Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Pay for your tray: Two hawker centres to start charging deposits for food trays

SINGAPORE – Over the next few years, up to 25 hawker centres managed by the National Environment Agency could start charging deposits for food trays. Among the first two places to roll out these initiatives are the newly built Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre and the refurbished hawker centre at Block 163, Bukit Merah Central.

A customer at Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre returning his tray. A 50 cents deposit will be refunded when a tray is returned. Up to 25 existing hawker centres will have an automated tray return system installed. Photo: Raj Nadarajan/TODAY

A customer at Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre returning his tray. A 50 cents deposit will be refunded when a tray is returned. Up to 25 existing hawker centres will have an automated tray return system installed. Photo: Raj Nadarajan/TODAY

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SINGAPORE – More than a decade after the authorities here tried to make returning trays a social norm with various campaigns and initiatives, it seems that they have conceded defeat and are hitting customers where it hurts – through their wallets.

Over the next few years, up to 25 hawker centres managed by the National Environment Agency (NEA) could start charging deposits for food trays. This is in tandem with the introduction of automated tray-return systems and centralised dish-washing services aimed at boosting productivity.

Among the first two places to roll out these initiatives are the newly built Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre and the refurbished hawker centre at Block 163, Bukit Merah Central.

Patrons at Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre will have to shell out an extra S$0.50 for their food trays, while those at the Bukit Merah hawker centre will pay S$1.

After returning the tray with their used crockery and cutlery, they will be refunded their deposit.

This will allow cleaners to be “better able to focus on table-cleaning, allowing for a faster turn-around of tables”, said the NEA in a fact sheet issued on Monday (Jan 29). The government agency also added that having a centralised dish-washing system will also “reduce the hawkers’ workload and ensure a steady supply of clean crockery even during peak hours”.

Stallholders will only have to pay for these services according to the amount of crockery and cutlery they need each day. To help them with the transition to a centralised dishwashing system, up to 70 per cent of the operating costs will be co-funded by NEA for an initial period of two years.

These initiatives are in line with the recommendations by the Hawker Centre 3.0 Committee, which aims to review and make recommendations to the Government on the management and design of new hawker centres, as well as provide suggestions to sustain and promote hawker trade.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a visit to Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre on Monday, Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, said that these efforts will help to improve hygiene and cleanliness, and improve the dining experience of patrons.

However, she acknowledged that some patrons may find the tray return system “inconvenient” or “uncomfortable”. It will take “time and patience” to change their behaviour and mindset, she said, as she urged the community, public and stallholders to do their part.

Stallholders at Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre told TODAY that such measures are not enough to change customers’ deeply ingrained habits.

Rather than forking out the extra S$0.50 tray deposit, many choose to do without a tray, said drinks stallholder Joseph Tok, 30. “They would rather make multiple trips, walk about three to four times, if they order five or six drinks... It’s troublesome… but they’re not happy when they hear they have to pay extra,” he said in Mandarin.

Briyani stallholder Jaburdeen Syed Faruk, 30, observed that while some customers return their trays, they leave their plates and utensils on the table, which “totally defeats the purpose”, he said. He suggested charging all customers, regardless of whether they use a tray or not, an extra S$0.50.

“It’s a bit extreme, but (this will) make people automatically listen and this (habit of returning trays) will become normal,” he said.

“It’s like how we used to smoke in hawker centres, but now automatically you know it’s not right, you go out and smoke.”

In 2013, the NEA announced that 34 hawker centres would be fitted with tray-return facilities, under the first of three phases of the Tray Return Initiative to all hawker centres in Singapore, after the pilot scheme involving nine centres started in November 2012.

Dr William Wan, general secretary of the Singapore Kindness Movement, who also sits on the Hawker Centre 3.0 Committee, said it has been especially hard to get patrons to return their trays and keep the hawker centres clean, as they feel that it is already dirty. A minority may also feel that it is “embarrassing” to return their trays.

However, he pointed to the successful implementation of similar tray return systems at other hawker centres situated in One-North and Yishun managed by the Timbre Group. Customers are required to pay a S$1 deposit for the trays, which is refunded by an automated system.

Shrugging off talk that this is a last-resort move, he said it is just a “temporary” method to get people to change their habits. Over time, a monetary incentive “will not be necessary” if people grow to adopt this practice.

There are some who are already doing this voluntarily. Ms Yong, 26, makes it a point to return her trays at hawker centres, as she says it make the job “easier and faster” for cleaners, who are usually seniors.

While she already avoids using trays “as much as possible”, she said that the “marked-up prices” under the new initiative will be a further deterrent. 


Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.