secondary, Institute of Technical Education (ITE), Ngee Ann Secondary, Nan Hua High School, and Ci Yuan Youth Executive Committee comprising Northlight and Anderson Secondary School students, were trained by NEA as the first batch of Litter-Free Ambassadors to spearhead litter-free initiatives in their community and communicate to the public on the importance of keeping the environment clean and binning their waste properly. The youth Ambassadors spent the Sunday engaging the public in the Plaza Singapura vicinity to sign pledge cards and make a personal commitment to keep Singapore clean and litter-free. They will continue to engage the community in subsequent follow-up activities.