What would it take for S'pore to shed its dirty image of its blue recycling bins?

These days, Singapore is armed with more recycling bins than it has ever had. Yet, households here are recycling less of their waste than they did over a decade ago.

- Ang Qing

Domestic recycling rates were at an all-time low of 12 per cent in 2022 and 2023, a far cry from the target of 30 per cent set by the Government for 2030. The waste statistics for 2024 have yet to be released.

The low recycling rate is not because people here are not recycling. A 2023 survey by the National Environment Agency (NEA) found that 72 per cent of households here recycled, up from 64 per cent in 2021.

Instead, recycling efforts have been stymied by those who treat the commingled blue bins under the national recycling programme as rubbish bins, sullying batches of recyclables.

The contamination means that about 40 per cent of what goes into these blue bins cannot be recycled.

Against this gloomy backdrop, some organisations are taking matters into their own hands.

The Straits Times reported last week that a public waste collector and an environmental group here have initiated segregated recycling points that aim to counter the ills of commingled blue bins.

These efforts lowered contamination rates to as low as less than 5 per cent, according to early findings by non-governmental organisation Zero Waste SG.

Segregated recycling infrastructure is also a tried-and-tested solution practised by places famed for their recycling etiquette, like Taiwan, Germany and South Korea. But will this be suitable for an island that is already saturated with hundreds of recycling points in residential estates and public spaces?

Infrastructure aside, people here will also need a refreshed attitude towards waste management.