NEA to work with PWCs and Town Councils to provide centralised recycling depositories in all HDB estates

News release no: 28/2005
Date of issue: 17 September 2005

For Singaporean greenies keeping track, this stock-take of the nation?s waste minimisation efforts on Recycling Day 2005 should be gratifying ? the recycling participation rate by households in the National Recycling Programme (NRP) reached 55% in July this year. The NRP is one of the waste minimisation measures taken by Singapore to  reduce waste. 

Singapore has achieved an overall waste recycling rate of 48% by end 2004. Waste recycling has made good headway and Singapore is on target to meet its goal of 60% overall waste recycling rate by 2012, as set out in the Singapore Green Plan 2012.

We need strong support from households to segregate and recycle waste in order to reduce more waste. Special acknowledgement is given to residents in the housing estate of Jalan Mat Jambol where almost every household recycles (90% of households).  HDB dwellers such as those of Block 301 Tampines Street 32, and Blk 10-12 Holland Drive where the majority of residents in the blocks participate regularly in the NRP also deserve a pat on the back.

In the NRP, residents are provided with bags or bins to contain their recyclables, which they simply leave at their doorsteps every fortnight for collection by the public waste collectors. In response to public feedback, NEA has been working with Altvater Jakob, the PWC for the Bedok, Pasir is-Tampines and Jurong sectors, to enhance the collection system by placing some 88 centralised recycling depositories at several HDB estates starting in January this year.

These depositories, placed at strategic locations such as playgrounds, linkways, hard courts and other common areas are popular with the residents, as evidenced by the amount of recyclables collected. Each set of depositories collects on average about 300kg of recyclables every month. That is equivalent in weight to 60 5kg bags of rice. Altvater targets to roll out another 250 sets of centralised recycling depositories by mid-2006.

?The central depositories are very useful as I can drop off my recyclables any time. I do think that more people will use these depositories and hopefully, this will encourage more people to recycle,? said Nathasha Tam, a student and resident of Blk 241, Pasir Ris 21.

NEA will work with the other PWCs and the Town Councils to place at least one centralised recycling depository for every five HDB blocks of flats by early 2007. As there are about 8,000 HDB blocks in Singapore, there will be at least some 1,600 centralised recycling depositories in HDB estates by early 2007.

Recycling Day 2005

Recycling Day 2005 activities will be held in three locations, viz. Dunman Secondary School at Tampines St 45, the open area beside Yew Tee MRT and Bukit Ho Swee Community Centre.

The highlight of this year?s Recycling Day is a record-setting attempt by Dunman Secondary School, to form the world?s longest plastic bottle chain with empty bottles contributed by residents and students.

The School hopes its attempt will increase awareness of the importance of waste recycling, and promote community participation in waste recycling. This means involving schools, grassroots organisations, corporate bodies, and NGOs.

Mrs Edelweiss Neo, Principal of Dunman Secondary School has this to say, ?Organisng Recycling Day with the NEA and its partners has given my teachers and students an invaluable experience in working together as a community with other schools and residents in our neighbourhood to convey and educate the young and old on the need to reduce waste in Singapore.?

There will also be a jumble sale by students to encourage reuse of items, and a workshop on the 3Rs and sharing of best practices for principals and teachers.

Activities involving schools  include the Speech Writing Competition finals, which will be held on the day at Dunman Secondary School. A total of 29 entries from 18 Secondary schools were received for this event.
 
Also, a total of 47 entries from 37 schools will compete in three categories (Primary, Secondary, and an Open category for JC/ITE), schools (Primary, Secondary and Open (JC/ITE) categories) in a Game Booth Design Competition where the final will also be held at Dunman Secondary School. In each category, five shortlisted entries will vie for their respective titles on Recycling Day 2005.

Note:
Recycling Day is jointly organised by the National Environment Agency, People?s Association, Singapore Environment Council, Waste Management & Recycling Association of Singapore and the 3 Public Waste Collectors (SembWaste, Altvater Jakob and FME Onyx).  Our partners include Dunman Secondary School, Yew Tee Citizens Consultative Committee, Bukit Ho Swee Youth Executive Committee, Tampines North CCC, Tampines East CCC and the Residents Committees of various zones.  Participating corporate bodies include Dell Computers, Kiat Lee Landscape & Building Pte, KK Asia Pte Ltd, Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation and NTUC FairPrice.

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