'Not sustainable': Joo Chiat’s free umbrella-sharing service to stop due to low return rates by inconsiderate users

SINGAPORE — A free umbrella usage service to keep Joo Chiat residents dry when caught in sudden downpours has come to a damp end, because users did not return the brollies and deprived others who need them.

More than 1,180 umbrellas have been distributed and replenished since the initiative officially began in November, and this community effort is just not turning out the way organisers had hoped. 

Will Singaporeans ever prove to be considerate and thoughtful users of public property? Sociology experts seem to think it will take some work.

Joo Chiat Sharella is an initiative started by the Siglap South Community Centre Youth Network — together with umbrella-sharing service provider called ShareLah — to provide people with a handy umbrella in the event of unexpected rain.

ShareLah provided the kiosks for free to Joo Chiat Sharella, while the umbrellas were Siglap South Community Centre's own from past events.

Preparation work began in October and a total of 18 kiosks in the Siglap South, Telok Kurau and East Coast areas were set up for this.

At each kiosk, there were about 10 umbrellas that residents may borrow and return to any one of the kiosks after use.

Not long after the initiative started, the number of umbrellas available was depleted because they were not returned, some residents told TODAY.

The kiosks would often contain just one umbrella or none at all, they added.

Now, the organisers of Joo Chiat Sharella have announced that they would be stopping the service by the end of February and a new notice announcing this was put up across the 18 kiosks. 

Umbrellas provided for free communal use have been done before and the outcomes are almost always the same: Ungracious users taking away the items without returning them.  

For people starting up ground-up initiatives to share common resources, the risk of these ending prematurely is there.

In April last year, Little Libraries Singapore had to close because people were not doing their part to share the books and take care of the space.

It was an open library set up at the void deck of a public housing block along Boon Lay Avenue.

The person behind this, who goes by the name "Hengster Kor" on Facebook, said that a few hours after the library was set up, the shelves holding the books went missing.

Then, all the books were gone on the same day, though he later updated on Facebook to say that the books were returned after some media coverage.

In October, he decided to call it quits and close the library permanently even though it had slowly gained more cooperative users, because there was still a lack of community effort to maintain the library and keep the space tidy. 

Successful initiatives that rely on the public to co-share items for free appear to be few and far between.

Yishun Superhero Library, located along Yishun Avenue, is just one example. It is a thriving community space where passers-by drop off books, toys and clothes, with an equal number taking away things with them for use.

It started in 2019 and has since grown from a lone shoe rack of shared items to a colourful space of fully stocked shelves, tables and adornments that take up half of the entire void deck at a public housing block.

The space is well-maintained by volunteers and the surrounding community.

WHAT USERS SAY

Responding to the news that the Joo Chiat Sharella initiative would be stopping, Ms Vanessa Liu's reaction was, “What a shame”. 

The 37-year-old who works in retail noted how having the umbrellas around was “very helpful”.

Agreeing, Ms Maria Regina, 31, a housewife, said that it was convenient to have an umbrella readily available, seeing that the weather can be quite unpredictable. “Sometimes, when it’s just cloudy, it’s okay. Then suddenly, it will rain and we need to use an umbrella.”

She and her husband Stefanus Ferdian, 32, a software engineer, appreciate the kiosks, though they have managed to use the shared umbrellas just a grand total of two times and there was once when they needed an umbrella and could not find one.

“We’re disappointed,” the couple said on hearing that this initiative will soon stop. Even though they have been diligent about returning the umbrellas, they realised that not everyone has done the same.

TODAY visited a number of these kiosks in Siglap and found them to be mostly empty or have just one umbrella.

Even for people who do not live in the area, the free umbrellas have been useful.

Mr Bernard, who wanted to be known only by his first name, often visits his friends in Siglap. The 50-year-old who works at the airport said: “That time, it was raining when I got off the bus. Then, I realised there was this umbrella service and I took one.

“It’s convenient, that’s for sure, but umbrellas go and don’t come back.”

A resident of Siglap, who wanted to be known as just Mel, 40, said that this service was helpful even when it does not rain. She used an umbrella to shelter herself on a particularly sweltering day.

“When they first introduced it, it was quite well-stocked and then it all disappeared,” the copywriter said.

There was one resident who gave her name as just Lisa and she said that this service was “a waste of time”, because she did not think a sharing scheme like this can work in Singapore and it would not last.

“Don't do it,” the 70-year-old said, “because anything that's free, Singaporeans will take it.”

WHAT ORGANISERS SAY

The organisers behind Joo Chiat Sharella were optimistic and hopeful about the initiative at first, but the “poor and anti-social behaviour” of some users made it difficult to continue, they said.

The Joo Chiat Constituency Office under the People’s Association, speaking on behalf of the Siglap South Community Centre, told TODAY that because many of the umbrellas were not returned, the volunteers had to keep adding more to the kiosks.

“The youth volunteers restocked more than 1,000 umbrellas across the 18 kiosks located around Joo Chiat, but it was not sustainable to do so on an ongoing basis."

Even though this service will be discontinued, it said: “Despite the challenges encountered, the youth volunteers remain undeterred in their commitment to exploring more initiatives that will foster community bonds and meet the needs of our residents.

“We firmly believe in the importance of engaging the community and are actively seeking suggestions and partnerships to further enhance our efforts.”

As for the remaining kiosks at the bus stops, Siglap South Community Centre will be collecting and recycling the umbrellas for other uses and projects.

HOW TO MAKE CO-SHARING SCHEMES WORK?

When residents were asked to suggest how to ensure that people who borrow the umbrellas will return them, they said that a tracking system with monetary value attached to the service might be helpful.

“You need to tie people with money, something like what Any Wheel does,” Ms Regina said, referring to the bike-sharing service that uses a QR code with a top-up of payment credits to rent bikes on the go.

Most of the residents interviewed by TODAY agreed that incentivising the returning of umbrellas or paying a refundable deposit may be the most effective way to keep such a programme going. 

Even though ShareLah's umbrella-sharing scheme uses a paid system that involves a mobile application, Joo Chiat Sharella did not choose to do the same.  

"We wanted to create a system that was simple and convenient for all Joo Chiat residents to utilise with little limitations to accessibility," the Joo Chiat Constituency Office said. 

"This approach allows for greater flexibility, while we hoped to encourage a sense of trust and responsibility among residents."

Sociologist Paulin Tay Straughan, a professor from the Singapore Management University, said that when introducing such initiatives, “punitive measures” might work in the beginning. 

She pointed to how there was some resistance in getting people to return their food trays at the hawker centre until there were laws and fines in place to encourage people to return them.

“We live in a very crowded city and we are dealing with a cross-section of a very heterogeneous population… When you're dealing with a larger group of people, it's very difficult to depend on just goodwill,” she explained.

In such scenarios, whether it is Singapore or a huge neighbourhood such as Siglap, people often have different expectations and viewpoints, so it is difficult to expect the same behaviour from a disparate group of people, she added.

Ms Michelle Tay, director of the Singapore Kindness Movement that is supporting this youth-led initiative, said: “In communities where people may not know each other, there might be a lower sense of accountability or responsibility to others, making sharing initiatives less effective.”

She added that there may be valuable learning points from failed initiatives to use for other projects.

“Sharing of umbrellas in Singapore, given our tropical climate, is a good initiative and should be encouraged, and perhaps can be better implemented in the future.”

Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser, a sociologist from the National University of Singapore, said that Singaporeans need to be educated from a young age to get them to be more civic-minded, especially when it comes to community programmes.

Programme organisers may want to consider using public service digital messages to show the number of umbrellas returned each day and student volunteers may be deployed to remind users to return the items.

"This reinforces the learning of civic consciousness among students, as well as encouraging adults to be good examples," he added.

Both sociologists suggested that having the umbrellas be distinct in appearance — such as being brightly coloured to clearly indicate that they are community property — might also deter people from taking them home. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY NIKKI YEO