Step up public education on recycling to tackle lack of awareness

Last year, a government survey showed that as much as 40 per cent of items thrown into recycling bins could not be recycled, because they were either soiled or non-recyclable.

Even foreign media outlets have reported on our recycling problem and attributed it to uncooperative residents.

Many residents do not know what can or cannot be recycled. Nearly half (49 per cent) of the respondents to a government survey did not know that tissue paper — used or unused — cannot be recycled.

The Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment has said that at the rate we are producing trash, our only landfill on Pulau Semakau will be filled by around 2035.

We need to boost recycling rates by raising awareness of what can and cannot be recycled.

This can be done by increasing public education, such as through regular advertisements on television, similar to those on issues like Covid-19 and dengue, which remind people to practise social distancing and clear stagnant water.

I hope that the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment and the National Environment Agency can consider this suggestion to boost recycling rates. Failure to act now could spell doom for future generations.

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