Singapore 2010 Waste Statistics

May 3, 2011 by  
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The latest 2010 waste statistics and recycling rate for Singapore can be found at the National Environment Agency website. The following infographic gives an overview of the waste figures:

Waste Generated refers to the total amount of waste generated in Singapore, which is the addition of Waste Disposed and Waste Recycled. Waste Disposed refers to the total amount of waste disposed at the four waste-to-energy or incineration plants, and at the offshore Semakau Landfill. Waste Recycled refers to the total amount of waste that is recycled locally or exported overseas for recycling.

In 2010, about 6.5 million tonnes of waste was generated in Singapore, and each person generated around 1,280 kg of waste in a year. The recycling rate in Singapore for 2010 is 58% and has been increasing steadily over the years. The government has set a target of 60% recycling rate by 2012 in the Singapore Green Plan 2012, and 70% recycling rate by 2030 in the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint.

42% of Singapore’s waste is still disposed of, with 40% going to the waste-to-energy plants for incineration and energy recovery, and 2% of non-incinerable waste such as construction and demolition waste, used slag and treated sludge, going to the Semakau Landfill for landfilling.

% Composition of Waste Generated

The top 5 waste types make up 74% of the total waste generated in Singapore, which are either disposed of at the waste-to-energy plants and landfill, or recycled locally and exported:

  1. Paper/Cardboard (21%)
  2. Ferrous Metal (18%)
  3. Construction Debris (14%)
  4. Plastics (11%)
  5. Food Waste (10%)

% Composition of Waste Disposed

The top 3 waste types make up 66% of the total waste disposed in Singapore:

  1. Plastics (24%)
  2. Paper/Cardboard (23%)
  3. Food Waste (19%)

% Composition of Waste Recycled

The top 3 waste types make up 74% of the total waste recycled in Singapore:

  1. Ferrous Metal (30%)
  2. Construction Debris (24%)
  3. Paper/Cardboard (20%)

Recycling Rate of Waste

For the 3 common types of waste disposed, their recycling rate is still low:

  • Plastics (11%)
  • Food Waste (16%)
  • Paper/Cardboard (53%)

More efforts are needed to reduce the amount of paper, plastics and food waste disposed and to increase their recycling rates. Half of the paper and cardboard waste generated still ends up being burned at the waste-to-energy plants.

Waste Statistics from 2000 to 2010

From 2000 to 2010, the waste disposed has only dropped by 1% but the waste recycled has increased by a massive 102%. The total waste generated has increased by 40% from 4.6 million tonnes in 2000 to 6.5 million tonnes in 2010.

The waste data show that the efforts of the government in promoting waste recycling has paid off. However, waste disposed has been increasing slowly since 2003. To work towards zero waste, there is a need for the total waste generated to reach a peak and decrease every year.

This means that we can’t depend only on high rates of recycling but we also need greater reduction in the waste disposed, in other words, more reduce and reuse of waste. Recycling is still the least effective of the 3 Rs and should be practised last after reduce and reuse.

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Comments

12 Comments on "Singapore 2010 Waste Statistics"

  1. analyn on Tue, 14th Jun 2011 10:55 pm 

    just want to know if the stats you showed here are residential or residentiall and industrial. thanks

  2. Eugene on Wed, 22nd Jun 2011 11:27 am 

    Hi analyn, the stats include residential and industrial

  3. Mervyn on Mon, 25th Jul 2011 7:18 pm 

    Hi do you have the breakdown for the amount for various ferrous and non ferrous metals?

  4. Eugene Tay on Fri, 29th Jul 2011 11:06 am 

    Hi Mervyn, there’s no public data on the different types of metals, only ferrous and non-ferrous. You would have to check with NEA.

  5. Edris on Thu, 22nd Dec 2011 4:23 am 

    Hi Eugene,

    Thanks for the stats. Just wondering for the last graph you have there, where did you get the stats from? I tried going to the website you provided below the graph but it doesn’t work.

    By the way, do you know where to obtain pre-2000 waste stats?

    Cheers,
    Edris

  6. Eugene Tay on Fri, 23rd Dec 2011 12:00 pm 

    @Edris, the stats are compiled over the years fromvarious NEA reports, http://app.mewr.gov.sg/web/Contents/Contents.aspx?ContId=680 and http://app2.nea.gov.sg/topics_wastestats.aspx. The NEA site used to publish waste stats for all the years, but now only publishes the latest one. Ask NEA for the pre-2000 waste stats.

  7. Tay Ming Teck on Mon, 26th Mar 2012 5:37 pm 

    Hi, is there an estimation to how much waste (in kg) was contributed by each residential household per day, and how much was being recycled?

  8. Eugene Tay on Wed, 28th Mar 2012 10:31 am 

    @Tay Ming Teck, there’s figures for total domestic waste disposed per capita, 0.86kg/day/person in 2010, see http://app.mewr.gov.sg/web/Contents/Contents.aspx?ContId=680

  9. Singapore Waste Statistics 2011 | Zero Waste Singapore on Fri, 30th Mar 2012 10:45 am 

    [...] generated around 1,330 kg of waste in a year. The recycling rate in Singapore for 2011 is 59% (58% in 2010), and has been increasing steadily over the years. The government has set a target of 60% recycling [...]

  10. Daphne on Tue, 29th May 2012 10:36 am 

    Hi, is there substantial wastage of WATER in households in Singapore over the last few years?

  11. Lisa Quek on Wed, 8th Aug 2012 3:08 pm 

    @Eugene Tay :
    Hi, I was wondering if there are any statistics on the specific amount of cardboard waste per year, and the specific amount of cardboard recycled/sent to incinerators/ buried at landfills. Any help is much appreciated. Thank you

  12. Eugene Tay on Mon, 13th Aug 2012 5:59 pm 

    @Lisa Quek, there’s only figures on paper and cardboard waste at http://app2.nea.gov.sg/topics_wastestats.aspx

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