Efforts made to educate public on recycling, but Govt to explore how to better raise awareness

We thank Ms Lim Hui Ching for her letter, “Step up public education on recycling to tackle lack of awareness” (Aug 17).

Recycling is a key strategy under our Zero Waste Master Plan to realise a sustainable, resource-efficient and climate-resilient Singapore.

We agree with Ms Lim that public education is key to generating broader awareness of the importance of recycling and how to recycle right.      

Under our Year Towards Zero Waste campaign last year, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment and the National Environment Agency (NEA) embarked on a #RecycleRight movement to raise awareness of what can be recycled and how recyclables should be free from food and liquids.

These messages were reinforced at community events, on social media, through stickers on Housing and Development Board (HDB) lift doors and posters on notice boards.

As part of the #RecycleRight movement, NEA has placed new labels on all blue recycling bins at landed homes and HDB estates. These come with photos of recyclables and non-recyclables to help residents identify recyclable items more easily.

To correct the misperception that recyclables are wrongly emptied into waste collection trucks — when these are, in fact, recycling trucks — all recycling trucks were painted blue last year so that they can be identified with the blue recycling bins. They now carry the “I am a recycling truck” label and recycling logo.

We also convened a #RecycleRight citizens’ workgroup last year to create solutions with Singaporeans to improve household recycling and are now developing four pilot projects with members.

One of the projects is to educate and build awareness of recycling at the community level, such as by training community champions, setting up online platforms to engage residents and engaging groups such as elderly and foreign domestic workers.

In addition, NEA provides information, such as the locations of recycling bins and electronic-waste collection points, on its website and the myENV mobile application to help residents locate recycling points near their homes.

NEA also collaborates with various partners, such as schools, non-governmental organisations and community groups, to engage them on the importance of recycling right. 

We thank Ms Lim for her suggestions on more publicity and education on recycling, and will look into how we can do these better. 

We will continue working with our partners and stakeholders and welcome feedback from the public to nurture a national culture of recycling right and achieve our vision of a zero-waste nation.

ABOUT THE WRITERS: 

Mr Kenneth Sim is the director of environmental policy at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment. Mr Desmond Tan is the director of waste and resource management at the National Environment Agency.

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