SINGAPORE: Before bringing her recyclables down to the blue bins below her block, Cheryl Lee always takes the time to clean or wash the items that accumulate in her recycling corner at home.
Whenever she and her ex-colleagues bought lunch back to the office, Ms Lee always brought along used plastic bags to carry the food - not just for herself, but for every colleague who was with her.“I would carry it for them because they don't want to do it because they think it’s troublesome. So I would do it for them. I would go to each stall that they are at and then I’d ask the aunty to put the plastic containers in the plastic bag I brought for them,” she told CNA.
Although that rate is one of the highest in the world, its domestic recycling rate “remains low”, said deputy director of Nanyang Polytechnic’s School of Chemical and Life Sciences Richard Khaw. One of the biggest challenges for improving recycling rates in Singapore is still the mindset and behaviour of the public, said Ms Jen Teo, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council .
Other than convenience, the lack of recycling knowledge also contributes to the low domestic recycling rate, said Ms Teo, citing SEC’s 2018 study, which found that 70 per cent of respondents did not fully know what was recyclable. To raise awareness among the public on materials that can be recycled and how to prevent contamination, NEA has placed new labels on all blue recycling bins, stating clearly objects that can or cannot be recycled. All recycling trucks operated by the four public waste collectors have been standardised to make them easily identifiable.
The convenience of having waste chutes in high-rise HDB and apartment blocks is another factor in the low recycling rate, said Ms Teo. In view of the “encouraging results”, HDB has since extended the separate recycling chute programme to all new public housing developments launched from January 2014, it said in its response to CNA's queries.
READ: Greater participation in green workshops, amid calls for more climate change education in schools Nanyang Polytechnic’s Ms Chan said individuals can be encouraged to recycle at recycling machines placed near their homes in exchange for incentives, noting similar successes in Denmark and Australia. Retailers can also help by making recycling bins readily available at their stores, and offering similar incentives.
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