RETHINK RECYCLING IN CITIES - A SINGAPORE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Singapore has been immensely successful in the recycling scene with its ability to achieve an overall recycling rate of over 60% without relying on any landfill tax. This overall success is however, not mirrored in the domestic recycling sector. While domestic recycling is fundamentally successful in terms of the high recycling awareness and strong environmental values in the population, household recycling still remains at a nascent stage in terms of adoption evident in the low rates of active weekly recycling, mainly brought forth by a lack of genuine understanding of the importance behind recycling – the landfill constraint in Singapore. While this ostensibly appears to be an inadequacy of the marketing efforts in framing an effective recycling message, this is actually a result of the government’s aversion towards communicating the idea of a landfill shortage as a motivator for recycling, due to the assumption that such a nationalistic objective will be too remote from the population to galvanize any action. As such, this has inevitably caused a detachment of the citizens from governmental objectives, and the lack of a common objective may have impacted negatively on active public participation. Another contributing factor behind the low rates of domestic recycling relates to the perceived lack of convenience. In addressing these causes behind unsatisfactory recycling, several recommendations were proposed to enhance the existing infrastructure, program execution as well as in improving public awareness on the fundamental importance of recycling in Singapore.