Introduce reusable takeaway containers at hawker centres, with a catch

I refer to “Use own containers for takeaways, instead of relying on plastic and styrofoam boxes” (Aug 23).

Plastic use has been the subject of intense debate online of late.

In recent years, the Government and firms have taken steps to try to alleviate the problem. Recent moves by corporations like McDonald’s to reduce single-use plastics — including removing straws at 10 of its Singapore stores — are good, albeit inadequate.

As a working adult who eats out daily, I try my best to eat at the food centres and avoid takeaways unless they are essential.

There is a need to deal with plastic waste at food centres, most of which comes from takeaways.

Borrowing an idea from efforts to encourage patrons to return their trays at hawker centres, they should also pay a deposit for takeaway containers and cutlery.

But instead of conventional plastic containers and cutlery used for takeaways, stallholders should be allowed to use only reusable ones.

Patrons who choose to eat their meals elsewhere would thus have to pay a S$4 deposit that can be recovered only after they have returned the containers and cutlery to the food centres.

To make things easier for patrons, each constituency in Singapore should have collection machines for these items. The machines, located in hawker centres, should accept containers and cutlery that originated from any food centre islandwide.

For instance, a patron who buys a meal from an Ang Mo Kio hawker centre can return the utensils at, say, a food centre in Bukit Panjang. 

The fight against environmental degradation resonates with me, as my generation will face the brunt of global warming brought about by decades of human damage to the environment.

We can and must do more.

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