SINGAPORE — Customers at Jurong West Hawker Centre will soon have to pay a refundable deposit of 20 cents for every tray they use, the operator of Jurong West Hawker Centre announced on Thursday (Oct 18).

The date for when this change — which comes a week after news broke that hawkers were up in arms over its tray return scheme — will kick in will be announced at a later stage, once all details have been finalised, the operator added in a media statement.

Last Thursday (Oct 11), TODAY first reported that several hawkers at the hawker centre had lodged a petition with the National Environment Agency (NEA) in August for the operator to remove the fee of 20 cents that hawkers have to pay for each returned tray.

Customers did not pay anything to take a tray when they bought food, but received 20 cents when they returned their tray. Hawkers said this meant they had to fork out up to S$900 in tray charges every month, and resulted in arguments with customers who took multiple trays.

The petition was submitted in August and also sent to Koufu, which runs the hawker centre through its social enterprise subsidiary Hawker Management.

The NEA said last week that it had received feedback from some stallholders, and that tenants were aware of the charges involved before signing their tenancy agreement with Hawker Management.

On Thursday, Hawker Management said that after meeting with the tenants and receiving “constructive feedback and views” on “all outstanding concerns”, it decided to change the tray return scheme to a deposit system.

This means customers pay 20 cents upon getting a tray, and will get their deposit back when they return the tray at the tray collection points.

This practice is in line with several tray return schemes at other hawker centres such as those at Ayer Rajah Crescent and Yishun Park run by Timbre Group, where customers pay a refundable deposit of 50 cents or S$1 when they take trays.

“In line with the objective to encourage a gracious society where patrons play a proactive role in returning their trays, the tray return initiative will thereby help to reduce cleaning fees for tenants while easing the workload of the cleaners,” Hawker Management added.

The operator also said on Thursday that it will form a committee comprising some tenants, who will work closely with it to “drive and implement changes at the hawker centre”. This includes the new tray return scheme and other plans to improve footfall at the hawker centre, such as festive marketing activities.

On the other feedback and comments that tenants gave during the meetings, including contractual terms, Hawker Management said it is “in the midst of reviewing them internally, with a view to address all outstanding matters quickly”.

In response to the announcement, an NEA spokesperson said the agency welcomed the idea of a committee to improve the vibrancy of the hawker centre.

“As we have been doing, NEA will continue to pay close attention and support the operator and stall-holders to address the remaining outstanding matters,” she added.

Last week, hawkers told TODAY about having to pay high rental and additional fees despite low footfall, and paying a penalty for the early termination of their contracts if they were to relocate to another centre before their term was up.

Jurong West Hawker Centre, one of 13 hawker centres across the island run by a social enterprise, opened in October last year.

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