News

I was delighted to read the letters, and (both published on Nov 17). They showed me how much people in Singapore care about the environment, and how much concern there is over the current state of recycling and recycling habits in Singapore. Despite aiming to ramp up our low recycling rates, waste reduction vision and sustainable recycling strategies, we are behind other Asian countries like Japan and China. Most of Singapore’s trash ends up at the incinerator, with residual waste taken to our only landfill, Semakau Landfill, which is fast filling up. To really achieve the goal of zero waste, Singapore needs to accelerate its recycling message and public education efforts. One way is to eliminate the use of styrofoam takeaway containers and drinks cups that are not recyclable, and reduce the number of single-use disposable plastic bags used at most hawker centres. These can be replaced with cups made of recyclable fibre-based materials, and containers that are not polyethylene-coated. Let’s ramp up our efforts, which include SGRecycle bins, pilot programmes to recycle textiles and using artificial intelligence to sort different types of waste.