More customers returning trays at two hawker centres, thanks to personal reminders and visual cues

SINGAPORE — Two hawker centres have reported some success in tackling the perennial challenge of getting more customers to return their trays — by reminding patrons with additional visual and verbal cues.

Two pilot projects were held at Zion Riverside Food Centre and Adam Food Centre last year, during which banners and decals were put up with messages reminding customers to return their trays. Cleaners also donned aprons or T-shirts with the same message.

As a result, both hawker centres saw significantly more customers returning their trays. Following the encouraging results, there are plans to extend these new measures to more hawker centres later this year, Senior Minister of State (Environment and Water Resources) Amy Khor said on Tuesday (Mar 06).

“The results at both hawker centres have been encouraging ... These initiatives (also) benefited cleaners at these centres,” Dr Khor added in her speech at the Committee of Supply debate on the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources’ (MEWR) budget.

The four-month trial at Zion Riverside Food Centre was conducted in March last year, during which cleaners donned aprons that promoted tray return messages and personally reminded customers to do so after their meals.

The daily tray return rates increased from 54 per cent to 73 per cent.

At Adam Food Centre, where a similar five-month trial was held from July last year, the daily tray return rates hit about 50 per cent, up from just 9 per cent before the trial. During the test period, the National Environment Agency (NEA) also experimented with regular audio announcements reminding customers to return their trays.

The findings from the two trials came after the NEA announced in January that up to 25 hawker centres managed by them could start charging deposits for food trays over the next few years. The first two centres to do so are Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre and the refurbished centre at Block 163 Bukit Merah Central.

Customers at Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre will have to fork out S$0.50 for their trays, while those at Bukit Merah hawker centre will pay S$1. Customers will be refunded the deposit after returning the tray with their used crockery and cutlery.

Dr Khor said on Tuesday that the authorities hope they would not need such a deposit system in the longer term, when tray return becomes second nature. But in the meantime, the NEA plans to introduce “behavioural nudges and cues” at these two hawker centres to further reinforce the message.

The charging of deposits at the two centres was in tandem with other productivity initiatives, such as automated tray return systems and centralised dishwashing services. For the latter, the NEA is co-funding stallholders up to 70 per cent of the operating costs for a period of time to help them with the transition to a centralised dishwashing system.

Giving an update on the Hawkers’ Productivity Grant launched last October, the NEA said 58 applications were approved as of Feb 28. These amounted to about S$124,000.

Under this grant, the NEA will co-fund the purchase of suitable kitchen automation equipment by cooked food stallholders for three years. Each stallholder can claim 80 per cent of the qualifying cost of the equipment or up to S$5,000 within three years.