Start Recycling at Home

It’s easy to recycle at home. First, learn about the existing recycling programme at your area. Second, find out the type of items that are acceptable and unacceptable for recycling. Third, remember the collection date and place your recyclables outside for collection.

You can start recycling at home with these 3 steps:

1. Learn About Your Recycling Programme

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has implemented the National Recycling Programme (NRP) since 2001, where recycling bags or bins are given to residents living in HDB housing estates and landed properties.

These recycling bags and bins are provided by the appointed recycling contractors and the recyclables are collected fortnightly (once every two weeks) at your doorstep.

For more information, check out this NRP brochure by NEA. For enquiries, call 1800-CALL NEA (1800-2255 632) or email Contact_NEA@nea.gov.sg.

In addition, there are public recycling bins placed at housing estates (about one set of recycling bins placed for every five blocks) to supplement the NRP. Find recycling bins near your home.

Condominiums and private apartments are not covered under the NRP. However, it is mandatory for condominiums and private apartments to provide recycling facilities for their residents from 1 Nov 2008. If there’s no recycling facilities at your place, contact your Managing Agents (MAs) and Management Councils (MCs). The MAs and MCs can also refer to the NEA’s online guidebook to learn how to set up a recycling programme.

2. Find Out What You Can Recycle

You can make use of the recycling programme to recycle items such as paper, plastic bottles and containers, glass bottles, metal cans and old clothing.

Find out what items are acceptable or unacceptable for recycling from this NEA poster or the NRP brochure.

3. Remember Your Recycling Collection Date

The date or calendar of your recycling collection is printed on the recycling bag or bin. Remember to place your bag/bin outside your doorstep on the correct collection date and before the collection time specified on the bag/bin.

For enquiries on the collection, contact your recycling contractor whose telephone number is printed on the recycling bag/bin.

What Happens to the Recyclables?

The recycling bag and recyclables are collected by the recycling collector and brought back to their facility. The recyclables are sorted manually or by equipment into the different types of material. The sorted recyclables are then sent to local recycling companies for processing into raw materials or new products, or exported overseas for recycling.

Watch this video to see what happens to the recyclables collected by a recycling collector, Altvater Jakob (now known as Veolia ES):

Metal Recycling

Metal scrap is the 3rd largest type of waste in Singapore. In 2008, 784,800 tonnes of ferrous metal scrap and 85,000 tonnes of non-ferrous metal scrap was generated. The recycling rate is 94% for ferrous metal and 85% for non-ferrous metal in 2008.

Ferrous metal scrap is usually sent to a local steel mill for recycling or exported. Non-ferrous metal scrap is usually sorted and exported overseas for recycling.

Let’s take a closer look at metal recycling:

1. Types of Metal for Recycling

Metals are divided into two types: ferrous metal (iron and steel) that are magnetic, and non-ferrous metal (stainless steel, aluminium, copper, brass, bronze, nickel, and other metals) that are non-magnetic.

The common types of metal scrap in Singapore are:

• Steel (drink cans, aerosol cans, food containers, bars, beams, wires, pipes, chains, electrical goods, cars, etc)
• Stainless steel (clippings, sheets, turnings, etc)
• Aluminium (drink cans, clippings and turnings, windows and door frames, aluminium casting and sheet, etc)
• Copper (copper wires, strips, etc)

2. Why Recycle Metal

It is easy and cost-effective to recycle metal, and metal can be recycled continuously without losing its properties. In addition, recycling metal reduces the environmental impacts associated with metal mining and production. According to Waste Online:

Recycling aluminium requires only 5% of the energy and produces only 5% of the CO2 emissions as compared with primary production and reduces the waste going to landfill. Aluminium can be recycled indefinitely, as reprocessing does not damage its structure. Aluminium is also the most cost-effective material to recycle.

Recycling one tonne of steel cans saves 1.5 tonnes of iron ore, 0.5 tonnes of coal & 40% water usage.

Recycling 1 tonne of steel scrap saves 80% of the CO2 emissions produced when making steel from iron ore.

3. The Metal Recycling Process

At the metal recycling plant, sorted metal scrap goes into a furnace at high temperature. The molten metal is poured into casts to produce ingots or rolled into sheets of metal.

Watch this animation video on the metal recycling process from RecycleBank:

4. Recycled Metal Products

Metal scrap can be 100% recycled into metal bars, sheets and ingots for making new metal products such as drink cans, metal construction materials, and car parts.

Look at the possible aluminium products that can be made from recycling aluminium cans:

5. Metal Recycling in Singapore

In Singapore, 784,800 tonnes of ferrous metal scrap was generated and the recycling rate is 94% in 2008. For non-ferrous metal scrap, 85,000 tonnes was generated and the recycling rate is 85% in 2008. All types and sizes of metal scrap are collected by waste metal collectors and traders. Drink cans and metal containers are usually colllected through the recycling programmes.

The metal scrap are sorted by type manually or by using magnets. The sorted metals are then cut, sheared, shredded, baled or briquetted for storage and transportation. Steel scrap is usually sent to a local steel mill for recycling or exported. Non-ferrous metal is usually exported overseas for recycling.

6. Collectors, Traders and Recycling Companies for Metal

The list of collectors and traders for metal scrap is available at the NEA website.

The contacts of the steel mill can also be found at the NEA website.

7. What Can I Do

You can recycle metal scrap and metal cans through the various recycling programmes at home, in school and your office, or through the public recycling bins in your neighbourhood. But before you do so, remember to minimise your metal waste by Reduce and Reuse.

Construction and Demolition Waste Recycling

In Singapore, 922,000 tonnes of construction debris was generated in 2008 and the recycling rate is 98%. Construction and demolition (C&D) waste is usually sorted for the recovery of materials such as wood, metal, paper and plastics, and processed into aggregates for use in construction activities.

Let’s take a closer look at C&D waste recycling:

C&D Waste Recycling in Singapore

There are several recycling companies that collect and sort construction and demolition waste to recover useful materials from the waste such as ferrous metals, plastics, paper and wood. Sorting is done manually and by machines such as magnetic separators. The recovered materials are sent to local recycling companies for further processing. Some of the recovered wood can also be reused for construction activities.

The remaining waste after sorting contain materials such as concrete, bricks, gravel and stones, which are then crushed and screened to produce aggregates of different sizes for reuse in construction activities. These aggregates are also used to make recycled concrete products such as precast concrete blocks, drains and road kerbs.

Watch this video to see how C&D waste is crushed and processed in an overseas facility:

Recycling Companies for C&D Waste

A list of local C&D waste recycling companies can be found at this NEA website.