Budget 2011: Recycling programme to be enhanced with one bin per HDB block [News]

Singapore will enhance its National Recycling Programme (NRP) by providing one recycling bin for every HDB block with daily collection.

This is an increase from the previous rate of one bin for every five blocks of HDB flats.

On average, a resident in Singapore generates 860 grammes of waste every day – which is one third more than in Germany or Taiwan.

Over a year, Singapore can dispose enough waste to cover one eighth of Singapore’s surface area, said Minister for Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim in Parliament on Friday.

To reduce waste and encourage more recycling, “we will make it easier for households to recycle. Households can now look forward to more recycling bins and more frequent collection services,” said Dr Yaacob. Read more

Incentives to Promote Recycling [News]

Households will be encouraged to recycle more through incentives given by waste-collection companies.

The requirement to provide incentives, starting from July, will be stipulated when public waste collection contracts with companies are renewed.

Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim announced the incentive requirement when he spoke yesterday during the debate on his ministry’s budget, which was approved.

He was responding to Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang GRC), who had asked about the efforts being made by the ministry to boost household recycling. Read more

Zapping the Toxic Out of Growing Electronic Waste [News]

For nearly a year, a disused 30-inch cathode-ray-tube (CRT) TV sat in the living room of Mrs Adeline Koh’s four-room flat. No karung guni or rag-and-bone man wanted the old set because it was too bulky and heavy to cart away.

Two weeks ago, the 38-year-old finally handed it over to local rag-and-bone company Recycling Point Dot Com, which will donate or scrap it.

As consumers like her switch more frequently to sleeker appliances and gadgets, lured by firms constantly upgrading their products, the problem of electronic waste, or e-waste, is mounting.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) does not keep a record of the amount of e-waste generated in Singapore, but figures showing the amount of electronic gadgets consumers here buy each year should prove cause for worry. Read more