RECYCLING

RECYCLING: 1.

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo:

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources what is being done to support recycling efforts in Singapore.

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources whether the Ministry has plans to do more to reduce the dependency on petroleum-based products such as plastic

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water bottles and plastic bags and if so, what are they, and if not, why.

The Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim): Mr Speaker, Sir, may I have your permission to take Question Nos. 1 and 2 together?

Mr Speaker: Yes.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Sir, to encourage recycling among Singaporeans, the National Environment Agency (NEA) launched the National Recycling Programme in 2001 to provide households with easy access to recycling facilities. Under this programme, residents are given recycling bags or bins to store their recyclables which are then collected fortnightly. In addition, NEA is in the process of placing 1,600 centralised recycling bins in the common areas of all HDB estates. With these bins, residents can now deposit their recyclables conveniently at any time. These are further complemented by a network of public recycling bins in various shopping centres, commercial buildings, food courts, as well as in public areas with high human traffic such as along Orchard Road.

At the workplace, NEA has worked with JTC to install recycling facilities in all their 21 flatted factories and 9 industrial terraced workshop estates.

In the schools, students learn about Singapore's waste situation in their curricula. NEA has also been working with schools to install recycling bins under the School Recycling Corner Programme. To date, 90% of our schools have recycling corners and recycling bins.

NEA promotes development of the recycling industry in various ways. The Sarimbun Recycling Park was set up to make land available to start up recycling companies. NEA administers the Innovation for Environmental Sustainability

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Fund whereby companies can apply for funding to help defray part of the cost for pilot-testing of new technologies including recycling technologies that would help contribute to environmental sustainability in Singapore.

NEA also works with grassroots organisations, Community Development Councils and Non-Governmental Organisations such as the Singapore Environment Council and the Environmental Challenge Organisation to organise recycling events in the heartlands, including the annual Recycling Day to drive home the recycling message.

Sir, my Ministry promotes the minimisation of wastage of petroleum-based products such as plastic water bottles and plastic bags, which will continue to serve a purpose in a modern society like ours. Plastic bottles facilitate the portable consumption of water and plastic bags facilitate the transportation of goods. Many people reuse such items for other uses such as bagging of refuse in plastic bags.

With regard to plastic bags, the National Environment Agency launched the "Why waste plastic bags? Choose reusable bags!" campaign in February 2006 to promote the use of reusable bags and reduce the wastage of plastic bags. More recently in April 2007, the "Bring Your Own Bag Day" campaign was also launched in partnership with the Singapore Environment Council and major supermarkets and retailers. Under this campaign, on the first Wednesday of the month, shoppers who do not bring their own shopping bags are requested gently to donate 10 cents for each plastic bag taken at the checkout counters. The response to the campaign has been encouraging so far. In a survey conducted during the August "Bring Your Own Bag" Day at 36 outlets, it was observed that

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20% of shoppers brought their reusable bags and another 5% bought reusable bags on the spot.

With regard to plastic water bottles, the bottled water consumption in Singapore currently constitutes only a very small proportion of the total domestic water consumption in Singapore. Nevertheless, we still encourage Singaporeans to recycle their plastic water bottles.

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo (East Coast): Sir, I would like to thank the Minister for the comprehensive answer to the Questions. With regard to the bins or bin sites, can more be done in terms of the actual structure and in making them more user-friendly? If you look into some of these bins today, many of them are not sorted even though there is labelling for sorting. In terms of public education, can more be done to what is recyclable, even for plastic bottles, as not all of them are recyclable?

Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Sir, I agree with the Member that at the end of the day, for a change of behaviour to happen, we have to facilitate it by having very good structures which are friendly. This is left to the public waste collectors to design. Some will use bins and some will use plastic bags. We constantly give feedback to the public waste collectors and others who are involved in the recycling programme so that they can come up with more innovative ideas. But at the end of the day, the individual also must make the effort and I agree with the Member that public education is important.

Finally, it is sorting at source which is important for the programme to succeed. Based on our results so far, our recycling rate now stands at 51% which is very good compared with 40% a couple of years ago. What it means is that our efforts are beginning to bear fruits but for

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us to make that leap I think more needs to be done in terms of educating the households, especially people who are at home would have to try and sort it out because the frequency is only once a fortnight.

But having said that, Sir, there are recycling bins now available all over the island and they do not have to wait for the public waste collectors to come and collect them. They can actually do it themselves. But that requires the individual household to make the effort. We take the Member's point and we will do our best to try and facilitate as much as possible.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang): Sir, I would like to ask the Minister whether he will consider pushing for the recycling bins and recycling chutes to be included as part of the building codes for new public as well as private housing in the future.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim: Sir, that is a very good question. The Ministry, together with NEA, is in constant discussion with MND on this particular aspect of environmental sustainability in our towns. There is of course the cost concerned but we will endeavour as much as possible to make this as part of our lifestyle. When it will come, I suppose it will depend on when these agencies can come together and find a common ground. But certainly this is an item that is hot on the agenda that we want to try to push as fast as possible.